Cricket @ elliots

23rd April 2000. 5 30 AM. The telephone rang. An annoyed Lakshmanan gets up and answers the call.

"Hello"

"Hello uncle, Aadarsh here. Is Karthik awake? He needs to get ready for the match. Please wake him up"

"What match? he never mentioned about any match"

"No uncle. Not a school/ club match. We are going to elliots beach to play tennis ball cricket.we need to be there by 6 AM sharp. please wake him up"

"If only you were not a 13 year old", says Lakshmanan and wakes up his son. "Dai.. endhiri da . You need to be at Elliots SHARP at 6.the Sun refuses to rise without seeing you guys playing in the beach. Aadarsh is waiting on the phone.thookkam pochu.."

Karthik looks at the clock. 5 35! Damn. Already running late. shaking off the laziness, he picks up the receiver.

"o*ha !@#^$##$# $&^$^$&^ %^#%^#%^#%@%#$%^ #^#%^#^# @#%@%%@%@%.. its 5 40! ", says Aadarsh

"what wonderful words to start the day with. Sorry machaan. slept a bit late. will be ready in a jiffy. See you there.", and Karthik hangs up the phone and turned back.

"What word did u just use? Do you even know what machaan means? it means your sister is his girlfriend and his sister is your girlfriend!!", barked Lakshmanan.

"Dad, no! say it the other way. his girlfriend is my sister, and my girlfriend is his sister . Anyways, no time for lectures dad. need to leave soon. Bye! "

A totally shocked father lost his sleep and watched his son get ready to leave. Amazing how kids get ready so soon when they are going to do something they enjoy, he thought, and saw his son leave in his cycle.

Cycling as fast as he could in his top gear cycle, Karthik reached the beach at 6 15 and parked the cycle, fearing abuses from his friends for being late. He went to the usual spot, opposite the Dwaraka bungalow, to find out that he was the first person to make it. with no mobiles or any other mode of communication, he waited in the sun (yes the sun does rise pretty early during summer), thinking 'idhukku dhaan ivlo build up ah? varattum vechukkaren' .

slowly everyone started coming, and the last one to reach the beach was Mr.Punctual Aadarsh who woke me up at 5 30 in the morning. Walking up to him, i said " !#$!@#$@#%@#%@%@%@%@#$%"

"Sorry da. Last minute urgent work. morning duties. purinjikko "

After a lot of deliberations about the rules and the team composition, it was decided that the teams would consist of 8 members each, and rules will be as per convenience of the smartest and the person who can argue better :P.

With 12 overs per side, the cycle's back tyre as stumps, the pavement where uncles and aunties walk in the morning as boundaries , only leg side runs allowed and a million other flexible rules, the battle began. There was no prize for winning the match, but victory would be special, as the match was between 7 A and 7 B.Friendship doesn't matter, nothing does. Each of us wanted our team to win much more badly than we ever want to while representing the school in inter school tournaments (probably explains why IPL seems more important than playing for India!). The winner gets to put a lot of scene in school in front of the girls once it reopens and that’s a good enough motivation.

The toss was won by Karthik from 7 A and after a lot of arguments with Aadarsh, the captain of 7 B who wanted a best of 3 toss (man he is a prick!) , 7 A went on to bat first.The 12 overs saw 178 arguments, 84 runs and 4 wickets.(in real, 7 A only scored 74. Never mind the extra 10 ;), they get compensated by the number of times the opponent cheats!)

With a tough chase of 85 in 12 overs, 7 B started off well and raced ahead to 45 runs in 6 overs with 1 wicket down. Aadarsh, a powerful hitter, had got the team off to a good start and looked increasingly uncontrollable. With reputation at stake, Karthik, who was keeping wickets, came up with a master move. Silently, slowly and gradually, he moved the cycle to its left ,and without noticing it, Aadarsh was exposing his leg stump (leg stump is imaginary). The next ball was bowled wide of his legs, and Aadarsh, not knowing the change in stump position, left the ball and asked for a wide, only to hear the death rattle. A disappointed and totally shocked Aadarsh tried hard to argue, in vain. The main man was gone, and victory seemed a mere formality now. But there is a prem ji in every team, and there were many prem jis in 7 A. Like the Indian team, an easy win is a crime, and the match stretched till the last over. with 7 B requiring 10 runs from 6 balls.

The first 4 balls read:

2 0 3 1 0

4 required of 1. Tension in both the camps as Aadarsh and Karthik came up with innovative ideas of bongu aattam. After a 10 minute discussion, play resumed.

(Read in slow motion)

Field set. Bowler runs in to bowl.its a full toss. what a time to bowl a full toss! batsman smashes it high over mid wicket. 2 fielders running towards it. will they catch it? batsmen have already run a couple in the meantime. Ball swoops down and falls right in between a group of 20 elderly thaathaas who were having a conference in the beach for god knows what. One of the thaathaas took the ball and play was stopped.

"Thaathaa, ball please", all of us asked.

"cricket vilayaada edame illaya da ungalukku? poi mydhaanathula vilayaadunga" said the Thaatha, and they took the ball and dispersed.

Tweet