!!! The Virtual Reality team wins the Indoor League Championship Title!!!
[Indoor League Champions - Virtual Reality Team]Here's the picture of team members. This was taken right after the final match on Nov 18, 2006, approximately at 12:15 pm. Front row, from left:
Karthik,
Kaushik,
Yagna,
Chintan(sub). Back row, from left:
Madhavan (sub),
Krish,
Ashwin(captain),
Bharath,
Harish,
Jaiganesh(aka
Jaggu),
Mummoorthy.
The two weekend matches turned out be nothing short of what we had in mind: intense, intense and more intense. It was obvious that the title would go to the team that held their nerves in
crucial moments....
The semi-final against Tap-Sum-Bhang started on a positive note for us as we won the toss. Not considering the last season's loss against the same team in the semi-finals when we batted first, captain Ashwin elected to bat first. Both the teams were highly charged up for this battle for quite sometime. At the stroke of 10 pm, Midhun and Chintan swung the newly taped ball beautifully. Too soon, VR struggled at 24/4. Then the two crucial partnerships came through Ashwin-Jaggu, and Ashin-Yagna combinations. Ashwin produced one of memorable knocks under pressure, and under pain caused by cramps. We ended up at 89 in 15 overs. Tap-Sum-Bhang lost a quick wicket in the second over, as cool Harish picked up his gully catch of Ronnie. Sachin-Chintan tried to steady the ship by playing defensive strokes. Unfortunately for them, the asking rate was climbing up steadily due to tight bowling by Jaggu & Mum. Ashwin provided the next breakthrough by removing Chintan, foxing him with a full toss ball that was hit straight to Kaushik at the long off boundary. Now, something happened that we didn't expect: one caught behind, two run outs of their main batsmen in the span of 6 balls...Sachin, Vijay & Ruchir were back in the pavilion. the game was almost over. I think they were all out for something around 55. Chasing 90 in 15 overs under pressure, quick wickets and some tight bowling did them in.
On Nov 18, 2006 at 9:30 am we played our finals against Punjabi pride. This team had qualified at top of the table in the first round. Though we had lost to them in a league match, that didn't bother us much...all we wanted was to win! However, this thought didn't reflect in our batting when we decided to bat first after winning yet-another toss (Kicha special). Mummoorthy failed again with the bat, edging an innocuous ball, an outswinger by Upjeet. The selection committee will have a strong look at his performance before sitting down to select a team for the next season. He has been advised to go back to domestic circuit (i.e. brownstone, corec) and gain some experience.
Next, Jaggu went in to join Kicha. A quick word on Kicha's commitment: Just the previous day, he dashed into Karthik on the field while backing up a throw. He could only walk, with lot of pain. But still, he realized that we didn't have enough players for the finals, and decided to come. Not only he batted beautifully with lots of brave shots, he also kept on encouraging players from outside when we were bowling. Great commitment! The man-in-form Jaggu also got out quickly. Our situation was getting worse, as Jaggu was one of our top batsmen this season. He had been scoring consistently in almost all the matches, and and to lose him early in the innings was a big blow. The next to go was Bharath, who unfortunately got out to a wide ball. Bharath also had a twin failure in two consecutive matches. Though he contributes greatly with his fielding skills, selectors will be critical of his recent form with the bat. Considering his overall performances in this league, it is however expected that he'll easily walk into the next season's team. 3 wickets down for less than 20 runs, Kaushik was asked to keep the one end steady, while Krish was scoring freely at the other end. However, Punit had other ideas, bowled a neat off-cutter to the right hander ( reminded me of akram's special) and got a lbw of Kaushik. Now, we were struggling. 4 wickets down for <25.
Ashwin, the captain joined Krish in the middle. Just the previous night, he walked in to the field in a much similar situation, and produced a brilliant innings. From the first ball he faced, it looked like he was going to continue where he had left. Neat stokes, on the back foot, and front foot made the bowling team to go on the defensive. Their focus shifted from getting wickets to containing runs. As krish hit a straight six of the spinner at this time, the momentum swung in our way. Ashwin & Krish were playing very well, and the partnership was going very strong. Krish finally got out, after playing a great innings, with his injury. Next to bat, Karthik hit some very useful runs, and gave a crucial company for Ashwin. When Karthik got out, Yagna, who was part of the big partnership in the semi-finals, joined Ashwin. Trying to accelerate in the end overs, Ashwin got out to a nice catch by Sukdeep. Harish & Yagna added few more, and our innings came to end with 80 on the board.
Jaggu's first over was steady as usual, threatening with pace and bounce. In the second over they lost their first wicket to a fine catch by Kaushik at the long off boundary. First four overs, though, were bowled well, lacked the penetration to fetch more wickets. Ashwin and Yagna bowled the next spell. Yagna provided the breakthrough we desperately wanted. His second ball, a slower one landed on the middle stump...Though we didn't know what exactly happenend, later on we were told by Yagna the background story of this ball....the following picture shows him explaining what was the secret behind that wicket.....
[ Yagna...explaining the secret formula]
Long long ago, so long ago, and nobody can say how long ago, there lived a saint
Sachidhaananda munivar. He knew everything in the world...from playing cricket to acting in ads. He taught the
kutti Yagna, the 3 year old, who had lots of
sada mudi, the method to
"ball-ai mandhirikka"?
Mandhiricha ball-
ai three times
thalai-ayi chuthi bowling
pottal, the ball will be attracted to the middle stump.
Idhu dhaan concept.
Aaana, in the previous match against Punjabi Pride,
namma Yagna-
kku andha special
mandhiram marandhu pogivittadhu. So, he put a wrong
mandhiram on the ball....so that the ball was attracted to the big eagle picture on the straight wall...that was the sole reason all his balls went there..i.e.
sixers!!! However, our determined
Yagna went back to his basics, recalled the
mandhara properly, and came ready for the finals match.
Mandhiricha ball
dhaan bamboozled the batsman, and got him bowled.
This is what
happenend in the match....as soon as
Yagna relased the
"mandhiricha" ball, the batsman swung his bat once, twice, thrice...alas..the ball hadn't reached his bat yet..so he decided to have some rest before he started to swing his bat again...but then the
mandhiricha ball had crashed on to his middle stump. The elated
Yagna immediately thanked the
Sachidhaanandhar......wonder why
Yagna usually has long hairs...that's how he shows his respect for that "
maga muni"!
Back to Cricket...After
yagna provided the two crucial strikes, the match was
nicely poised at the end of 10
th over. They needed 30 runs in 30 balls.
Jaggu had 1 over left,
Mummoorthy 2 overs &
Ashwin 2 overs left.
Upjeet, one of their main batsmen, had just come on to the crease.
Mummoorthy bowled the 11
th over, and gave away 2 runs. So, 4 overs 28 runs.
Ashwin bowled the 12
th over, and a misfield by
Yagna (apparently busy, was engaged in virtual conversations with his
guruji) at the boundary meant 3 overs, 20 runs required.
Ashwin also removed
Upjeet, who hit a clean shot to the long off boundary, where
kaushik took an excellent catch, plucked the bullet-like-ball from 10 feet high. 13
th over, bowled by
Mummoorthy, was taken for 3 runs. So, two overs remaining & 17 runs to win. They still had enough wickets in hand.
Jaggu bowled a very tight over, gave away 4 runs, and took a wicket. So, the equation had become: 1 over, 13 runs to win.
Ashwin bowled the last over, and gave away 7 runs. So, we won by 5 runs! What a match it was. Till the last ball was bowled, no one could say who would win. Punjabi pride fought well till the end, kudos to them for providing an excellent end to the league.
So, here we are, with the championship title. The question is...does this mean anything more than a cup? I think the answer is yes and no. Yes, because we wanted to win the title, we believed we deserved to win the title, and we enjoyed playing cricket professionally and ethically, more than any other team. So, the cup assures this in some ways. On the other hand, title is for this semester alone. We need to maintain the rigor, passion, and interest we have at the moment, and continue playing quality cricket in the future tournaments as well.
This will be an incomplete symphony if we don't mention the veterans of the Virtual Reality team: Appu, Sreeram and Guru. These three played, and performed at the highest level for us. It is impossible to find replacements for them. Sreeram, hopefully willl join us in the future. Appu & Guru have already passed on their personal wishes, and have consistently shown great enthusiasm as shown by any player currently playing in our team......!!!
Have a great break guys, you deserve this!!!
Scorecards at:
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~crikclub/modules/cricketstats/
