Great Indian Philosopher once said : As long as there is body
there is pleasure and pain. We have to look beyond illusions and break the
chain of pleasure and pain.
If the mind is pleased with praise, it will be displeased with blame .. All
pleasure of the senses and even of the mind are evanescent , but within
ourselves is the one true unrelated pleasure , dependent on nothing .. It is
perfectly free, it is bliss.. The more bliss is within, the more spiritual we
are.
Well I am a big fan of this man but i have to say GHANTAAA!! BOSS WHO CARES WE
WON THE PLATE !!!!!!!!!! There is no greater bliss at this point in time than
winning something after going thru a very very difficult season. Post match
dramas, all those difficult meetings, finally there is something to smile
about, to feel happy about...
Before we get started with match report it is very very important that we
mention efforts made by some of our heroes who played all the matches so far
and got us thru to finals but unfortunately were unable to play today's final
game becoz of some complicated sad rules.
Murli : For him bowling is like cycling or swimming ,, He can just get up from
Bed and not do nothing and bowl as good as anyone we know off. His
contributions are sometimes similar to what great kapal bhai jii did.. One man
bowling and taking wickets match after match after match. He has bowled really
very very well all thru out the season and was a big help in getting us thru to
Finals.
John : He took over as captain when we were losing games continuously. Luck
changed, tables were turned and so far we have won all the matches under his
kaptani.. His contribution in previous game was incredible. It was his match
winning knock along with Pranav which got us through to finals.
Pranav : Apna hero. He has bowled really well in previous games with a lot of
pace and hostility.. Few people could have actually died when he was bowling
those life threatening bouncers & beamers.. His partnership with John in
previous match was super effort and that knock got us thru to finals. He is a
finisher, culminator and sometimes terminator as well.
TEENS AND CRICKET I guess we all remember being teenagers and role
cricket played in our lives.... How during examination we used to be sitting
out in our balconies (during winters) and watch others play cricket.. Somehow
manage to get permission from our parents to go out and play for an hour,, it
always felt like getting out of prison... After one hour would pass by so
freaking fast parents will come to the park and Yell our names .. It used to be
very loud and clear , yet we had the audacity to ignore it completely... Next
time they will be even louder and in my case my father will say " Exam kya tera
bap dega ",,, I would look up to the skies and almost start the conversation as
if God was sitting thr... He will again yell " Upper kya dekh raha hai... Turn
around you swine and tell me who will appear for your exam tomorrow"".. I
always wanted to say "YES why don't you appear from my exam" But I was wise
enough by now to know that would be my last word ever. Than again i would look
up to the skies and ask " Whyyyyyyyyyyyy"" . Why are you doing this to me ,and
what was what you told about Freedom... Freedom of speech, Freedom of
expression and Free Will...From where i am standing it looks like you gave it
all to my father even my share of it ...
Let us see how did some of our friends react, respond when thr parents came
looking for them at the parks/ grounds and yelled ,,, " Come back now Exam kya
tera bap dega" Or " Come back now Exam kya teri Maa degi"
1. Anand/ Ranga / Abhee (All three of them behave in similar manner) : They
will go back without arguing and say " dad/ma i think we have some fundamental
issues to sort out" and after saying that i am sure they would have got nicely
whacked! and all the fundamentals were indeed sorted out...
2. Ravi will be called up : Ravi uppar aao chuu ,, nahi tumy nichai aauu.. let
us decide today once in for all and get over this every day "khat khat"
3. Prashant and Vicky : Before we could utter a word , we will get a whack!!! ,
we will try again and whack again!!! whack !!!!! whack!!!!!!!
4. John : Famous for his one liners will reply " if you had given your exam on
time correctly i could have perhaps enjoyed my game today" ...
5. Murli : I think he will laugh in typical fashion he usually does " tummy ek
dam funny lago"", Murli i think learned later on that you don't laugh at angry
parents..
6. Sid : Fuajee father bap rai bap , if he comes calling him, Sid will peee in
his pants.. absolute wet!!!
7. Rohit : Well if you get late to the ground you get whacked by friends
instead !!
8. Subh/ Pranav/ Ganesh/ Mangesh/Anshuman/Makko : Good boys learnt early that
sulking is part of life and word "FAIR" was meant to be in Oxford dictionary
only.. head down and go back home...
9. Ashish Kaul : Bhai mera bapu aa gaya hai , before he hits me i will go ....
10. Piyush : If you have got pan parag i will come back or no chance....
11. Biju : Come on, Come on... Stay focused, Come on!!
I guess CRICKET did teach us a lot, taught us to be very very tolerant ( Some
of us have doctorate in tolerance now with few Good fellows trying to annoy all
the time). Most of us learned Social Interactions, Idea of co-existence,
sharing, tiny bit of harmony. We learned to accept defeat, accept failures
which is very difficult to learn in any school ... Most importantly with all
those years of sneaking out finally paid-off in last couple of years when we
have won a few tournaments ..
Time for match report...
We have a new captain again since John was not allowed to play this
game...Shubam was given the responsibility for Finals... I think we were
inspired by the move South Africa made couple of years ago by appointing Young
captain and it paid off well and in our case we tried to make similar choice
and it paid off very very well. bahut Bariya bhai Laguna committee which i
think is almost owned by C-company now... I am glad John is still holding one
front else Carlos would have taken over everything.
So it was another Sunday ,, Forecast was heavy rains till three days ago which
quickly changed to very hot and humid weather on the day of the match which
could kill even spectators so you can well imagine state of players... Anyways
it was nice to see all sweet happy faces standing in front of bus... Ready to
play cricket... These bus rides from Laguna to HKU are always interesting.. Thr
was a lot to catch up but time was not sufficient. With Prashant on the bus we
always have interesting stories to listen to.. We all heard one statement i
think 433 times which was " I WAS IN BEIJING AND I GOT A CALL FROM MURLI" ..
Rohit entered the bus at the last minute which was hardly a surprise... We had
good support with the team in Abhee, Murli, Ashu, John, Ankur, Ashish's Son and
his father. Few families will join us later , so basically we had a big
cheering squad.. After discussing few on-going events around the world finally
it was time to play some cricket...
People and kits were off-loaded from the bus and within five minutes of
arriving at the ground everyone was soaked in sweat... With that kind of heat
and humidity players had choice to make either practice before match or sit in
one corner and not do nothing.. Few brave men went ahead with practice.. Next
thing you see Sid coming back from nets to get padded up becoz apparently
Prashant had got hit while batting without pads.. So Ravi didn't get hurt today
before match but Prashant did.. HMMM!! INTRIGUING!! What does that mean, who
will he be our hero today??? Ravi or Prashant.... Getting injured accidentally
before match off-late has proved to be a blessing in disguise.. Somehow getting
hurt before match enhances the performance (i know only about cricket field) ..
You can actually invite this blessing of getting hurt by trying to practice
without pads, gloves, gota guard and so forth.. We have few players in the team
who have tried this formula and performed well..
We are playing against MID-LEVELS, CHAL U League PLATE FINALS Time for toss. By
now i am sure even all the Kids of Laguna also know that we field first. Hope
kids don't misunderstand this as a rule For them it might look like " Game of
cricket starts with us bowling first and batting second & thr is nothing called
TOSS "
Playing XI : Shub kaptan, Sid vice kaptan, Rajesh (Ranga), Ravi, Prashant,
Ashish kaul, Rohit , Mangesh, Biju, Ganesh, Vicky ( Wicket kpr) .. Ranga was a
little late so Murli was sub for first few overs... Shub kaptan takes the new
ball .. Field is all set, Murli is standing at Mid-on to share his wealth of
experience with Shub ,pep him or may be discuss some fabric shipment arrival
dates... Shub starts with beautiful out swinger leaving batsman with no clue
whatsoever... Third ball of the match another fantastic delivery takes the
outside edge and Vicky drops a sitter... And the curse is lifted ??? Very good
sign. Well done Vicky!!! Subh didn't lose heart and came back with fast and
furious yorker directed right into middle stump. Clean bowled, First wicket
down .. Scoreboard reads 1 for 1.. Good start for Laguna... Sid Anna is sharing
the new ball.. Bowls beautiful in-swingers in his first over.. Not satisfied
with good line and length from no-where bowls a beamer... All in all good
effort from him after a long break.Shub on the other end is bowling as good as
it can get.. Batsmen are frustrated as they have not been given any scoring
opportunities. Out of frustration Dericka/Dharam Mid level opening batsman
tries to hit Shub over mid on, loops the ball in the air and Murli the machoo
takes well judged catch who btw was sub for Ranga so far.. Ranga takes the
field immediately after this catch and Murli goes back to join cheering squad..
By end of 8 overs Midlevel is at 34/2.. Time for Bowling change... Ashish kaul
gets the ball. As usual he pitches the ball in good areas.. Once again with his
deceptive pace batsman is lured to drive on the up over mid-off where Anna
takes a very good catch... Very good first over from Ash... Gave away 2 runs
and got an important wicket.. Doubly bowling change.. Prashant replaces Sid and
maaan is he in some form today??.. Starts with a beautiful first over ,, good
spin, good length and batsman is not sure whether to step out or stay inside
the crease.. We have not seen him bowling so well in some time now.. Ashish
from other end is not giving away anything and claiming wicket almost every
over..Prashant not happy with only restricting batsman bowls some very
attacking deliveries claiming two wickets in his third over and two more in
next two overs .. Between Ashish and Prashant 11.3 overs were bowled and each
of them took 4 wickets. Mid-levels were bowled out for a total of only 76
runs.. It was brilliant effort by all four bowlers especially Ashish and
Prashant... Laguna didn't drop anything after that first over curse lifter..
Some fantastic catches were held by Biju (two catches), Shub held on to catch
of the season at Long-on, Prashant held a very good catch at square leg and Sid
got one at mid-off. Ground fielding effort was equally good by all players
especially by Rohit, Ranga, Mangesh and Ravi...
We need only 77 to win. Low scores can be sometimes tricky to chase...
Kato Ganesh opened the batting with Ranga.. Bowling beamer has become a virus
which is spreading faster than swine flu.. Third delivery of first over Ganesh
is hit by beamer directly on elbow. He wisely decides to come out of field and
Prashant walks in with his magic bat oozing with confidence after bowling that
fantastic spell... From that point onwards thr was no looking back.. Both
batsmen were timing the ball beautifully.. Thr is no better sight than watching
Ranga execute those perfect cover drives, absolutely beautiful.. On the other
end Prashant was whacking the ball out of the ground very frequently.. Every
single boundary hit was better than previous one... By end of 10th over we were
71/0 ..
Dharmu is given the ball and Ranga is on strike.. Thr is a history of animosity
in some ways between the two.. First ball from Dharmu, Ranga not able to
control his emotions tries to hit the ball out of the park, ball goes no where
but straight into hands of fielder.. Ranga scored important 25 runs and we were
almost home ... Only 7 more required to win...
Ravi walks in next.. He has been in outstanding form recently.. One of the
reason we were able to qualify for finals was Ravi's consistent performance
with the bat all through out the season for Sunday matches.. It would be ideal
to see him score winning runs but but but he didn't get hurt today Prashant
did... Unfortunately Ravi got out first ball...Finally Prashant scored the
winnings runs in style by hitting the ball out of the ground. We won the match
in 12th over itself... Magnificent effort by Prashant both with bat and ball.
He scored 45 not out and claimed 4 wickets in 5.5 overs..
We could have not asked for better script for finals.. Good team effort in all
three departments of fielding, bowling and batting..
Maaan of Match was correctly awarded to our hero John Prakash..
After game was finished rest of the cheering squad (families) arrived. Sandy
bay ground tour was organized for them by C- company members.. Later on Mr
Nisar presented our captains Murli, Shub and John with the Plate and medals.
John is invisible so you can't see him in the picture :)...
Kaptaan John & Murli would like to thank all the members of team for putting up
a very good show all thru out the season. Both kaptaans are completely aware of
the fact that few players were not given enough opportunities to prove thr
metal.. With so many games coming up for next season we will all get to play a
lot more cricket so no worries at that front...
Special thanks to Ashu Bhatnagar for being supportive on numerous occasions
with sponsors, buses and so forth. He has been a true believer of laguna
irrespective of results and super wonderful company to have...
Don't feeeeeel bad Prashant.. Sorry folks, it was an intentional typo error..
Man of the Match was awarded to Prashant for his outstanding effort...
It was really nice of Anand to welcome the team with beers at Laguna.. Few
drinks and back to routine leaving cricket for weekends only..
Till next match Sayonara !!!! Have fun !!!
LagunaGully Syndicate 2004