Hi Cricket Lovers,
Welcome to the first match between the Warriors and Predators. This match is
going to be played at none other than the “Home of Cricket” Lords in England!
This is certainly going to be legen (wait for it as i rub my hands and scratch
my forehead – and thinking about a certain Barney Stinson in How I Met Your
Mother) dary entertainment.
It is slightly overcast today. The pitch looks wet. There should be movement
for the bowlers early on but the ball should come on to the bat after the early
spell. The commentators suggest that the team winning the toss should bowl
first (My father does not care what the commentators say and gives a frustrated
look when I tune on to pre match shows with blabbering commentators with such
immense interest).
The captains are getting ready for the toss with Ramiz Raja. Gilchrist calls
heads and heads it is! Gilchrist says he will bat first. Ramiz (who was one of
the commentators who had suggested that the toss winning team bowl) appears
startled as he asks Gilly for the reason behind the decision. Gilchrist says
that he is firm believer in the traditional philosophy – “Win the toss, bat
first, post some runs on the scoreboard first”. Warne beams childishly as he
walks towards Ramiz and shamelessly says Gilly is his best pal after all!!
The umpires come out to the middle joined soon by the Predators. The
Predators look energetic and excited as ever and would look to start well. The
Warriors openers come out to the middle with a huge roar. This could be because
of the more number of English players in the Warriors team and obviously the
stylish flamboyant opener Marcus Trescothick. Trescothick has been in good form
recently but has a bad habit of feeling outside the off stump during the early
part of the innings. Gilly, however, does not have to worry about that, when he
gets going he is one of the most dangerous batsmen of all time and still he is
so modest about himself. That is the best part about this guy. Irfan Pathan has
the ball in hand. He would really enjoy the conditions, especially the ball
which comes back sharply into the right handed batsmen which flummoxes them
completely.
The crowd goes wild as Pathan steams towards the crease to bowl the first
bowl of the match. It lands full on middle and bends outwards towards the
slips. Gilly defends it with the full face of the bat. After bowling three
similar kind of deliveries Irfan drifts on to Gilly’s pads. He lofts it over
the infield and into the boundary ropes for a two bounce four. Irfan shakes his
head. He knows he cannot get away with it if he bowls such a line to this
legendary Australian batsman.
The next over is to be bowled by the master of line and length and one of
the best fast bowlers ever Glenn “Pigeon” McGrath. Trescothick drives the third
and fourth balls through the covers for two beautiful boundaries. Trescothick
takes a single off the last ball.
In the fourth over McGrath pitches it short. Trescothick goes for the pull
but gets a leading edge. The ball flies towards third man where Niel Johnson
takes a simple catch. The Predators celebrate. Strike One.
Now Ross Taylor comes out to the middle. This man knows only two gears.
First gear in which he almost only defends and fourth gear in which crowds in
the cow corner have to wear helmets and he belts balls down there almost
everytime. Pathan pitches the ball full in his third over and Taylor
nonchalantly deposits it into the stands straight back down the bowlers head!
Is he using the second/third gear today?? Predators beware!!
The Predators bring Pollock, the South African miser, into the attack. He
bowls an unplayable delivery to Taylor in the fifth ball but Taylor nicks it as
he was unfortunately in good form. This brings the South African rock star cum
pin up boy AB de Villiers (and my favorite player, there will be more on that
later, sorry) into the middle. Pollock surprisingly pitches short and AB pulls
it over midwicket for six (and this is not because he is my favorite player, it
happened guys!!).
The Predators captain now decides to bring the best leg spinner ever into
the attack (by the way, that is himself). The field is up. Gilly swipes the
first two balls into the midwicket stand. After getting hit for two sixes by
someone as dangerous as Gilly, any bowler starts losing it thinking how he is
going to make mincemeat out of him. But surprisingly there is an evil gleam in
Warney’s eyes. He is a supremely shrewd, witty customer and he knows what he is
doing. He gives his third ball even more air. Gilly dances down the wicket
plotting to deposit it for another maximum. But alas it was the wrong one. Andy
Flower makes no mistake and takes the bail off. “Better luck next time kiddo”
says Warney as Gilchrist starts the long journey back towards the pavilion.
Johan Botha comes in next; perhaps the Warriors think that some stability is
needed in the middle. But Saqlain Mushtaq, the next bowler and the inventor of
the famous doosra, induces a leading edge from Botha as he tried to tuck
the ball towards the leg side for a single. After 8 overs the score reads 54-4.
The Predators are on top now. For the next 5-6 overs the batsmen try to repair
the damage with a cautious approach the only highlight being the trademark
reverse sweep by the unorthodox Morgan to a Saqlain delivery in the 13th over.
After 14 overs the score is 90-4. In the 15th over, Eoin Morgan hits a shot
which might not enter a coaching manual even in the year 2030. The ball from
Neil Johnson is full and just outside off stump, Morgan turns his wrist almost
magically and turning the bat face towards third man helps the ball towards
third man. Mind boggling indeed!! But in the same over he perishes trying a
comparatively orthodox shot towards midwicket and is caught in the deep.
On comes Lance Klusener to join AB perhaps still in his second gear (some
criticize him for being too slow to get going which is true sometimes). But
Klusener seems in a different mood as he trashes two innocuous balls from Robin
Singh towards the cover boundary like a tracer bullet (sorry Ravi Shastri, I
can be a copy cat sometimes – actually almost every time, ahem).
In the next over AB decides to shift gears (I dozed off, in my dream I was
perhaps driving a car, or maybe AB was). He deposits Warney over the midwicket
boundary and a beautiful flowing drive through the covers. Klusener and AB
murder Gayle (a surprising choice for the 18th over) by slogging him all over
Lords.
In the last over Klusener departs as the wily Pigeon hits the blockhole and
uproots his middle stump. But in the last ball the young Keiswetter out thinks
McGrath and paddle sweeps a definite yorker down to fine leg. The total is
175-6. They really went after the Predator bowlers in the last five overs. AB
stays unbeaten on 80 (my favorite player -don’t forget).
Will the Warriors total be sufficient? Who knows? (Actually I know but alas,
you cant ask me.. OK if you insist the Warriors lose, just kidding, ha ha, read
on fellows).
The chase begins. The Warriors stride out to the center. And finally the
deadly duo comes out to the middle, Sehwag the second double centurion in ODI
after the best batsman in the world (Sachin Tendulkar – for non cricket fans –
OK you might ask why Sachin is not there in my T20 teams. I offered him but he
refused. He said he did not like T20 much though he feels proud to captain
Mumbai Indians in IPL. He also has a life and family guys, come on. He
will be back for the ODI and Tests). Sanath Jayasuriya needs no introduction.
He is a master blaster who revolutionized the batting style in the first 15
overs in ODIs.
Lasith Malinga (the bowler who can bowl a yorker even in his sleep after the
opposition batsmen have mixed sleeping pills into his late night tea) greedily
watches Jayasuriya’s toes (which are behind his new terrified Nike shoes)
waiting to bowl a yorker right at his toes (well, wasn’t that obvious?).
However he gets a couple of deliveries off radar and Jayasuriya whips them
towards short mid wicket.
In the second over, the number 1 bowler in the world today, the supremely
stylish fast bowler from South Africa, Dale Steyn bowls a couple of beauties to
Sehwag who nods in appreciation. But the last ball is wide and Sehwag
dispatches it with disdain towards the cover boundary (yes! I did not repeat
the tracer bullet cliche again).
In the 4th over Jayasuriya missed an inswinger from Steyn and is bowled.
This brings Chris Gayle to the stage, sending shivers down bowlers spine
(really Sanjay Manjrekar says he saw the shiver – some shining thing – go
behind Klusener’s neck). Gayle nonchalantly smashes his third ball over mid on
for his first six. The Gayle storm lasts briefly till the end of another over
(in which he plunders 15 runs of poor Malinga and gets yorked off the last
ball). Neil Johnson (one of the most underrated all round cricketers from
Zimbabwe) comes on to the middle and he and Sehwag steady the ship from a
slightly dangerous 50-3 in the 6th over to a much better launchpad of 120-3 in
the 15th over.
With wickets and hand and 56 runs to get off the last five overs, the match
is perfectly balanced but slightly in favor of the Predators. Now Sehwag sweeps
Johan Botha for a six. However Botha has the last laugh as Sehwag holes out to
deep fine leg while trying to go for another slog sweep. Klusener takes out the
slightly rusty Andy Flower next with his dibbly dobblies. In the next
over there is a misunderstanding between Shaun Pollock and the well set Neil
Johnson resulting in an unnecessary run out (Geoff Boycott says – Even my mum
could have run better between the wickets!). Suddenly it is 140-3 in 17.4 overs.
It seems like the Predators are staring down the barrel (this is where I
imagine a barrel stuck in a hill slope at 30 degrees downwards and something
called Predators staring down the barrel, wow! How off the topic, my stupid
mind!). Anyways, coming back to the supposedly tense situation. The equation
reads 36 runs to get off 14 deliveries with 4 wickets in hand (now don’t ask
whose hand, its a metaphor for God’s sake).
Dale Steyn who has been economical till now bowls the penultimate over.
Irfan Pathan who was not incisive with the ball today (due to lack of right
handers when he was bowling perhaps) comes out all guns blazing and hits
consecutive sixes and a boundary in the over and damaging Steyn’s figures (not
his physical figure, really) and his already poor reputation as a death bowler
(dont compare this metaphor with something like death metal please – although
power metal is great – sorry again).
Now its 20 runs to get off the last over. It seems impossible especially
against a bowler like Malinga. But Pollock (he is a bowling all rounder but is
also a very dangerous batsman – once he had to get 36 off last over against New
Zealand and hit 5 consecutive sixes except for the last ball – sad!) manages to
hit a couple of Malinga’s very full (but not yorker length deliveries) straight
over the bowlers head raising hopes in the Predators camp. However he is
unpleasantly mesmerized by a slower ball (another of Malinga’s weapons) and is
caught by AB. Thus now it is 8 off 2 balls. Warne manages to scrape a single.
Its 7 off 1 ball. A six would tie the scores resulting in a super over. The
atmosphere is very tense now (“Atmosphere” gives a horrible terrifying scream
challenging my statement asking me for the hypothesis for saying that it was
tense when it was just a cold evening in London, OK sorry). Its Pathan on
strike for the last ball of the match. Malinga bowls another “almost” yorker.
Pathan drives it straight down the ground. Long on and Long off chase the ball
in vain and its a boundary.
But alas! Its not enough. The Warriors triumph. Agony for the Predators.
Though one team is happy and the other disappointed, they shake hands. After
all its the spirit of cricket that matters (by the way Cricket is not dead, its
just a metaphor again, but you knew that already didn’t you).
Thank You for being a part of this and witnessing the match! I will be on
for more later!
Bye!
Regards,
Fictional Cricket Blogger
Good Effort Pankaj. Keep it up :)
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