I scored 54!
in cricket.
So the day before I played in a tournament organised by the company I work for where I made a cool 54 runs not out in probably 25-30 balls. I even won the man of the match award. Unprecedented. Unbelievable.
Unfuckingwhatthefucktasticallyawesomaliciousinglychutzpahanebulous.
Apparently, I hit 5 sixes and 4 fours. ya.. quite unbelievable. I don't remember ever scoring beyond single digits ever before. unless it was an underarm match against kids younger than me. (oh yes, i remember playing with my younger cousins 15 years ago and scoring 200+. It just so happened that we were playing in our attic, and not on the ground. but hey.. we had 'one tappa out' (one bounce out) as well. so that evens out. i hope. i chose to believe.)
Typically I bowl. More specifically, I don't bat. I suck at batting. My hand-eye coordination is as bad as that of Snake's. Well, at least a snake has the excuse of not having hands. I don't. And yet we languish at the same tail end of team selection. If I and a snake were left last to be chosen in a team, the snake has a better chance - since it can at least slither fast between the wickets.I was a decent bowler. But in cricket bowlers are second class citizens. Everybody wants to be Tendulkar. Who wants to be a fucking Kumble? (I don't follow current cricket so don't know current references.. apart from that guy who is Anushka Sharma's boyfriend.)
Anyways.
For the most part of my last 30 years, I had not played cricket. Mostly because I am not much of a team sports kinda guy. But more importantly, I sucked at batting. As a kid, with my super pester power, I could go and open batting for my brother's team. But I used up the pester power-ups fairly quickly. Soon enough I had to make do and eventually find peace in batting at 7th or 8th position. Which was alright. I was fairly decent in bowling. As long as you have at least one thing going for you, you don't mind playing. So I didn't mind playing if any one asked. I don't remember ever proactively stepping a foot on a cricket field.
Anyways.
The last time I played cricket was around 7 years ago in MICA. I came to bat last. We needed 4 runs to win. We only had 3 balls remaining. The batsman at the other end was begging me to just touch the ball and give him the strike. And I earnestly wanted to honour his wish. He knew what he was doing. I didn't. I trust people who know what they are doing when I don't. I think it is a sound principle to live your life with. Makes life much simpler. It hits off target sometimes. But what the heck. You get to live a lighter life. Imagine a life where you try to master everything that affects your life. It will drive any reasonable person insane; and unreasonable persons to become annoying middle management.
Anyways. So there I was facing the second last ball of the match. Very much a tense situation. All around me were people who took these games seriously. I never could. I pathologically can't. But anyways, I can feel pressure from others who do. So I held the bat fairly high even before the bowler started charging towards me, in anticipation of a hit. The bowler started running up towards the pitch. The tense moment dissolved into a bored moment before it turned into a panicked moment. The bowler had an awfully long run up. By the time he arrived to bowl, my mind was wandering somewhere else. Perhaps to beyond the ground where I had parked my bike and I was wondering if I had parked it on main stand or side stand. If someone was sitting on side stand to watch the match, then it might snap. That would be funny. Fair and funny. I thought. And the ball wizzed past me while my slow reflexes directed my arms in a useless stroke.
"Shit." The man at the other end was visibly crestfallen. But he was trying to be mature. He knew the match was almost lost. But he didn't visibly weep. Anyways. So, I stood facing the second last ball of the match. I was trying not wander. I was trying to keep my eyes fixed on the ball in the hands of the bowler. All through the awfully long run-up, through the weird arm action, through the throw.. and then a blur. I just swung the bat like I knew. The ball went rocketing to the boundary. 4. We had won. No one could believe it then too. It was a bloody lucky shot.
7 years past that match, the day before I hit 5 sixes and 4 fours. All of those can't be luck? Can it?
I have been trying to figure this out. Can it be luck? The god of cosmic accidents (GOCA) has smiled on me on playground for the first time in a long while? I had day dreamed of playing like this a few times. Perhaps GOCA listened to my dreams? to my childhood wishes?
Anyways. What did I do different this time?
I consistently took a small break between each ball that I faced. Partially because of the sweat in my palms and brows. To clear it I had to take a break. So that gave me time to slow down and remind myself to look at the ball. To not wander. So most balls, I was looking at the ball intently.
But that can't be the reason alone. I suck at hand eye coordination and I know it. I tried playing tennis once. I had the fastest serve in the court. But I hardly ever managed to hit a ball coming from the other side. I could look and follow the ball pretty well. But my hands could hardly make sense of the data that my eyes were giving to it. Even in cricket, all that my co not ncentration enabled was a sense of timing. I knew well when to swing the bat. But not how. Admittedly, all my scoring shots were of the same kind. I hit all the sixes and fours in the same place. So essentially, I know one stroke well. and if the ball came favourable for that shot, it would go for the boundary. And the bowlers perhaps were not good enough in figuring out the pattern?
Secondly, there was awesome EDM music in the background. While fielding, I was dancing more often than fielding. At clubs or parties, I dance with a drink in my hand. And I do dance. well enough. and hard. But I never let the drink fall. Maybe through the years, I have inadverently trained myself to be in super control of myself while dancing to dance music?
Maybe the usual absentminded careless graceless idiot turns into a somewhat bearably in-control human being while dancing? i will check out this hypothesis.
Lesson learnt: Listen to music and dance + observe the ball as much as I can.
So the day before I played in a tournament organised by the company I work for where I made a cool 54 runs not out in probably 25-30 balls. I even won the man of the match award. Unprecedented. Unbelievable.
Unfuckingwhatthefucktasticallyawesomaliciousinglychutzpahanebulous.
Apparently, I hit 5 sixes and 4 fours. ya.. quite unbelievable. I don't remember ever scoring beyond single digits ever before. unless it was an underarm match against kids younger than me. (oh yes, i remember playing with my younger cousins 15 years ago and scoring 200+. It just so happened that we were playing in our attic, and not on the ground. but hey.. we had 'one tappa out' (one bounce out) as well. so that evens out. i hope. i chose to believe.)
Typically I bowl. More specifically, I don't bat. I suck at batting. My hand-eye coordination is as bad as that of Snake's. Well, at least a snake has the excuse of not having hands. I don't. And yet we languish at the same tail end of team selection. If I and a snake were left last to be chosen in a team, the snake has a better chance - since it can at least slither fast between the wickets.I was a decent bowler. But in cricket bowlers are second class citizens. Everybody wants to be Tendulkar. Who wants to be a fucking Kumble? (I don't follow current cricket so don't know current references.. apart from that guy who is Anushka Sharma's boyfriend.)
Anyways.
For the most part of my last 30 years, I had not played cricket. Mostly because I am not much of a team sports kinda guy. But more importantly, I sucked at batting. As a kid, with my super pester power, I could go and open batting for my brother's team. But I used up the pester power-ups fairly quickly. Soon enough I had to make do and eventually find peace in batting at 7th or 8th position. Which was alright. I was fairly decent in bowling. As long as you have at least one thing going for you, you don't mind playing. So I didn't mind playing if any one asked. I don't remember ever proactively stepping a foot on a cricket field.
Anyways.
The last time I played cricket was around 7 years ago in MICA. I came to bat last. We needed 4 runs to win. We only had 3 balls remaining. The batsman at the other end was begging me to just touch the ball and give him the strike. And I earnestly wanted to honour his wish. He knew what he was doing. I didn't. I trust people who know what they are doing when I don't. I think it is a sound principle to live your life with. Makes life much simpler. It hits off target sometimes. But what the heck. You get to live a lighter life. Imagine a life where you try to master everything that affects your life. It will drive any reasonable person insane; and unreasonable persons to become annoying middle management.
Anyways. So there I was facing the second last ball of the match. Very much a tense situation. All around me were people who took these games seriously. I never could. I pathologically can't. But anyways, I can feel pressure from others who do. So I held the bat fairly high even before the bowler started charging towards me, in anticipation of a hit. The bowler started running up towards the pitch. The tense moment dissolved into a bored moment before it turned into a panicked moment. The bowler had an awfully long run up. By the time he arrived to bowl, my mind was wandering somewhere else. Perhaps to beyond the ground where I had parked my bike and I was wondering if I had parked it on main stand or side stand. If someone was sitting on side stand to watch the match, then it might snap. That would be funny. Fair and funny. I thought. And the ball wizzed past me while my slow reflexes directed my arms in a useless stroke.
"Shit." The man at the other end was visibly crestfallen. But he was trying to be mature. He knew the match was almost lost. But he didn't visibly weep. Anyways. So, I stood facing the second last ball of the match. I was trying not wander. I was trying to keep my eyes fixed on the ball in the hands of the bowler. All through the awfully long run-up, through the weird arm action, through the throw.. and then a blur. I just swung the bat like I knew. The ball went rocketing to the boundary. 4. We had won. No one could believe it then too. It was a bloody lucky shot.
7 years past that match, the day before I hit 5 sixes and 4 fours. All of those can't be luck? Can it?
I have been trying to figure this out. Can it be luck? The god of cosmic accidents (GOCA) has smiled on me on playground for the first time in a long while? I had day dreamed of playing like this a few times. Perhaps GOCA listened to my dreams? to my childhood wishes?
Anyways. What did I do different this time?
I consistently took a small break between each ball that I faced. Partially because of the sweat in my palms and brows. To clear it I had to take a break. So that gave me time to slow down and remind myself to look at the ball. To not wander. So most balls, I was looking at the ball intently.
But that can't be the reason alone. I suck at hand eye coordination and I know it. I tried playing tennis once. I had the fastest serve in the court. But I hardly ever managed to hit a ball coming from the other side. I could look and follow the ball pretty well. But my hands could hardly make sense of the data that my eyes were giving to it. Even in cricket, all that my co not ncentration enabled was a sense of timing. I knew well when to swing the bat. But not how. Admittedly, all my scoring shots were of the same kind. I hit all the sixes and fours in the same place. So essentially, I know one stroke well. and if the ball came favourable for that shot, it would go for the boundary. And the bowlers perhaps were not good enough in figuring out the pattern?
Secondly, there was awesome EDM music in the background. While fielding, I was dancing more often than fielding. At clubs or parties, I dance with a drink in my hand. And I do dance. well enough. and hard. But I never let the drink fall. Maybe through the years, I have inadverently trained myself to be in super control of myself while dancing to dance music?
Maybe the usual absentminded careless graceless idiot turns into a somewhat bearably in-control human being while dancing? i will check out this hypothesis.
Lesson learnt: Listen to music and dance + observe the ball as much as I can.
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