Most amazing weekend

Had a cricket filled weekend.

Saturday morning - 9am - 5pm -> Cricket match with Covansys. We scored 147 in 30 overs and lost in the last over of the match.

Saturday 9pm - 10pm -> Interesting game of Pool

Saturday 11pm - 2pm -> Watched MI-3. Had read good reviews and as far as I'm concerned it lived up to the hype. Some of my friends weren't that pleased. Some nice scenes that I really loved. Some laughable scenes like the one where he jumps of the building and then swings onto another like Spiderman and the way they try to defend it by giving some scientific fundas - fulcrum or lever or something like that. Overall liked the movie - it's always tough for the sequels to live upto the prequels and add something. But MI-III did a pretty good job at it I thought.

Sunday 8am - Leave for the ground since the match was supposed to start at 9am. I was playing for a new team in which some of my friends play for - this was a really strong team with some of the players playing in the league for the last 15 years. So I was very much like a fill in player expected to do nothing but field in a position where there are least number of balls expected to go for. The first match turned out very much that way - we fielded first (I fielded about 10 balls max). We bowled out the opponents for 92 and chased them in 15 overs (20 over a side game).

Sunday 1pm - Go to a Dosa place and have a hearty meal - A Dosa Thali (Idly, 2 Vadas, Onion and Hot Chilly Masala Dosa, Gulab Jamun) and come back to the ground to watch a run feast in another game going on in the tournament. By the way the matches played on Sunday was part of a Invitation Only tournament played between some of the top teams in Ohio. Laze around on the grass watching the game and try and catch a few winks in between all the noise around. Team batting first (Cleveland) ends up scoring 198 runs in 20 overs with mabe a zillion sixes in them and a 20-30 dropped catches. Team batting second obviously doesn't measure up to the task and gets bowled out for under a 100.

Sunday 4:30pm - Finally our second match gets under way. We were hoping to bat first to give ourselves some rest - we were still tired from the previous game. We lost the toss and we put into field. Cleveland get off to an amazing start - 45/2 in 6. Batsman then makes the mistake Aamir Sohail made against Venky Prasad. Tries to instigate the bowler. War of words ensues. Every Tom Dick n Harry gets involved and the next few deliveries were amazing. Fun to watch from such close quarters. Every ball that the batsman missed or defended was met with more and more words from the fielding side. It finally got to the Batsman and he tried to hit his way out and gets caught at Mid-wicket. This triggers off an amazing collapse - 74/8. Somehow with a few missed run outs and some great running, Cleveland manage to reach 97.

Our batting starts and as expected - I don't expect to bat atleast not close to the end. Team gets off to a slow but steady start. 30/0 in about 8 overs. As the runs begin to dry out, our team starts panicking and we loose wickets in a hurry. I was just lazing around on the grass when I suddenly am told am the next to go. We've suddenly lost 3 wickets in a hurry and we have no one else padded up. My god, my gloves and abdomen guard are in the car. I run to the car and somehow manage to get the stuff in and I realize the batsman who just went in is also out. I've just about got my Pads on. I ask Kirti if there's a good team bat I can use since I haven't played in this team before and didn't want to take someone's personal bat and go out to play. He asks if a heavy bat is fine. Do I have a choice? I say yeah that's fine just because I wanted to go with some bat and not have to bat without a bat. I get the gloves on but as I'm trying to get my sweat shirt off, the gloves get stuck. I am making a big fool of myself and in all this people from the ground are shouting for me and probably laughing their asses off at the mess that I'm in.

Bad start to the Innings a? You bet. Get off to a nervous start with a LBW appeal and a dropped catch. Before I know it, my partner's tried to hit his way out and got out. Now we are in a precarious situation. 2 wickets left. 40 to 30 balls. My new partner has a tough time with the short pitch bowling that is dished out. We get only 2 runs in the over. 38 in 4. The new bowler tries the same short pitch stuff against me with no cover at deep square leg - result 4. More short deliveries and now b'cos there is cover there - a few 1s and 2s. 27 in 3. Doesn't sound so bad. But with just 2 wickets in hand - pretty dangerous situation.

Isko short mat daalna. Sirf usko short daalo. Next ball - Dance down the wicket take the ball on the full and the sweetest four. And did I forget to tell you. The bat was really heavy. I was in fact upto that point thinking of asking for a bat change. But after that shot - no way. A few more 2s trying to retain strike - some crazy run thanks to my partner who was willing to sacrifice his wicket to keep me on strike and we end up with 18 in 2. Some misfields on the line and some more quick runs later - we are at 10 of 1. Comes down to 6 of 4, 4 of 3, 2 off 2. Get hit on the pads - ball is close to the keeper and my partner wants a single. Decide not to take a chance since I still had another ball to get the 2 runs in. Last ball - hit to long on. In trying for the second run - partner gets run out. Match is a tie. Since we were already into the semis and my team wanted to be in the second in the group due to their wanting to play a particular team in the Semis, it worked out well. We came second in the group due to a lower run rate but also avoided losing the match. :-)

Match finally got over at like 7:30pm - Still a lot of light around. The atmosphere when we went from the brink of loosing to almost winning the match was amazing - really charged up because of the incident that happened while we were fielding. After the match, sat around chatting about nothing in particular for an hour or so after the game over a couple of beers and overall had fun. Looking forward to more such fun-filled games where I fill in and have fun. :-)

OSU is a real good team to play in. Play real hard Cricket on the field. They are really competitive. Every game is either a match to be won and also a match with an eye towards practice for key players in coming matches/tournaments. Fun to be with off the field too. That's probably part of the problem in my not being able to commit to playing with them. It surely is going to be fun. But since they have a well established side, I'd be affecting the balance if I get to play and / or I might not get to play enough. So will probably stick with UCC.