"Life is cricket and cricket is life."
To pursue our dreams of an international cricketing career, we started net practice under our coach.
Our 'mock' tournament scores were far from inspiring, however we were determined to stay put. We began net-practicing at nights too.
And our efforts paid off. After clearing the tournament trials, we were there - a member of 'The Team', intricately assessed and assorted.
As we were playing a practice match with the 'opponent team' before the D-day, we felt surprisingly welcomed.
All the 'bowlers' were bowling 'under-arm'. We the 'batsmen' happened to hit 'shots' lofty so much that all of us ended up deluding ourselves as 'the champion of champions'.
The 'hangover' was hardly gone and the D-day was there. We won the toss, chose to bat excitedly and the first innings began.
What we got is labelled in history as 'the pinnacle of an electric shock'.
The loose balls had been replaced by 'bodyline bouncers' - a term we were experiencing before we could understand.
Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, all of them met our disturbing dreams during the rare stupors.
Leave alone scoring runs, the batsmen began to 'duck' frantically, trying hard to save their heads. Everyone, without an exception, was experiencing no third status but a 'clean bowled' or a 'retired hurt'.
End of the first day's play.
We held an 'emergency overnight discussion'. Something happened to come out of it and all hopes were pinned on the 'plan' devised.
The day 2 play began. The bouncers resumed and the batsmen were somewhat ready.
A string of 'paddle sweeps' and 'reverse hooks' got a few runs on the board. Finally, the hope of saving the match had begun to sprout.
It was the turn of the other team to bat. And our short balls and the full tosses happened to meet 'the sweetest spot' of those bats every time.
"Thrashing, bashing, disdain,
The fielders chasing in vain.
The fielders chasing in vain.
Off side or on side,
Taken in for a ride."
In no time, the team declared with a lead of 300+ and asked us to 'follow on'.
We were on the 'back-foot' completely and were starving for some really precious 'runs'.
The opening batsmen began consolidating the 'second innings', struggling to 'googlies' and 'flippers' at times.
The innings saw several crucial 'partnerships'. We were staging a fight-back and the team score was taken to a respectable total, just good enough to make them bat again.
Once the 'grass on the pitch' was gone, it was time for them to 'go for the kill'. Master strokes were played and there was no respite in sight.
Just when a defeat began to look inevitable, that elusive intervention happened.
It had begun to 'rain' heavily and the downpour simply refused to stop.
The match resulted in a 'draw' with both the teams looking forward to 'newer pastures' to play on.
In the post match ceremony, the toss-winning captain observed - The opponent changes, the team members change, but cricket always goes on!!
"Life is cricket and cricket is life, after-all !!"
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