About broken noses and local matches.

On Sunday, I had to pickup Saj from the GKVK campus, he was playing for his company in a cricket tournament.The previous match he was wacked for a couple of fours, and the opposition managed to put up a huge score. Fortunately it rained and both teams had to split the points. When I joined him, his team was chasing a small score of 225 from 25 overs.The middle order batsmen were milking the bowlers for easy singles and they were set for a easy victory. The equation was: 80 runs from 10 overs with 7 wickets in hand. Saj was optimistic. I was at my sarcastic best.Then it happened, a slow ball and the batsman mistimed the shot , and the bowler who was in his follow-through dived full length to pull of a blinder. Saj's team were stunned.I stood and applauded. I asked Sajjan where his “Spirit of Sportsmanship” was and his reply" Dude he was our last recognized batsman, now it’s left to the all-rounders and bowlers". The captain came over and asked him to pad up but then realized that he was injured (broken thumb) and so he was demoted down the order. What I really like about local matches is that they are so unpredictable; you could hit 6 sixes in an over or take 6 wickets in the next 6 balls. No such luck in this match though. But I did get to see some of the most pathetic running between the wickets. Seriously they would have made the Haq's and Ganguly's proud. The end result Sajjan had to put on his pads.Let me remind the readers that Saj had broken his thumb a month ago, while trying to catch a hard hit ball.He then had wires inserted yep steel wires and it seems he almost met GOD courtesy anesthesia call it the Kiss of death . Back to the match, a huge heave by the batsman and the ball travels out of the boundary for a 6. The wicket keeper was having a bad day, he took a nasty one on his nose .I swear I heard a crack. While he was being attended to, we were busy discussing the film “Million Dollar Baby" in which Clint Eastwood sets the heroine’s nose back and she goes on to win the bout. Equation: 7 runs from 15 balls, 4 wickets in hand. A rash shot and Sajjan is called in .He really wanted to be there when the winning run was hit. He managed to push the ball to the offside and scampered for a single. A couple of balls later he tries a cheeky single and is run out. He's disappointed and it shows. He reminded me of Ganguly in the just completed "back in 2 minutes", Indo Pak series. The match was all set for a nail biting finish. Equation: 5 runs in 12 balls.2 wickets in hand. A lanky looking dude walks in to take his guard.Saj whispers “That’s our security guard, we gave him a company T-shirt and now he's in our team. He’s so much better than the other guys." All I did was raise an eyebrow.hmm... The second last over, the batsmen could manage only 2 runs and now had to get 3 runs in the penultimate over. Equation:3 runs in 6 balls.2 wickets in hand. You could feel the tension, the Captain shouting encouragement to his fielders, the Umpires scratching their bald heads, the tiny tots stopping in the middle of their basket ball game. All eyes were riveted on the bowler. The first ball was a beauty, the security guard was clueless. I clapped, got a stare from Saj, sat down immediately. (Didn't want to go home bruised). The second ball was a full toss on the pads... the bowler and wicket keeper appealed for a LBW, the umpire was not interested.hmm something fishy.... Saj's team captain was now worried. Third ball , pattar .. through the gap, to the boundary. Shouts of joy from Saj and his team mates. They even did that famous Indian Pepsi huddle, with lots of " UUh AAhs and Hurrahs's" thrown in.It was their first victory in 3 matches and guess what !! they were into the semi finals." Che che Absurd Rules". PS: Saj denies having bribed the umpires.Then why do you think the umpire was trying to catch the vice captain’s attention? To ask the time? Some questions are better left unanswered.