Story c39_0823|Born to Fight for Success - A Journey with SA Redbacks, Innings 2 of WW Vs SA FC

[shalin_hitter]

20-30 from me.

 

[age of the fall]

20-30 for me too my friend. No offense, of course :P

 

[Highlander999]

F) 75+ I believe in you Suren

 

[treva]

Im going D) 40-50. I reckon caught on 43...

 

[saladguy]

C) 30-40 runs

You will be bowled, offstump on 37

 

[MWaugh]

A) Mate - 5 runs

 

[Left_Hander]

D) 40-50 runs

I reckon you'll just fall short of your half century.

Don't be too nervous and good luck!

 

[surendar]

(7b) Tamil Nadu vs Maharashtra - Lunch Time Update, Day 1.
​

May 03, 2009
Time - 10:10 AM​

As I was on the non striker's end, I was just monitoring the field settings and my partner, Mukund got ready to face the first ball. I don't even have any clue on Maharashtra players, hence I found the bowlers' name from the umpire. It was Fallah it seems. He was a left arm quickie. I saw that left arm bowler running fast and furious at Mukund. On seeing his runner up, I found something tough to swallow in my throat. : " Tension!! Tension!!! Tension!!!! ", is what we can call it.

The very first ball swung a bit away from my partner who was left handed batsman. I was bit surprised to see the swing as it was a flat pitch. Then I thought within myself that this pitch might be very crucial for the bowlers during the first hour. The very first over ended up as the maiden over. I walked to my partner and asked, " Was the ball moving too much? ".

Poor Mukund just nodded in dilemma and said, " Be Careful and alert, don't loose your focus. The ball is just as fast as wind. ": This made me even more tensed. I thought, " Already I was in tension.. Can't he try to soothe me and raise confidence in new comer.. What a partner I have with me at the crease!"

I uttered my prayers and took the guard. I took the middle stump guard. It was some right hand bowler. I don't know his name Then umpire gave some indication, " Dole coming over the wicket " to me and I realized that his name was Dole. :cool:

First Ball as a TN Cricketer!

How many debut players have got dismissed
in their FIRST ball? :what :confused: ​

With the prayers getting still uttered in my mouth, I saw Dole charging towards me. He had a quite long runner up. My eyes were just looking at the red color ball in bowler's hand. He came quite furiously and delivered with good pace.

My eyes were just focused on the red color round.. but within a second, the ball reached my toes.. I tried to defend, but I failed to make any contacts with the ball. Immediately I heard a huge shout from the bowler.

I stood confused.. When I searched for the ball, it was somewhere near the stumps.. The bowler was shouting deep from his throat. My face turned pale and it started sweating.. My eyes were on umpire's eyes and hands. Fortunately, umpire did not move a inch. :happy

I was able to feel a sudden wave of relief in my heart. I looked at the clouds to thank God for being fortunate enough. Bowler shouted at me in Hindi. I did not understand though. I was then trying to settle my mindset for the next ball.

" What a ball to start my Tamil Nadu Career? Whooooooooof! ", my mind said to me.

Replay of My First Delivery!

It is animated.. So please wait for sometime to load.
Thank you for the patience. :cool:
If the image is not loading, here is where I have uploaded,
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/389/animatedhawkeye.gif
​

The replay also seemed to go with the umpire's decision. The ball was marginally missing the leg stumps. I was aware that ball was having a good amount of swing. All I know was, it pitched near my toes. The replay was suggesting that, the ball had pitched between middle and leg and was swinging to miss the leg stumps very marginally.

Well, I felt more thankful to God after knowing that it missed the stumps very marginally. Because, in most of the scenarios, umpires that too Indian umpires are likely to raise the hands in quick succession. " Whoooooooooooooooof! ", my mind sent another sign of relief wave inside me.

So Much Struggle, Do I know batting in First place?:

Really, the bowler was too frustrating to bowl
too many good deliveries. ​

Then the deliveries which came in from Dole as well as from Fallah were just confusing me. I was trying too hard to make my bat to touch the ball but it was not happening only. Mukund was also struggling in other end. However I convinced myself by thinking that the pitch was offering a good support to the bowlers during the first hour of play.

Also, I brought the first runs for Tamil Nadu.. :happy But to be honest, it was not that great to be happy of! It was a leg bye : which forced me to face Fallah too. I found bit difficult to adjust to the left arm bowler .. He was also fast and furious. With great difficulties I was surviving there.

Some yorkers were fired. I was bending my back to defend those and kept my eyes wide open! Have you ever heard of batsman bending his back? You can see it here! : Some bouncers/short pitched deliveries were also fired. I was just leaving those for the keeper to have some catching practice.

In one of the occasions, bowler just came near me and told something in hindi. I didn't even get a single word! I just ended up in giving a stare. Nothing much I could do about it though. " You are a newbie here! ", this kept on popping in my mind.

Unlucky Mukund, I loose my first partner.

I pity my partner who was also struggling in other end.. Overall,
We managed to keep the scorecard in check WITHOUT MOVING! : : ​

It was Fallah who was bowling to Mukund. He(bowler) attempted his first slow delivery of the day. May be Mukund would have thought of that as a golden opportunity.. which forced him to go for a huge hit.. But I just pity my partner since he was completely decieved.

Mukund did not make any contacts with the ball and the ball struck the stumps. My partner was clean bowled. This scene created much more pressure in me. " When a experienced player itself is not finding any clue, How am I going to manage these bowlers? ", I thought!

Badrinath arrived to the crease with the cool mindset. " What is strange in this pitch? ", he asked me. I explained all the difficulties which myself and Mukund were facing. " After some minutes, the ball will get soften and will come on to bat nicely.. Lets go for a hunt, confidently! ", Badri said to me. Those words were like a confidence booster to me.

Dole's Impressive over.

The bowler was FULLY charged! :​

I was alerting Badrinath about the bowlers. I was explaining how quick the ball was coming to the bat and the line/length tried by those bowlers. In particular I was explaining about Dole.

That bloke(Dole) looked completely dominative. " Lets be bit more patience. I know that kept-in check scoredcard has to move.. but those guys are firing too much. As you said, lets wait for the ball to get soft a bit and then we can take the control from them! ", I said to Badri during one of the over breaks. Barinath was also advising me few points for tackling the situation and we were so keen to keep the scorecard moving.

Still Not in Rhythm?

​

Since we were so keen to keep the scorecard moving, Badri took the initiative. He started to smash some deliveries blindly and aggressively. I was just enjoying and watching the ball hitting those fences. Badri took the complete control and was in nice rhythm in scoring runs which helped in moving the scorecard. Even the spinners were introduced as Badri took on the pace bowlers with aggression.

Though he was in nice rhythm, I still struggled to get that fluency. Seeing at my struggle, on many occasions, Badrinath came to me and gave plenty of advises. I took all of those seriously and was making sure that my bat was make contact with the ball without fail. In one of those attempts, the ball went flat in the air to the fielder but I was lucky enough that his dive was not timed properly.... And it just resulted as a good stop instead of a great catch!

I also had another life where I was almost run out. Thankfully, the ball did not hit stumps directly. If it had hit the stumps, I would have gone by miles. Everytime I got these lives, I thanked God for make me fortunate enough. I also received series of advises from Badrinath who was on nice song. He kept the momentum going and the scorecard started to move with good pace from the boundaries of Badrinath.

:happyI can also Hit Boundaries! :happy

Though I did not bat aggressively and fluently like Badrinath,
I tried my best! ​

It was Dole who was having a quite long spell. In one of the deliveries, he attempted a short pitched delivery. This time, I made my mind, " do or die " and went for a pull shot. The shot timing was not that perfect but it was sufficient enough to land in no man's area and reach the boundary!

" Whoooooooooooooooof, I got my first boundary! ", another sign of relief wave just passed in me. Badri gave a warm handshake and said, " Thats it.. You can continue the same.. Its time for us to attack! ".

Though he expected me to be aggressive, I was just quite contented in giving the strikes to Badrinath. When spinners were bowling, I found somewhat difficult to judge the turn of the ball. However with great difficulty I tried my best to carry on the momentum along with Badrinath.

I also played couple of great shots against Dole. One of those was a controlled pull shot. I found the ball coming towards me at the slower pace and I did not fail to utilize that chance. I managed to have a good contact with the ball.. In fact ball struck the sweet spot of the bat & I only enjoyed the ball going to fence. I gave a sarcastic nod towards Dole.. It was the same Oole who sledged something in hindi during the initial overs.

Badri, A Good Supportive Partner Celebrated his Fifty!

What a Heroic Performance he had? :hpraise
When will get my time to perform like that? ​

What can I say about this Badrinath? He was simply superb with his bat. He was also very helpful to me as well. The bowlers never found an answer to this Badrinath. When he raised his bat to celebrate his fifty, the TN dressing room gave a standing applauses. Really, What an extraordinary performance!

I was sure that if Mukund had stayed at the crease, either I would have got out or we would have continued the struggle.

I survived the Whole Session!

I myself cannot believe this!
:::​

It was just an over before the lunch time, Badri celebrated his fifty. I faced the last over before lunch and I did not make any risky attempts in that last over before lunch. I was quite contented that I have spent so much time at the crease - A FULL SESSION!

It was surprising that I am still at the batting crease. To be honest, it was only during the lunch time, I noticed my score. It showed me, 25 runs. I did not realize the time that went ... all because of Badri's aggressive innings which made the time too to run fastly.

Well, we walked towards the dressing room and we did receive applauses.. but all of those were for Badri's outstanding innings. Coach came out and gave warm greetings to Badrinath.. I heard him saying, " You are a champ, my boy! ", to Badrinath. How nice it would be for Badri to hear from his coach's mouth.

I quietly went into the dressing room. Though I struggled, I did fought hard and managed to survive the entire first session of Day 1. When I was thinking about the things happened, coach came to me!

" Well Suren.. Firstly you did a fantastic job in giving a good support to Badri.. but you still need to improve in certain areas.. Especially in self confidence level. You make sure that, you go to batting crease with clarity in mind. Forget everything expect the fact that you are there to rule the entire ground. Try your best and do your best! You can do it.. Good luck for the next session! Have a light lunch now. ", coach said to me. :cool:

Situation At Lunch.

I faced 80 balls? : ​

Well, with first session going somewhat ok for me, how well should I prepare myself for the next session? Coach's words were definitely a confidence booster to me. But I have to make sure that I don't end up in doing something silly! :upray

All I thought was, " You can do it...... "

 

[Kiko_97]

Come on Suren. Keep up this batting up and the runs will come soon enough.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Brilliant update Suren bhai. Brilliant gfx and brilliant writing. Looking like you started of nervously but good to see you score. Badri came after you and score double the runs and faced less number of balls.

Well animated hawkeye is loading just half for me. dunno why?

 

[surendar]

Brilliant update Suren bhai. Brilliant gfx and brilliant writing. Looking like you started of nervously but good to see you score. Badri came after you and score double the runs and faced less number of balls.

Well animated hawkeye is loading just half for me. dunno why?

Can you check it now? I have uploaded it again. Also I have given the link for the image straight incase if the image is not loading for the users.

Also it's nice to know that this story has crossed 100 posts. :happy Thank you for the support guys.. Thanks a trillion! :happy

 

[age of the fall]

Its loading good for me, great graphics work Suren! Stay at the crease and your runs will come, Century on Debut?!

 

[westindies2007]

WHat a Story, Mindblowing :happy:happy

 

[Highlander999]

You sure you aren't trying to be like Dravid? I pity the bowlers you must be boring them to sleep

 

[westindies2007]

You sure you aren't trying to be like Dravid? I pity the bowlers you must be boring them to sleep

LOL 25 from 80.
at least he survive