The summer of '88 - part 3

Continued from this post...

The opponents came out to bat and their batsmen had a jolly good time for the next 30 overs, which was where the innings typically concluded in these matches. And when I say jolly good time, I mean it in a very polite manner.

To be honest, we were hammered around the park. Remember India batting against Bermuda in 2007 World Cup? This was pretty much the same thing. I don't remember my bowling figures nor the number of runs they scored in total, but all I know is that the former was quite bad and the latter was alarmingly bad for us.

When our turn came to bat, we were able to prove to them that our batting skills were as bad as our bowling skills. We must have been bundled out in 15-20 overs I think. And I didn't do well with the bat either - I was a lower middle-order batsman - and till date, I feel that I got a bad decision.

Just on that day, my regular bat was being used by the non-striker and I had to take some other bat, which was much lighter than the one I was used to. And for some reason, the non-striker refused to part with my bat even when my turn came - he said he was scoring well with it!

Anyways, I had gone on the back-foot to work an off-spinner to the square-leg for a quick run. But by virtue of having a lighter bat, I seemed to have completed my stroke much earlier than the ball arrived. And when it arrived, it hit me on the thigh pad of my left leg. I thought that the ball was going down the leg side and that it was also high.

But the umpire preferred to hold a different opinion and ruled me LBW. That day, I felt cheated and that is also the reason why I am able to remember so many justifications as to why I got into the position wherein I could be given out and also why I should still have not been given out.

The only good thing about the whole match was that all of us sucked. Really sucked. But then, our affluent team-mate took us inside MAC. By inside, I mean into the actual playing field. We were taken close to the pitch and were allowed to generally wander around the outfield. He then took us to the pavilion area and showed us around the gym. He took us to a restaurant there and all of us had some sandwich and juice. All on his tab - his father's tab rather.

We came back to school and all the eager followers wanted to know what happened. And all that we could narrate was our trip into the MAC grounds and not really about the thrashing that we got in the match.

And that I think was the last match I played for my school. The following year, when I was in class IX, I somehow didn't participate much in cricket or basically have no proper memory. And once class X came up, my parents realized that my cricketing skills weren't good enough to compensate for my average academic performance.

So, that's how my cricketing life came to an end at school. I never played any formal cricket until I joined work some 10 years later. Those were interesting times too and I can also never forget the real competitive cricket I played in the USA. I am saving those stories for some other rainy day.

The summer of '88 - Part 2

Contd. from this post...

The shock was that the entire ground was flooded with water. It was one huge pond there and not a cricket ground. The flooding was because of the rains I had mentioned in my previous post.

So, we just waited there for the umpires and opponents to show up. The umpires did show up, but the opponents did not. After waiting for some mandatory period, the umpires informed us that by virtue of being physically present at the venue and in the absence of the opponent team, we were given a "walk-over" to the next round.

We all returned happily to school, though the happiness was mainly around the travel in the luxury car and the fact that we could brag to people around us about our entry to the second round.

Our next match was scheduled in a couple of days' time and in the meanwhile, we came to know that all the other U-15 teams of our school had been eliminated in the first round itself! That came as quite a bit of shock to us, primarily because our school has always had a pretty good reputation in the cricketing circles. On top of that, the A team that was formed was indeed quite strong and hence all of us were in real shock.

Anyways, our next match-day came up and this time around the match was scheduled in the "nearby" ground of TI Cycles, Ambattur. Once again, we all set out in that great car and were once again presented with a ground in a rather bad state thanks to the rains in the interim period. Lady luck favored us again and this time too, it was only the umpires who showed up and not our opponents. We were through to the next round, once again due to "walk-over".

When the news spread to the less knowledgeable circles in the school that the U-15 D team was through to Round 3, there was a general admiration at this achievement. Those who had a more inquisitive mindset wanted to know the scores of the match and that was usually where we got busted. But, we didn't care and simply moved on.

Believe it or not, the third match was at the same venue after a couple of days and the story simply repeated itself. We were now through to the 4th round without even having to call heads-or-tails in the preceding three rounds.

At this point, we started becoming the laughing stock. We could no longer take refuge under this slew of walk-overs and wanted to play an actual match. I think we prayed at the wrong time, because the next match was against one of the best, if not the best, cricketing schools in Chennai. And adding to our woes, the rains started disappearing too.

Our 4th round match was scheduled at MAC 'B' ground. This ground is on the same compound as the M.A.Chidambaram Stadium at Chepauk, Chennai. We were now extremely proud that we got a match in THE cricket stadium of Chennai.

We reached the venue on time. And for the first time in 4 matches, we were greeted by an opponent team. The umpires also came around and we were all set for the match to start. I was always penned down for the final playing XI and that was the case this time as well. And I used to open the bowling for my team too, though I was always the one to bowl the second over.

The toss was won by our opponents and they opted to bat first. Or in local parlance, they wanted the first gaajee.

To be continued...

What a coincidence!!!

As mentioned in my previous post, I was in Hyderabad on the 11th and 12th to spend some time with my team there.

Believe it or not, the following coincidences happened on my return trip:

1. The cab that took me from the office campus to the airport on Friday evening, was the same cab that brought me from the airport to office on Thursday morning. I remembered the cab number because I found out that on my onward trip, I had paid an excess fare and was following up with the cab company to get it adjusted. It was indeed my good luck that I got the same cab for my return trip, though the drivers were different for both trips. Then again, since the cab company was tracking their income based on each cab, I was able to get my fare adjusted easily.

2. After I boarded the flight, I found that one of the air-hostess who was on board, was the same person who was there on my flight from Chennai to Hyderabad.

3. I scanned the passengers in my vision field and found one Iyengar executive who had sat next to me on my flight from Chennai to Hyderabad.

I didn't note down the registration/serial number of the plane, else I think there would have been a coincidence there as well!!!

Bowling record

Was at Mayajal yesterday with Raghu, Madhu and Nilu yesterday evening. Raghu and I had a game of bowling with the other 2 deciding to only watch.

I am not the bragging type but yesterday, I was on a roll. I opened the game with 3 consecutive strikes. I cleared the pins on a couple of other attempts as well. But as the game progressed, lady luck decided to hop on to some other needy soul and I finally ended up with a score of 140.

I know that I am never going to get this type of luck at bowling and I took a picture of the scorecard before Raghu's last attempt. And I am publishing it here for posterity!

Bad luck?

I am sure there are a lot many of you out there who have similar experiences, but I thought I would list down few of my special ones:

1. Bought a 29 inch down for a whopping amount and within 6 months, the price was reduced by almost 50%.
2. Bought a big car and within a year, the prices were slashed by 25-30K and by the 3rd year, the model was replaced.
3. Bought mobile phone and within 7 months, it was on sale at 50% of the cost.
4. Bought another mobile phone and within a year, it had a 30% reduction in price.
5. Bought a Printer-Scanner-Copier model and within 2 billing cycles, there was a better model at the same price.

While the list above is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, the latest bulb that I got happened 2 days ago.

We at home, finally decided to repaint our Besant Nagar house after a gap of almost 12 years. We contracted the work to Asian Paints and they started early last week. By this Monday, they completed cleaning the exterior walls and applied the "primer". They completed the primer stuff by Tuesday and from that night, it has been kinda drizzling and raining in Chennai. This was due to a depression being formed off the coast near Nagapattinam.

This is probably in the first time in Chennai's history, there is rain in the month of March. But I can proudly say that it is all due to our luck!

You are welcome to share any such bulbs you may have experienced and assuage my feelings to some extent.