From the diary of a cricketer

Today, I think all of India finally saw the rebirth of Yuvraj Singh! Yes, he scored a hundred against the West Indies, and guided India home in tricky situations against Ireland and Netherlands, but the innings he played today was special. He held it together when the team was under the pump. He had been involved in a few terrible mix ups with Gautam Gambhir (one of which finally resulted in his run out), and just as he was getting a partnership going with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he saw the latter fall. India needed 89 runs in 15 overs, and in walked Suresh Raina. His inclusion in the side must have been highly debated, after all Yusuf Pathan does bring in the option of another off spinner, but I think Raina’s ability in the field and the fact that he has a slightly more rational head on his shoulders (PLUS the fact that he plays with Dhoni for CSK) was what played in his favour—and boy did he come to the party! 34 vital runs at an extremely brisk pace, when the hopes of the country wer...

October 16, 2008—Hyderabad U-19 v/s Andhra U-19-- it was one of the most amazing matches I’ve played in my career so far. It had its share of ups and downs, and the match was in itself was a roller coaster ride. Leading up to the match, we had won only 2 out of our four previous games, which meant we were out of contention for a place in the All India nationals. We had come back strongly after losing our first two matches, by beating Tamil Nadu and Goa quite comprehensively. The team had shown a lot of character to come back the way it did. We proved to everyone that we were no pushovers, that we’d give them a run for their money. That side had players who in a couple of years became match-winners, but were at that stage ‘ bachas ’ (as they all like to call themselves). We had only one real ‘established’ player in the side, and that was captain/ wicket-keeper, Sindhuja Reddy. Sindhu was an extremely good captain. She had the ability to get the best out of her players, no matter wha...

‘To walk?’ or ‘Not to walk?’ The debate has been raging for a long time, and I’ve finally decided to have my say. It was only yesterday, that Sachin Tendulkar ‘walked’ after he was given ‘not out’ by umpire Steve Davis when he was caught behind of Ravi Rampaul. The edge was so thin, it wasn’t even picked up on the replay, and there was hardly a noise too—but the Master still walked! Had Sachin stood his ground, and had the West Indians called for a review, I’m assuming they would have lost one (and thus, Steve Davis’ record of 100% correct decisions, this World Cup, would’ve remained). In contrast, two days ago, Ricky Ponting clearly nicked one and was caught by Kamran Akmal- he was given ‘not out’ by Umpire Erasmus. (I personally believe that umpire Erasmus was so shocked that Akmal took the catch he was unable to make a decision!) The Pakistanis reviewed the decision, and replays clearly showed that there was a healthy edge, and Ponting was made to look quite the fool. He justified...

Ever Sunday, at the Keyes High School Cricket Camp, two ‘special’ things happened. We would play a practice match (that varied between 25 to 40 overs),    Mithali Raj (former Indian captain/ India’s highest run scorer in ODI’s) and Nooshin-al-Khadeer (India’s off spinner/ third highest wicket taker in ODI’s for India) would play with us! This was one of those Sundays. We were going to play a 40 over match and I was picked in Mithali di’s team. I was slated to bat at No.3 (if a wicket fell in the first 8 overs); otherwise I’d walk in at No.5 after the likes of Sravanthi Naidu, Sowjanya Nath and M.Shalini. Mithali di and Aruna were all set to open the innings, and almost immediately, I began to pray that Aruna would get out in the first 5 overs—and guess what, she fell off the 5 th ball of the first over! I was excited...Couldn’t hide my smile, even though the team had gotten off to a bad start. My dream had come true. (Well, at least partially—I was batting with MITAHLI RAJ ...

This is something my friend, Ritu, and I did when we were highly inspired/ extremely jobless... Date: 8/3/2011 Place: Deli 9 (lifestyle) Time: 12:03 PM Subject: Political Science Mission: To create a Political Science question paper that does not involve rewriting everything that KK Ghai says! Concept: Ritu Gopal and Ananya Upendran I. Long Answers: Question 1. a) Write a short fiction story on Unit 1. (Caste, Region, Community and Language problems in Indian Politics)                                                                 OR b) Create a comic strip on Unit 3 showing how electoral trends have changed over the years. Question 2. a) On an outline map o...