Thursday, October 12, 2006
Cricketing Moments - Speech 5
I am sure that all of us have had moments of glory while playing our game of choice while in school or college. This is the story of one such moment that happened during a game of cricket which we were playing while in school.
To help you better understand cricket, let me draw an analogy between baseball and cricket. Like in baseball, we have a batsman and pitcher, but the pitcher is called a bowler here. There is a circular field with a rectangular strip, called the pitch, in the center. Both ends of the pitch have wickets (which are thin and 3 foot long wooden poles). The players who are on the field and try to catch the ball are called fielders. The equivalent of a home run is a sixer, which is six runs and if the ball rolls over the boundary line, its four runs. The ways to get out in cricket is similar to baseball. You can get out because of a catch or a run out. Other methods include getting bowled and leg before wicket.
This story has to do with how I scored a direct hit and got a run out which changed our fortune in that game of cricket. The stage was a set with our team trying to defend a small total. The opponents had got off to a good start and had posted a good total with their star batsman firing on all cylinders. I was in the deep position next to the boundary line.
As I was wondering what I would do that evening, while gazing at the horizon, I heard a CRACK! This the kind of crack that would make your head turn. The batsman came forward and swept the ball with a powerful drive. Now the ball was heading towards me with full force, rolling like a truck with out brakes, on a smooth grass surface. On seeing this, I jumped into action and without wasting anytime, headed towards the ball, scooped it up with my left hand. I had to shift the ball from my left arm to my throwing arm, which is the right, in a smooth and well orchestrated move. I did this fast so that I don’t loose any precious time. I aimed the ball at the wickets on the bowler’s end of the pitch and threw the ball with all of my strength.
The ball went sailing on air, while the batsman was nearing the crease, which marks the safe spot. He put his bat down so that he can slide in and score another run. But with just inches remaining for him to touch the line, everyone heard the noise of wickets crashing. This is it…I scored a direct hit from over 100 feet. The ball hit the center wicket sending them crumbling like a pack of cards. The batsman was caught napping. And we had pulled off a good one. This was a turning point in the game.
And what a turning point it was. Phew.
To help you better understand cricket, let me draw an analogy between baseball and cricket. Like in baseball, we have a batsman and pitcher, but the pitcher is called a bowler here. There is a circular field with a rectangular strip, called the pitch, in the center. Both ends of the pitch have wickets (which are thin and 3 foot long wooden poles). The players who are on the field and try to catch the ball are called fielders. The equivalent of a home run is a sixer, which is six runs and if the ball rolls over the boundary line, its four runs. The ways to get out in cricket is similar to baseball. You can get out because of a catch or a run out. Other methods include getting bowled and leg before wicket.
This story has to do with how I scored a direct hit and got a run out which changed our fortune in that game of cricket. The stage was a set with our team trying to defend a small total. The opponents had got off to a good start and had posted a good total with their star batsman firing on all cylinders. I was in the deep position next to the boundary line.
As I was wondering what I would do that evening, while gazing at the horizon, I heard a CRACK! This the kind of crack that would make your head turn. The batsman came forward and swept the ball with a powerful drive. Now the ball was heading towards me with full force, rolling like a truck with out brakes, on a smooth grass surface. On seeing this, I jumped into action and without wasting anytime, headed towards the ball, scooped it up with my left hand. I had to shift the ball from my left arm to my throwing arm, which is the right, in a smooth and well orchestrated move. I did this fast so that I don’t loose any precious time. I aimed the ball at the wickets on the bowler’s end of the pitch and threw the ball with all of my strength.
The ball went sailing on air, while the batsman was nearing the crease, which marks the safe spot. He put his bat down so that he can slide in and score another run. But with just inches remaining for him to touch the line, everyone heard the noise of wickets crashing. This is it…I scored a direct hit from over 100 feet. The ball hit the center wicket sending them crumbling like a pack of cards. The batsman was caught napping. And we had pulled off a good one. This was a turning point in the game.
And what a turning point it was. Phew.
# posted by Kiran @ 11:16 AM 
