Story c39_0823|Born to Fight for Success - A Journey with SA Redbacks, Innings 2 of WW Vs SA FC

[surendar]

Thanks Punk, yea was sad too in seeing this story place running out of activity well, still glad that few readers and writers are still here which could restore back with release of new games

And on my plans for resuming in DBC, yea it could help as I am now manually creating the squad for IC2010 teams. Keeping my fingers crossed for the release too like every other members here!

Thanks for the visit here though. also thanks Arun, Samuel & WI for reading/supporting this.

 

[surendar]

Predicta Contest
1000 VCash for FIRST Correct Guess & 500 VCash for NEXT 2 Correct Guesses

Contest closes at end of Tamil Nadu's Innings.
​

TN Vs UP, Day1 - Lunch Time Update
For those who have missed the Lunch Time Actions!

 

[HawkAussie]

Suren Ram is my pick

 

[Aditya]

Suren Bhai is back with his marvelous writing and top-notch presentation, just what this forum needed.

 

[Samuels]

Vijay for he is one of the most prolific batsman in the TN outfit.

 

[surendar]

Suren Ram is my pick

Thanks for the entry, it has been noted. Appreciate the confidence you have on such a nervous batsman who is yet to get off the mark having faced 20 balls. He needs supporters like this to boost his confidence.

Suren Bhai is back with his marvelous writing and top-notch presentation, just what this forum needed.

Great to see you back. Thank you.

Yea, we have 3 writers active at this moment trying to refresh this forum activity. It would be great if some more can join the momentum as well, will be a perfect timing with new game release just around the corner.

Vijay for he is one of the most prolific batsman in the TN outfit.

Sam, you are sure on this? You still have time to choose the player between end of TN's innings. Murali is out for 27 Runs in my last update. Thanks for participating in predicta too.

All, will keep you posted once I am done with my playing updates. I am currently playing this game for the next update. Thank you all for the feedback. Stay Tuned.

 

[Meet]

Been reading since you've started this story again(hats off to bring back the activity in this part of the forum). Great going with the story and I liked the gfx too. Great work, really.
For the contest, I'll put my money on the young lad, Suren.

 

[Samuels]

Sam, you are sure on this? You still have time to choose the player between end of TN's innings. Murali is out for 27 Runs in my last update. Thanks for participating in predicta too.

Actually no. People have went for Suren the smasher so I will go with Mr. Karthik.

 

[Aravind.]

Karthik

 

[Till Valhalla]

Dinesh Karthik.

 

[surendar]

Chapter 20
End of Day 1 - Multiple things, Multiple Issues for TN, Still Karthik's dominance puts TN in top!
​

May 21, 2009
Time - 06 : 30 PM​

With lunch time about to end, all our players gathered together to have a strategy for us( myself & Karthik ). It looked like, Karthik was bit stubborn for some reason to have enough trust in me as his non striker. Probably due to my coach's mention of IPL stuffs to me earlier, which is considerably fair to understand as I am just new in this side and it will trigger multiple ego/attitude issues to players of higher experience if lower experience guys gets more opportunities. After all, everyone's dream is to have that blue cap and atleast play once for your Nation!

All I requested was - a bit of Trust, which was declined!​

... Kept adding more & more to my Pressure/Tensions ...​

Right from my entry into the ground, I did observe some indifferent changes in Arun Karthik's behavior on field - refusing to acknowledge my run call, refused to wait for me to join the dressing room in lunch etc. This became worse after lunch.

We all resumed the post lunch session with Mishra, Murtaza attacking us from both the ends. Pitch, which was expected to soften up did seem to become friendly in terms of bounce, however it was turning more than the session 1. Atleast these pitch conditions were easy to manipulate for me when compared to 'Get Back!' call from my non striker whenever I called him for a run.

On trying to have a word with Karthik, he blindly walked past me without any response or a nod. This kept adding more and more, & runs were not moving on the scoreboard for a while.

It was too OBVIOUS​

... Sometimes I just felt that I wanted to get 'Retired Hurt' ... if & only if I would have gone to training nets in proper timings, atleast would have gathered support from my coach!​

Things started to be very obvious in our mutual conflicts and UP bowers utilized it perfectly. They were trying to get us out with odd deliveries expecting us to make mistakes out of internal tensions/fights. However, I just had my OWN plans.

Though I was almost out couple of times when Karthik refused for my call, I was fortunate enough that my dive helped me to stay on the crease. I made my mind to go after the bowlers only if they bowl bad ones, and decided to defend every ball and get myself used more to the pitch.

I am just not of this type, yes i always wanted to play my natural game after all I am even being called as 'smasher' by my peeps who knew my playing tactics. This was totally a new game strategy for me, but I loved spending time at my crease.

Yellow Card Issue to Karthik & Suren from Coach ​

Felt bad, but the moment has to come as this has to STOP!​

When everyone in dressing room got frustrated with runs not coming up in the board, my coach sent a stunning message to both of us. Suddenly a chap came out running with drink bottle, which I wondered as we did not call for any water/drinks though hot weather was almost getting us drenched in sweat.

Well, we realized later that it was not for our care but water/drinks is for conveying a message asking us to put a immediate full stop to our internal conflicts. I was still looking positive and conveyed that, 'lets wrestle outside the pitch'! Things were getting too slow that run rate was just above 1 RPO at one point before Tea!

True Karthik, as a Glorious Batsman got Revealed​

...I should admit that, I enjoyed playing him bat...​

Well, the real character in him as batsman was fabulous actually. The way he played his strokes, & found gaps was very wonderful to watch from non strikers end. RR of 1 slowly started to climb and suddenly we realized that TN was getting over the collapse situation to a better one! Yes, Partnership was building between myself and Karthik.

He slowly went past the milestone of 50 runs and I just gave a strong pat on his shoulder forgetting all the past session stuffs. We started to coordinate, and we ofcourse enjoyed it! Bowlers who have been utilizing us, started to break their heads to have a strategy in getting us out.

However, pitch turned/looked opposite in afternoon/evening sessions. It was good toss to win and put opponent into bat as we might not even get back these collapsing situations unless someone is going to play so badly or, pitch again reproduces the uneven bounce. 'There was lot of turn, which is good but if you are expert to play spin - you can survive!', is what we though on looking at these conditions.

Yes, Karthik reached another milestone as we became stronger & stronger in having a solid partnership. That is correct, A CENTURY from Arun Karthik! Well deserved!

Geeez, What AM I DOING?​

All the bad start, ended up with lot of speed-breakers! Am still jogging slow! ​

No matter, whether the conflict is resolved/unresolved - my state of mind was impacted. I forcefully changed my strategy to slower side and I struggled to get over it as well. Completely became nervous to play big hitting shot, may be due to extreme hot conditions that I got used to it now with slow state of my mind.

However, I just kept moving slowly which is definitely better than stranded. Used to remember my childhood days where I have felt boring to watch few English players test strategy like Russell( WK ) who like facing 150 - 200 balls to spend more time at crease with less runs, and I recognized that I am in exact same state. Am sure that, dressing room peeps would have got bored of me already like how I felt in my childhood days.

With things going on & on, we reached 150 runs partnership milestone just after tea break. Yes, we were successful without loosing any wicket for session 2 and our dressing room was quite contented with the outcome. However, my coach only had time to appreciate Karthik in that 5 minutes break.

End of Day 1 - Things looked fast in memory though it happened slow ON field! ​

Without a doubt, Karthik was outstanding but Innings is NOT YET OVER...​

After the tea break, we tried to relax and play our natural game. However spinners(Mishra/Murtaza/Nath) had us on a tight check due to the spin-turn factor on the pitch. Karthik did try to break loose and it worked as well, we started to get quick runs on the board. I also tried for few boundaries but, it was so difficult that I just managed to get only 3 boundaries in my entire innings for the Day 1.

It was just before the last over, Karthik edged to the slipsmen and got dismissed. He could have maintained his patience as he very well knew that it was just an over to go! Kumar joined me for the last over and we did not have any issues in batting the last over and joining back the dressing room.

" Good Job! You did a basic thing right to support Karthik and that 180+ runs partnership. Still, you are yet to impress me. Doing things right and correct is different from doing things above & beyond with impressing someone, I hope you got the difference. Karthik impressed us with his maturity he displayed on the crease today, for instance! Good Luck, and get a good sleep! " - My coach said these to me as soon as I went back to dressing room.

Well, I just can't believe that I faced 200+ balls but am yet to get a milestone! - All these feelings just revolved around me in my mind. Day 1 Ends...


TN : 241/6( 1st Innnings, 90 Overs )
Suren Ram : 44*(207 balls)
S Kumar : 0*(5 balls)

Arun Karthik : 128(249)
M Vijay : 27(56)

Predicta Still ON! Not Sure, if people's confidence on poor chap 'Suren Ram' is still ON? Stay Tuned.​

​

 

[surendar]

@ Meet - thanks for the feedback, and ofcourse very much appreciated at the confidence you have on this young lad.

Arun, Samuels & Jack - your entries noted. Thanks for the participation. Unfortunately Dinesh Karthik is out for duck, looks like one participant(Jack) is running out of luck.

Predictions are still ON as TN surprisingly have taken the contest to Day2 now.

 

[Aravind.]

Hoping to see Suren Ram perform well although i predicted karthik for highest run scorer.

 

[MaD]

Great work man, looks like a time consuming effort
Gotta go with A Karthik for this haha

 

[Till Valhalla]

Oh I thought the Karthik batting was Dinesh.
I wanna change to Arun.