That Magnificent Last Over...

Well, I have seen many close matches and played quite a few too. This one is not too different from any thriller. It was some 5-6 years back; I remember our colony (A2A) team for the first time ever participated in a Cricket Tournament. Our's is a wonderful team, a bunch of young and exciting players and our strength was; every single guy was an all-rounder. So, whenever chips were down someone stood up and deliver to the team’s victory. We all believe that we have the potential to beat any side that is there in the Tournament and we can win the event.

We started with a win over C-1(colony), than beat A-3(colony) comprehensively to get into the knock out (KO) stage. This is the stage where one loss would seal our journey further in the Tournament. The one thing, which influenced us, was that each one of us was in form, which already proves in the League stage. Therefore, we are very confident going into the KO stage. However, as they say cricket is very funny game and any team can beat any one on any given day or any batsman can be out on duck after scoring century in a previous match. We have to play three matches in the KO stage i.e. Quarter Final, Semi Final & the Final. This one is the Q/F against A-1 (colony), a team who is coming to Q/F after wining both of its matches in the League stage and crush the tournament’s hot favorite A-4C (colony). We knew each other very well as A-1 is our neighbor society. Moreover, we played against each other almost at every weekend and familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknesses’.  Therefore, it was actually a test for the both sides as who can sneak through to other’s week area and go to the Semi’s. We were always the dominant side against them, so, knowing that we were actually a bit complacent and relaxed too.

We won the toss and have no hesitation to choose batting first as this is what we normally does after wining the toss. It was a 15 over match with bowling limits of 4,3,3,3,2 (means only one bowler is allowed to bowl 4 over’s and three can bowl 3 a piece with fifth bowler can bowl only two.) The batting advantage is for first five over’s. We never plan or assign any kind of role to any player, simply because no one cares. However, one thing that we certainly adopted specially in the tournament was to utilize those batting advantages of first five over’s. We have a real bad start in this game, the ploy of using those first five over has hit us back, in the attempt of scoring quick runs we lost three wickets for not much on the board. Finally, we ended our inning scoring a mere 88 in 15 over’s.  This is one of my off days with the bat, as I scored just two. This is the lowest total in the tournament but lasted until our innings, and we were for the first time looked worried and puzzled. On the ground where every single team scored more than 120 with ease we were restricted to a lowest total courtesy some poor batting by our batters, though A-1 did not bowl too well.   

Now, we have a job in our hands and a toughest challenge to stop them chasing those 89 runs. We do not have a good start like them but we manage to pick up two wickets for not many. As I said I have an off day, I proved the fact by giving 10 runs in my first over. We were always in the game as A-1 is not all run away from us. We manage to pick up two more wickets approaching 13^th over. The game is getting very excited, as they need some 14 runs in the last two overs. Now we were in bit of a dilemma as to who should bowl those two over’s, the bowling restriction only increased our problems. Both of our economical bowlers of the day were already finished their quota. Therefore, it was up to me and any one given our all-round abilities. I bowled the penultimate over giving away nine runs without picking any wicket and was very disappointed with my effort.

Now, the big question, who should bowl that last over without giving away five or even four runs,. Moreover, the batsman who is actually on the strike was one of their openers and was scoring freely. After a short meeting, we choose Tarun to do the job for us. It was indeed a brave decision because he has not bowl in the entire tournament, neither is he given bowling when we play together nor we trust him on his bowling abilities. Therefore, here is a chance for him to become a hero. Therefore, here he was, First bowl play and miss, the batsman swings hard and misses the bowl completely. A dot ball to start the final over. Now, five from five balls’. Second ball, he swings the bat again this time he connected and ball comes straight to me and I dropped a sitter, straight in straight out, and they sneak a single.  An off day for me. Third and fourth bowl he manages to deliver without conceding any run. It is still four from two balls. Every one of us are nervous, yet excited, we all have Goosebumps I believe. Though for me the situation is far too bad, I was praying hard for the win. Otherwise, I know every single teammate will going to kill me for that drop catch. Remember he was the person who is there right from the very first ball and actually do the bulk of the scoring.

The penultimate ball and played down to the mid-on for one. Now, the equation is three runs to win or two runs to tie from one ball. I was actually feeling more pressure than Tarun, I bet. Their opener is back to the strike for one final time, and honestly speaking I reckon 40-60 in their favor. However, Tarun absolutely have no second thought on our win. He bowls a slower one (off-cutter), which came back in nicely and hit the top of the middle stump. AND WE ACTUALLY MANAGE TO BRING OUT THE WIN FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT. Tarun is becoming a hero for all of us especially for me. He saves me from all those humiliation I could have earn due to “one of my off day”. :P. Moreover, we go on and winning the tournament too all because of THAT MAGNIFICENT LAST OVER.