Monday, September 25, 2006

Final knockout blow !

It was Friday , 22nd. There were small butterflies running in the stomach , Tommorow being the first play-off with the giants.

There was the little lump in the throat whenever i used to think about it.But was a feeling down under that we were going to go through to the semis.But what if - not ??? I was tryin hard not to think in those lines at all , so was the whole team i guess.

Saturday dawned , pretty gloomy day with showers / thunderstorms expected all day after noon. We as usual lost the toss and were going to field. Their openers started off pretty well not losing a wicket for the first 12 overs then they started just playing defensively and since the out filed was pretty wet and gripping the ball was getting difficult..We finally shot them out for 149 after a pretty shoddy effort on the field , with us dropping about 5 catches and also some poor ground fielding which could be as a result of the wet outfield.

We then went in to bat and got a good start in the first 5 overs. Cruising along and then our opener who was also one of the top scorers in the season got out to a pretty odinary shot.And then went in our 'Sachin' you could say and he got out too ...Then there was a slight chill running down the spine.. Is this real ??Then it was left to our skipper and Vijay..who were going on pretty gud until misfortune struck..and vijay got runout in a horrendous mixup..Now it was ajju and arka (skipper) who had to somehow steady the ship..Was going on fine till another runout happened and this time our skipper returned to the pavilion..Ajju had got stuck in and hit 2 huge blows of the leg spinner and then rain gods gave way and it poured like hell and the game was abandoned for the day with us needing 45 in 11 overs with 6 wickets in hand.It was to be played early the next day..

Sunday morning a nice chilly day and everyone up early morning and were on the ground by 8 .
Misfortune struck right in the first over with us losing 2 wickets and that too the most important wicket of Ajju.I then walked into the middle, was not too tensed with rohit there on the other end , we put on 18 odd runs , till the nerves got the better of rohit and he offered no shot to a straight ball and was plumb in front !...Then walked in Sudipto...we put on around 10 - odd runs until i went for a ______ second run..( i dont knw what word i can use there) and got run out.I had let my team down ...the despair was too much and then now the last wicket needed to knock off 15 off runs they went ther almost and then fell short by 2 runs at the end. Was a tragic heartbreak. Almost everyone in the team fighting back tears..For a team that has lost just once whole year , such a huge defeat and being sent out of the championship was little too much to digest.Life seemed to have become dull suddenly...the other team was jumping for joy and ecstatic and why not ...they deserved their victory...In all was a really sad end to such awonderful tournament that ended for us little too early. Guess soon everyone will get back to normal and forget everything. At least i hope so....Personally for me i felt still worse because i lost to a team whose members were from a country i wouldn't like to lose anyday .

Anyway there is always tommorow .. and i see a light at the end of the tunnel...hope its not that of a train which is going to run you down ( like sidhu says ) :)