Cricket - The Winner

What could be a better time to blog a bit about cricket? I have been thinking of blogging about cricket for quite sometime and some of the greats who have influenced and left an impact on me. My favorite batsman is the greatest batsman cricket has seen so far – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (who needs no introduction or praise). But the cricketer I respect most is Adam Gilchrist. It is not just for his batting and keeping skills I admire him. It is for his honesty and the way he walks. As many know already this great batsman will just walk off the field even if the umpire doesn’t give his decision in the favor of the batsman when he knows he nicked a ball and he is out. A few more batsmen have started walking nowadays but to do something like that in any kind of situation and being the first to start to walk even though it was against the liking of many other team players is simply spectacular and needs some nerves. This according to me shows how much Gilly loves and has passion mixed with respect for cricket. Why am I even inspired to write about cricket now? That is because we just returned back from Salt Lake City after a three match tour. Yeah, it can be called the Montana’s tour of Utah. The idea of driving to Salt Lake City for three matches with a team in Salt Lake City seemed ridiculous. I was wondering if it was worth the effort, time and money that we were about to spend. I wasn’t even sure if the Salt Lake City team was serious enough. After we reached we had a three hour sleep, we were pretty impressive to show up for our first match at the ground at 9:00 am. Unfortunately the ground wasn’t booked for Saturday and there was some soccer practice. It was very disappointing when we learned the other team did not even bother to book the ground. We then learnt the earliest we could start was at 2:00 pm. We decided to have a nice lunch and enjoy our trip anyways. We went to an Indian restaurant and I being well known for my appetite just kept up to the expectations. Needless to say it just got worse because it was a buffet lunch. I ate so much that I found it very hard to move around and felt I would feel better if I had puked. I felt like a python which is known not to move very fast after a heavy meal and sometimes even pukes if it can’t take in what it swallowed. Fielding after such a lunch just made things worse. I couldn’t move as freely as I wanted to. They batted decently and scored 120 odd. We weren’t very sure if we should have fielded or batted as these were new conditions. But, we got pretty close in our chase and scored close enough to lose by just eight runs. Did I forget to mention that we played this match on June 21 which is technically the longest day of the year? The mercury leaped to 98 F (36 C). Reminded us of the days we played under the blazing sun in India. I considered it a decent chase. We however did not feel extremely disappointed by this defeat because we all knew it would be difficult and would need a game to know how to play in a new ground. We took the positives out of it and realized how good a fight we put and what changes could make things better. We had a nice dinner at a dhaba and caught up on some sleep we were missing. The next day was a nice less hot day. It touched 90 F (32 C). Without a toss it was decided that we would bat first. It was a nice gesture because they wanted us to bat this time and they wanted to try chasing. We got off to a good start and the batsmen did well to keep the momentum decently good and score 130 odd. The home team did not probably expect such a score and when they lost some early wickets while chasing it made things no easier. They managed well to get over 100 and eventually lost the match. The third match was crucial with both teams having bagged a win each, which we planned to start at around 4:30 pm at which time it was still hot and sunny. With lessons learnt from the past about fielding in the heat, we wanted to bat first. Unfortunately, we tossed the coin this time and lost the toss and had to field. Having not eaten as much as during our previous post lunch match, the bowling and the fielding was impressive. This match started off with the home team losing some early wickets but not without some spectacular bowling and fielding. Some unbelievable catches were taken. Unbelievable I say, because I pulled one in the slip region. I am happy I was in a nice position and got to the ball as fast as I did. I was easily the best thing I did in the day. In spite of losing wickets regularly they managed to score over 100 which were easily defendable. They showed us how it could be. We got to not miserable start. When I had to bat I needed to stay in the crease and get the chase back on course. I still wonder why I played for a cheeky single of my first ball to only get caught of a spectacular catch again. It was great cricket all around. The lower middle order played what I have to call a responsible and memorable innings to restore the team from difficult times and even made sure to keep the required runs below the remaining balls. There were a few nails waiting to be bitten. It was a pretty nervous chase finishing in the final over. I was relieved and very happy because I didn’t have to feel guilty about messing the chase and losing the match. This was followed by some photos being taken with the home team and of course some winning moments were celebrated. We rather accidentally had dinner with a few members of the home team when we went out to eat.
We captured a few more memories to remember. Looking back I feel it was a success trip which we won 2-1 and saved some pride too. Had we lost, I wonder how people could have ridiculed us for spending time, money and we would have been a subject of fun. Though people who ridicule will ridicule, it was still nice to win and stay respectable. Also I shouldn’t forget to mention that some of the members in the home team played amazingly well and I admired them for their honesty and the spirit in which they played the game. Just reminds me that cricket is a gentlemen’s game. I am again reminded of Gilly and what an influence he has had in inspiring youngsters to play in the right spirit. He has in fact brought in a noticeable change in my game. It doesn’t matter if you can’t play as well as him. I know I don’t bat like Gilly, but I walk like Gilly. And as long as I know I am out and I walk, here I shall blog.