Triumph at Tini's

The last weekend cricket session at Tini's was one to savour. Life was infused into the proceedings with the return of key players like Vijay Bharadwaj, Shashi a.k.a Shahid Afridi, the mercurial L Ganesh and last but not the least, the ATG 'Counter' Uday. What can anyone say about him ! I have been reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown from the past few days, where religion is faced off against science, the Big Bang Theory is proposed and its stated that God created everything in symmetry/opposites.. Hell and heaven, light and dark and the most rudimentary thing - matter and its opposite, anti-matter. Somewhere along, I am convinced,that on a quirky note, as his wont, god also created 'Counter' Uday. Just like that. A third juggernaut that has no deterrent.

Uday C Madhyastha, as his name goes, is the anti-symmetry and opposite to everything he comes across in his life. Much like an Universal Opposite. Tell him anything and he has an opposing,counter -point of view, even if they are well established laws of math and science and have been accepted by even the most sceptical. Suffice to say he simply drives everyone nuts ! Why, the other day at SLV, he was eating Kharabath and when our chairman MRS asked him Yelli, ond spoon haaku, he took an empty spoon and threw it,clang, into MRS ' plate :)) ..Chairman's face became so red and he could have easily killed Udi ! Realms can be written about Udi like his Chris Tavare batting at Tini's ( where out of 6 overs available, he blocks 4.3 overs and then decides to slog) or choosing to bowl on a dead track in a league match where the rules stipulated that was an innings match with no limit on the overs. Result ??The Oppn batted for 84.3 overs, sweated Udi's team out and let them bat the last 5 overs :))

Anyways, the play almost never took off, the leg side area being rendered slushy by the rains and thanks to the Lions Rotary people who have broken down a portion of the wall running along the conservancy so that vehicles can come in and park.. The result is a sorry state of affairs as car, bikes, autos ride in and leave deep gashes in the ground when they go through the slush.We need to salvage Tini's again, but how ?? Solle, are you listening ?? swalpa nin hava kalsu maga..

Thrust into the relucant role of El Capitano ( a role with which I have enjoyed unqualified success though, always getting series wins), we found ourselves chasing 26 in the first match.The role of skipper seems to have placed additional responsibility on my, at times, otherwise ridiculously wild batting ( well Shashi maama bettered that ) and I found some terra firma with a few shots and placements. Its always difficult with Size Sundar pounding away , unleashing thunderbolts and baying for blood. It boiled down to 6 of the last over, to be bowled by katte.

Its a golden rule, never bowl to Muki on his legs and at full length. Vonde Shot hodyodu avnu :))But dear katte did just that. A flick was whiplashed for 2 with such elan and power and it even beat the slush on its way to the fence ! 4 remaining.. Katte thundered in, again straight and just short of good length, but there was enough width in the delivery to swing my arms and instinctively drive it straight and uppish.. The yellow cherry crashed into the hoarding,take 4 mates !! Game over, we are one up !! Sabash captain.. !!

Size Sundar can't stomach defeat easily and must win at all costs to keep the series alive. We were batting first and he let loose a string of cannon balls that just thudded into the keeper's hands in next to zero seconds. The moment of the innings though was Gunda's counter attack.Sent to open the innings, he picked upon Sundar and hit some astonishing strokes, one so hard and fast, that it beat a bewildered Raghu on the mid off boundary line, whose reflexes havent been the greatest anyway. Fast N Furious being met with equal pomp, waah ! To rub salt into the wounds, another thunderbolt frm Sundru was crashed to the cover fence by me, and the genial giant he can be, Sundar came up and shook hands for the shot ! We set a target of 26 and the match was all over in the 4th over, when on a master ploy, I bought back Gunda and he bowled a peach of a delivery to have VRB caught behind...Sooper! Series wrapped up 2 -0.

Hmm, and what can one say about the madcap Shashi Afridi ?? Sent to open the innings in all the matches and told to play for singles in no uncertain terms, he wallops the first ball he faced in both the innings into the school with no rhyme or reason.. Booming shots.. Then has the gall to come up and say "Mukku, if it had gone for 4, I would have hit 2 more man " !!

Sigh, how do you catch and pin a cloud in the sky :)

Now we know how Inzamam feels when he talks to Afridi and gives him instructions on how to bat and he does everything but that !