In India, Cricket is not just a sport but it’s a religion. And Sachin is the god. I love the way he bat, scores... it’s absolutely fantastic. But there is another player in the team who inspired me a lot. He is aggressive, danger and the only player who scored two triple centuries in test match cricket for India.
Yeah, It’s Sehwag. I like his aggressiveness, the way he hits the ball for a six and more importantly enjoying the game.
My Journey of Cricket started around at an age of 6, and still its continuing..... I have many more exciting memories in these 18 years. Form those I would like to share some of my experiences with you.
When I was a kid, we used to play with a rubber ball in the streets of our village. If I recollect my past memories with the rubber ball matches, the first thing I get into my mind is the injury to my right hand little finger (It was bent as the ball hits it hardly). As the years pass on, I improved my game and we played with all types of balls (Rubber, Cork, Synthetic, tennis and Glace).
When I was below 15, our team played cricket match with our seniors who all are above 20 (Cork ball match). That day I opened the innings for my side and scored 46 runs in 10 overs with two long sixes
(first time in my life in a 30 yard radius ground) and couple of fours and the team score was 71 at that stage. It increased my confidence levels. I thought I can make history in that match by scoring a maiden 50 against a strong team. But the very next ball I bowled out as the ball passes inside edge of my bat on to the stumps. For a minute, I was disappointed and reached the pavilion. We gave a target of around 130 runs in 16 overs. Our senior team started off with dominating shots. I bowled one over in the middle of the game which turns it our way. I have taken two key wickets which lead to the victory. That was my first major performance.
I had got almost 5 months of vacation before joining the engineering college. I used to play for more than 6 hrs a day at that time. I played with the glace ball for the first time in our engineering college. On December 31st 2003, our class team played a practice match with the CSE team. We batted first and scored 90+ runs. My individual score was 42. Also I took a nice dive catch in the first slip which makes my place in the team stronger. I never looked back again. I opened the innings many times for our team.
In those days, Aus were the number one team in the world and India was the only stronger team next to it. In our college we considered our team as the Indian team and IT team as the Aus team. IT team was very stronger with their captain as he played few matches in the Ranji trophy. He was also the captain and wicket keeper for the JNTU cricket team. We had a tournament in our 3rd year of engineering and IT team were never loosed a single game in their last 16 matches. Everyone in the college thinks that their winning streak was never ending. We had a match with them in the semi finals and 6 of our front line players did not turn up to the match including the captain. We played with a new captain. Some of the players in that team were never played a match in a tournament like this. We bowled first and restricted the IT team for just 90 runs in 16 overs. I opened the innings with my junior at the other end. I have 3 boundaries and got out for a score of 16 when the team score was 32. Every player in that team played very well and scored some runs before they got out. With the collective effort of the team we won the match and created the History. I was excited and no one in our college believed that. The next day, all of our front line players came to us and praised us. It fills the spirits and courage in our team. Finally we lifted the trophy for the first time in the first ever anniversary function of our college.
There was one more match which I cannot forget in my life. I played like DRAVID in that match. I scored just 12 runs in 30 add balls. The target was just 53 but we lost a couple of quick wickets at start. Even though I played the role of
“WALL”, I couldn’t stop my aggression at some point which resulted in a huge six. It was
the only occasion I hit the glace ball out of the ground in a 30 yard radius ground. Could you believe that, I hit the ball out of the ground in PRADEEP’s bowling (Pradeep was a CSE student in our college and my senior in MSIT).
After my engineering I didn’t play cricket for almost 14 months. The second innings started at MSIT with the tennis ball. I have scored my first ever half century here only in just 6 overs (It was such a special day for me as I have celebrated my 24th b’day as well).
At IIIT, we have played with our seniors, juniors, Masters Students and DIT students. The matches which I enjoyed here are the one in which I scored my maiden 50 and the match with MS by research students which we won by a margin of only 1 run. The disappoint thing was, last year we couldn’t play cricket match with JNTU team as our team was not ready to play with the glace ball. I love to play matches with glace ball, but I didn’t get a chance here. This year we got the opportunity to play with the glace ball as part of SPREE event. So, come on boys, get ready for the big match. Hope we perform well and win the match against JNTU MSIT batch.
end of 10th over of the second innings the match was on JNTU team’s side and their score was around 80/2. By the end of 12th over it was 95/3. Now the match turned to our side with an amazing bowling spell by Raghu prashanth and Vamsee. The remaining 7 wickets were fallen for just 20 more runs in 5.2 overs. Raghu played a key role in breaking the biggest partnership and taking wickets at crucial time. So he deserves the man of the match trophy. The Umpires decisions, attitude of the players from both the sides were excellent.
Thanks to all those who came to support us and cheer the team with their presence.
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