My first real cricket match

A weekend full of cricket - that was what the weekend gone by was, for me atleast.

For a cricket buff like me, not having played much with a cricket ball is surprising, but its never too late. Our weekend group of friends who started off playing with a tennis ball decided to get serious and got ourselves Kits a month ago and formed a team. We started practising in the nets and organised a match against another team of Desis from another suburb. Sunday 11th Nov was the D -Day.

On Saturday 10th Nov, most members of the team met for our last team practise and also for the team meeting deciding on batting order, bowlers and strategy among other things. I was enjoying it. Playing competitive sport is a level above playing it socially. Bring it On!!!!

After a tiring session and a long nite out with friends, I woke up on D-Day, very fresh. I wondered - How come I dont wake up fresh on the days I have to get to work, but am up and running at 7am on a Sunday when i have a cricket match to play? Easy answer aye!!!!


The team assembled on time and we had an hours drive to reach the venue. We reached there 30 mins before time and warmed up and assessed the ground and fine tuned eth strategy. Once the match started, it was all bliss. The feeling of playing competitive cricket was amazing. The cheering, the sledging, the shouting, the motivating, the strategising and teh occasional misunderstanding as well. It was all good.

Our new ball bowlers did well and took a wicket early on. We had a couple of catches dropped and then lost our way. 17 overs into the game the opponents were 156/1 and we were out of the match by then. A wicket at this stage got us pumped up and we assembled in a huddle, pumping ourselves up and from then on there was no looking back. We rstricted them to 189/7 in 25 overs, a fantastic last 8 overs.

For me, it was the first ever time I was bowling in a martch with a cricket ball and I was swinging the ball in and troubled the batsmen a lot. I was impressed with myself. Lady luck was not on my side though as ball after ball missed teh stumps or the edge of the bat by a whisker and I had a couple of LBWs turned down as well. BUt 5 inexpensive overs on the trot in 30 degrees with only 1 boundary off my bowling was a job well done. I eneded up with figures of 5-0-29-0, quite a few of those runs gone in byes.

Chasing 190 off 25 overs was never going to be easy. The sun was beating at us and as planned, I was to open the batting entrusted with the role of holding one end up and playing sheath anchor. My opening partner was an explosive batsman. It felt like Sehwag-Chopra walking out at the MCG chasing a huge target.

Again, it was my first time opening the batting while playing with a cricket ball and I was a little iffy. My glasses were another factor of worry. But with all the gear in place, I started off rather well. Taking singles and giving the strike to my explosive partner who played hispart to perfection. What happened was just massacre. My partner snmashed eth bowlers to all parts of the ground, while I took singles and the occasional edge for 4 to keep the score ticking. He was on 98 when I said to him "Arey Sachin jaisa 90's main out mat ho" and true enough he holed out next ball. By now we had won the game - almost.

During that opening partnership, i sprained my calf muscle and was atrting to cramp as well. We avoided a lot of singles and too singles when there might have been a tight double. That shows how much ahead of the run rate we were. In came our number 3 batsman and while he took time to settle in, I started to beocme the aggressor and opened up with a cover drive, a square cut, a late cut and a pull each for four. We reached our target in 19.2 overs with over 5 overs to spare and I finished with 41* of an even number of deliveries.

It was a fantastic win. We enjoyed the feeling. To top it all off, the wife of one of our teammates had made lunch for the entire team. WOW!!!!! We had Tomato rice and Pudina rice with raita and chips, Vermicelli Kheer and a banana with sprite to quench our thirst. Wonderful after 4 hours on the field.

We all got home and I then watched India beat Pakistan at Kanpur. That capped off a cricketing weekend for me. Ever since that match I am dreaming about playing more competitive sport. I cant wait for my next opportunity.