Its RED...

Standing in epicentre of an almost oval ground, gazing at the floodlights of MCG in the horizon and cursing thyself for not getting a cap to cover my precious portion of the body from the scorching sun, I was feeling a sense of excitement. Yeah, for the first time I was feeling what it is to play cricket in a proper artificial grass-laden pitch in Melbourne. To be frank, this was my first tryst with proper leather-ball cricket.

For all these years, I have seen, played, won, and lost umpteen soft-ball cricket matches. Be it the gully in front of our home or the engineering college ground or at the corporate level in koramangala. In Bangalore, I was a bit afraid to play hard-ball cricket and also did not get the right opportunity todo so.

But yeah, I have done it down under in a proper 40-over a side match. Minutes before the game, I was twisting, twirling the red cherry with such ease, that the captain of the team would have felt, I wasn’t novice. Hence, he offered me to stand at slips. Vary of the bowlers speed, I rejected it and instead chose a position right in front of the striker square of the wicket. Not sure, if I felt aka jonty or yuvraj. But when I did occupy my position, I regretted my choice.

For 20-odd balls, ball was not amused with me. But, when it did, I felt the ball. Yep, it was RED and more RED on my fingers. In softball cricket, thrust is on my fingers to catch the ball and I used todo with ease. When I did it with hardball, the thudding experience was more painful than enthralling. My right-handed fingers just couldn’t handle it and there they went off expressing their ire on me by going RED and appealing me to catch the ball by palms. Lesson well-learnt but with bruised fingers though.

Sunglasses are a must here, moreso in outfield. Just when, I was feeling comfy with fielding the ball and throwing back, was asked to bowl. Wat the heck!! My physical height always gives an impression that I can bowl, but I wanted to bat though. Now, I did not have a choice and also I wanted to see how it feels like bowling in an artificial grass-laden 22-yard pitch.

After measuring my short-runup, when I did bowl the first ball, it was whacked for four on the leg-side. Watta an auspicious start!! I just had bowled a short-ball. My childhood mate just spoke to me for a moment and gave some tips for howto bowl the line in a grass-laden pitch. Pitch it straight, pitch it in the line of three stumps and allow the ball todo the rest. Simple, aint it!!

The onus was on the seam of the ball. Since it was a brand-new ball, pitching the ball on the seam would generate the necessary swing of the grass. Well, I hadn’t tried swing before, it’s just the theoretical knowledge and anyways I wasn’t controlling the swing. The allocated 6-over was finished off in 2 spells, with not much glory or disappointment. To my joy, I felt the swing from the grass whenever the ball pitched on the seam. Bingo!!!

Bowling and fielding for 40-overs in an open ground is tiring. The saving grace was the breeze running right across the face. Such a reliever!! Relaxed I was to get back out of the open ground after the first innings.

Few mls of Gatorade and shade had relaxed me quite a bit while my team started to take on the opposition bowling. I was enjoying the game, chatting with fellow members and cheering.

Finally, the moment came, when I was asked to pad-up. This had to be the defining moment of the weekend, for I hadn’t hooked on the pads or the gloves, till date. And, I was (yep was, not now) supposed to be a cricket fanatic.

Zero- experience doesn’t mean zero-knowledge. First I hooked on the body-guard (OK OK, I had got a new one), then the thighpads. It was an amazing experience as I was feeling secure with the life-saving armoury. The pads, armguard and there I was ready for the battle.

Just when I started virtually playing the shots in air with the bat, I was hitting my pads- “thud” “thudder”. Yikes, what a difference playing with the pads and without. Good that I noticed it, away from the pitch. As I sat there, dreaming that the camera spotlight would be on me and the commentators would be saying “Prakash is padded up and could be the next person to come in and have a blast”. The dream was crashed instantly when someone yelled “Next batsman”.

Selected the matching gloves and when I started pulling it along, was feeling more enthralling, that my knuckles were also saved from whizzing ball. It was short-lived though. When I picked up the bat, my grip on the bat was gone. If commentators had to comment they would have said,” Look at that, he is yet to learn holding the bat and is ready to face pace bowling.”

Fortunately, when I had to get in, there was a drinks break. Hence had ample time to feel comfy with attire. Then started searching for a proper helmet which could fit my huge head. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one. Then convinced myself that noone would bounce the ball to my height :-)

Now the funniest part of the whole show. Started walking towards the pitch and I started feeling a hitch in my thighs. Yikes, how embarrassing!!! Then gracefully adjusted the guard to suit my running. Thoughts of me making fun of sachin, whenever he adjusted himself crossed my minds. Payback time :-( Walking with that huge pads was like crawling. Ghossh.. such a transformation and so less time. Since the oppostion were Oz people, any hint of uneasiness would have made them think of me like a “bunny”. And, I did not wanted that.

First ball I faced, just came whizzing in offside, the max I could do was push my frontfoot and go for a forward defensive shot. No contact with the ball. 3 balls gone and still no contact with the ball. I was confused as I was guaging the line of the ball and I wasn’t making contact. Over done and I had survived. Fortunately, when I spoke to my childhood mate, what was going wrong, he only had to say “don’t expect the bounce of tennis ball here”.

Common Sense, yeah!! I wanted to get on the strikers end and play more. The very next ball I got it. And I started comfortably running with the pads on the whole 22 yards :-) . Took my stance for pace bowling. The ball was in the same offside good length line. Yippie, the ball hit my bat and the loose grip I had, made the bat to swirl. Anyways, I was happy that there was some contact. Adjusted my hand-grip for better shotmaking.

The next ball, the ball perfectly hit the middle of the bat and there it was the pleasant sound, which I always wanted to hear. The eloquent sound of a “thud” on the meat of the bat. Yippie, first runs and elated I was.

Few overs went by, coupled with swing and miss, the “thudding” music and confidence was growing. Believe me, getting a proper front-foot shot on the offside over covers is pure elegance and when you get it after a lot of effort, you feel the pleasure of relaxing in cloud nine. While every damn offside shot is cheered, any shots on the on-side is more “OK” kinds than “wow” kinds.

As I started feeling the know-hows, I wanted to face more pace than spin. The batting against pace is more elegance, timing, placement.

The ball is always in the mid or off stump corridor and if u miss, you are gone. Also, it gives you chance to run it down or try a few a elegant looking front-foot shots. Just when I started to move my front-foot along the line of the ball and gauging the distance from my leg to the bat, a not-so pacy ball just hit on the mid-stump line came whizzing past on the off and I was caught hold on the crease without much movement of the legs. There it was, the most unplesant sound any batsman can hear, the “phattaar” sound of timber followed by a “Ohhhh”. When I looked back, the off stump was knocked off the ground and slept about 3-feet from where it was standing.

And believe me, walk back from the pitch after getting bowled is the most frustrating thing.

Anyways, it wasn’t a disappointing first time effort and considering I was playing with seasoned players no regrets. But I am seriously regretting having played it on Sunday. I am feeling every body part as I work in office today.

Few swollen fingers, bruises and tightened right arm shoulder. Yet, I am waiting for the next Sunday..

Cheers…