Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The Home Ground..

It happened after more than 2 years.
We were back on the local turf - surrounded by walls who had heard countless 'howzatts'... marked by glass windows, some of whose predecessors had cracked under the pressure, the wooden chair got the best place to view the event. It stood where earlier a plastic chair used to stand - just behind the man with the bat- acting as the wood to be shattered.
The bat.. ahh.. The Bat, which has hit innumerable boundaries and sixes, has felt the sweat of countless hands across many grounds in the city. The poor thing was rotting away in some corner.. until its owner(me) got on to the chair and then on to his friend's (rompy’s) shoulders..and then on to the roof store...to retrieve it from its exile.

Batsman's view

It was then the game began once again.. the neighbors were awakened.. the walls were jumped to retrieve the ball..the ooohs and aaah’s came as the ball missed he wicket or the catches went down..
It was a case of home ground - literally. The rules are tough .. one tip one hand – out...shot hitting the walls directly - out... shots going over the wall - out..
Personally, it is by virtue of playing here - on the porch of my home... that has improved the quality of my defense...of playing with soft hands... of concentrating for long time and sticking to the wicket...of playing late.. etc etc..
so raman phaji.. now you know how I got the confidence of playing against your express bowling in our early morning sessions...
Bowler's view

so this weekend, it was back to the porch for the hard hitting lolly, who made most of his runs in fours....rompy, who chased the highest target and the usual me, who accumulated runs slowly and steadily without giving the opposition many chances of getting me out...(the combination of three of us can be deadly.. hahahaha)
The bodies playing there were those of the ones working in MNC's but the soul was that of normal college going guys..
only Lolly's LML and Rompyz CBZ were missing outside the gate....
An offer for the Indian team - come and practice here before the world cup..
I am sure it will do wonders..

Fielder's view of Bowler


Fielder's view of Batsman

8 comments:

Amey said...

Reminded me of the terrace cricket we used to play. Any ball over the edge was deemed out, so the ramp at the edge resulted in converting many a fours in wickets :)

Unknown said...

sahi mein mast maja aata hai yaar wahan par khel kar....
dec mein aata hu..next series ke liye...

Unknown said...

oye ye ripudaman kahan se aa gaya upar...

SiD said...

@fleiger: pretty much the same case here.. there is a very fine line between out and not out..
hence in games like these you have to concentrate a lot... may be some day.. such terrace games will be played on international level.. ;)
or may be part of training camps

@rompy: next series ke liye tayar hain hum.. bat bhi neeche hai.. khoob practice karunga.. bachpan ki tarah - ball rassi se tange ke ;)

NehaPandey said...

Mast!! Badiya hai... Hu ha India.. Congrats for dada is back in team!!

KT said...

abe I am not able to catch up reading so many blogs... how come you are able to post 'em...

this cricket team too reflects the tendency of players to love camera more .... everyone is giving nice poses for the camera...

SiD said...

@neha: not realy sure what dada can do...

@KT: camera loving to hum bachpan se hi hain.. par dhyan dijiye hamari 1 bhi foto nahi hai..

doosro ko bhi chance milna chahiye ;)

Yukthesh Jalali said...

Bhai tu isme kahan hai..
Kahin dikh nahi raha.. Photography kar raha hai kya..