A Comedy Show Style Knock by Me.
Date: 10th November, 2009.
Place: Mohali.
We all started for stadium to play our second match of the Ranji season. We had a good journey in the bus, in which we discussed about our game plan. Our regular captain Laxman was absent, so Pragyan Ojha was handed the captaincy. We all were being said to go for a win, so that we'll have some points on the points table.
We finally reached stadium, we got ourselves warmed up for a while, and we started our net session. I was practicing catching and fielding as I mis fielded many times in the previous match. I had a good fielding practice, where I was slightly injured, but yet, I was to play as that was not a big injury.
Our Captain Ojha went for the toss, where the Punjab won and decided to field. After the toss, Venkatapathi Raju went to the pitch and saw it carefully. He poked few cracks with his hands, not many. Then finally, I and Anoop Pai got ready to go. Coach said me to be aggressive right from the beginning! I was shocked to hear those kind of instructions from coach, but was very happy as he gave me license to go aggressive.
Anoop took the strikers end, Love Ablish took the ball. I knew Love Ablish, as he played some ICL cricket towards Chandighar Lions team. Anoop gave me strike off the first ball! I was shocked to see this kind of quick cricket from Anoop. My previous records of opening were ridiculous. I had small bit of sledging from the wicketkeeper of Punjab team, Mr. Taruvar Kohli, but I just controlled myself so that I won't be in any controversies right at the beginning of the career.
He was slegding ,"Ooh.... When will you get off the mark?? After 20 balls or 30 balls? Oh no, lets go on average. I'll give you 25!"
Anoop came upto me and asked to reply, but I refused. And after he shouted that, I got off the mark in the first ball by a single:banana2. And that over, Anoop managed to duck all the balls. I was all set to face Harmeet Singh in my second over. I showed my style! I started banging the bowlers for fours from that over on. In that over, I went for two fours, one over extra cover and one over square leg. Everyone was shocked! And that bloke who was sledging shut his mouth. And We showed what actually we can do. Anoop Pai played bit on defensive note, and after those two fours, I even started the same for couple of overs. I scored just a single in those overs.
The bowler was changed and it was a spinner, "Rahul Sharma". I was amazed to see him bowling to me! And then came MY TIME! I was murmuring the song of John Cena.:laugh
Your time is up, my time is now
You can't see me, my time is now
It's the franchise, boy I'm shinin' now
You can't see me, my time is now!
And I played what I thought. The first ball went directly to the boundary ropes over third man! I went front foot to slog the ball over Long on. Unluckily, in nicked and went back! I was shocked if that was going to be a catch, but luckily, there was no fielder there! Thankfully, there was no fourth slip. There were two men running to stop the ball, but the ball won the competition there!:banana2 Then, the next ball was a tempting one. I had two different minds but as coach gave me license to go aggressive, I lofted it, but the ball din't connect properly! I thought that I'll have to walk, but surprisingly, it was another four! I even couldn't believe it! The Ball went high up in the air towards long on, and the bloke there dropped an lolly pop:laugh! Even if I was in that position, I could have easily caught it. And then, I hit Rahul for another four, and I was amazed to see myself hitting three fours in a row:banana2. The ball actually was a fuller one, which I tried to defend! But while defending I got a foolish idea of keeping the bat cross, which I employed. I just kept the bat cross and lifted the bat bit up. Keeper couldn't judge it and it went for another four right from the keeper! I had a small chat with Anoop, "Hey you, its FC cricket, not OD
"
"Oh Yeah, I was thinking the second one for a while
"
Then I went for ANOTHER BOUNDARY in that over
:banana2. I just placed the ball well on the bat and hit a powerful stroke over covers for a four. Then Bhalla came up and said "Dude, you at last played a orthodox cricketing shot!:laugh" I din't knew what to answer. All the four I hit except the previous one came off luckily.
After that big over, I played few defensive strokes to Harmeet Singh. But later on, in the fifth ball, I hit that bowler for a classic four! I played the shot over extra cover for a boundary:banana2. Then i retained my strike by securing a single although it was a leg bye.
I was on strike of Bhalla, for whom, I went for a four in the first and the foremost ball! I just tried to defend the ball, but the ball being a quick one, nicked by bat and went for a four through fine leg
! And then, many thoughts were going in my mind! But i sticked on to the big one! I planned to hit that guy for a six as I had a strong belief that I had enough confidence.
The ball was a fuller, but I was on fire to score a six there, whetever the ball may be. But
. I was rewarded with the bail on middle stump and off stump on my Head. The ball being a very quick one, din't touch my bat at all! The ball directly hit the stumps and the bail went up in the air and fell on my head
:laugh!
Although it was a comedy scene, I was out! I walked and the next batsman Suman went in. He played very slowly and meanwhile, Pai reached his 50. We all clapped him. Then, he got out at 64. Then went in Anirudh Singh, who played slowly. But Suman got out for 24 after playing 87 balls. Then Walked in Ravi Teja, who played well! Both of them played a good knock, but later on, Ravi Teja got out after scoring 42. Similar was the case with Anirudh Singh! He even got out after scoring 42.
Then walked in Lalit Mohan, and Khaleel. They both played good cricket! Mohan got out! Then went in Absolem. He got out for a duck & same was the score of out skipper Ojha. Arjun, as usually played a good innings by scoring 25 crucial runs. Finally, he got out. Then Walked in Maqsusi! He was instructed to keep Khaleel on strike as much as possible, but that din't happen! He got out for no score!
They came back and it was 5 PM in the evening! We were all out for 282 runs.
Scorecard:
Code:
HYDERABAD 1st innings
Player Status Runs Blls 4s 6s S/R
Anoop Pai b. Sharma 64 117 14 0 54.7%
Prithvi Raj b. Bhalla 34 37 8 0 91.9%
T Suman c. Sohal b. Gony 24 87 4 0 27.6%
Anirudh Singh b. Ablish 42 86 10 0 48.8%
D Ravi Teja lbw b. Sohal 42 84 9 0 50.0%
I Khaleel not out 24 58 5 0 41.4%
Lalit Mohan b. Gony 12 12 2 0 100.0%
Alfred Absolem c. Ablish b. Gony 0 5 0 0 0.0%
Pragyan Ojha c. R Singh b. Bhalla 0 2 0 0 0.0%
MP Arjun b. H Singh 25 31 6 0 80.6%
Shoaib Maqsusi lbw b. Sohal 0 7 0 0 0.0%
Total: 282/10 Overs: 87.4 Run Rate: 3.22 Extras: 15
Day 1 4:53 PM
-X-
HYDERABAD Partnerships
Batsmen Runs (Balls)
A Pai P Raj ?????????????????????????????? 76 (75)
A Pai T Suman ?????????????????????? 56 (162)
A Singh T Suman 0 (7)
A Singh D Teja ??????????????????????????????????? 87 (162)
A Singh I Khaleel ? 4 (7)
L Mohan I Khaleel ?????? 16 (20)
A Absolem I Khaleel 0 (5)
P Ojha I Khaleel ? 4 (12)
M Arjun I Khaleel ??????????????? 39 (63)
S Maqsusi I Khaleel 0 (13)
Fall of Wickets 76/1 132/2 132/3 219/4 223/5
239/6 239/7 243/8 282/9 282/10
Total: 282/10 Overs: 87.4 Run Rate: 3.22 Extras: 15
-X-
PUNJAB Bowling
Player Overs Mdns Runs Wkts E/R Wds NBs
Love Ablish 12.0 2 26 1 2.17 0 1
Harmeet Singh 13.0 3 42 1 3.23 0 1
MS Gony 18.0 4 74 3 4.11 0 1
Rahul Sharma 18.0 12 37 1 2.06 0 0
V Bhalla 14.0 3 44 2 3.14 0 0
Sunny Sohal 12.4 2 47 2 3.71 0 0
EXTRAS Wides: 0 No Balls: 3 Leg Byes: 4 Byes: 8
Total: 282/10 Overs: 87.4 Run Rate: 3.22 Extras: 15
The Umpires called it a day and we went back to our hotel rooms. We planned for the next day well!
