The reason I havent posted in such a long time is that I havent been particularly inclined to. Nope my laziness is not to blame this time, neither is the fact that the rest of the summer in Buffalo hasnt been all that great - although I did manage some fun - in the form of a road trip to Toronto and the interiors of Canada, a Dream theater Concert,and other assorted goody bags.
Anyway, the one thing that have done this summer is play. And this has included playing cricket after a long long gap of 6 years. Did mighty well in an Independence Cup that was hosted here by the Buffalo Cricket Club too... team reached the semifinals ...
Now I have always wished I was born a few months earlier than I was. Primarily because I was born on the 8th of November 1983 and when all and sundry talk about that glorious day in the summer of 1983 a sudden whimsical feeling of having just missed the party takes me over. This isnt helped when the all and sundries turn to me with sudden spastic jerks and a quizzical looks and ask "Ai you ...werent you born in 1983???When When..?" And I morosely say
"Novemebherrr..."(sigh)..and they go "heh heh nobhembar...heh heh.. its ok its ok".. Well.. I tell you...it wasnt my fault!!
So I wasnt going to miss my chance was I. It wasnt going to help that I am now in the US, where cricket only reminds people of a screwed up cell phone company. Well thats not really a hurdle for us battle hardened desis.
My roommate being the diehard cricket fan that he is, has at his disposal several pirated links to internet TV channels that show "near live" cricket. Albiet this invloves a fair amount of surfing obscure sites and clicking on highly suspicious links that read "100% wokring link - Inida v Pastkan" and a lot of work for the badgered Norton firewall.
There s also the small matter of the time difference. Although by a chance that can only be called divine... this one happened to fall right between the time we wake up to the time we finally trudge away to our respective labs - 8am to 1130 am. Although we dont really wake up at 8 in the morning. But 2 hours of sleep is a small sacrifice to make...
In any case there we were in front of the laptop, refreshing pages furiously, with the Norton Firewall popping up compulsively with messages warning us of malignant attacks on our computer. Finally one that worked. Sit back and watch India ride on Gautam Gambhir... to a measly total. Yuvraj looked, for once, like he would rather be hacking at trees in his father's timber farm. The pakis bowled superbly - but I wasnt here for that..
A break between innings. Morning ablutions hurriedly gone through. Much more comfortable as India starts bowling.
Good bowling by India. Robin Uthhapa throws one that rattles and thats the first twist of the game. Nazir walks...pretending his ass off to limp as much as possible. Crowds at home are baying for his blood...or will be. It all goes quite nicely for some time. Sreesanth is taken over by the ghost of the careless zulu hunter whose spear misses the cheetah and is killed consequently and devoured(millions of years ago). RP Singh bowls a spell worthy of Waqar Younis (when he was good). Goodshit!!..India seem to have it in the bag at 16 overs. And then the net konks off. Channels are all down. One channel streams sporadically once in an over. Cricinfo is typed, and score board refreshed feverishly. Turns out our almost live "net"cast was a couple of overs late!!. Cricinfo updates us. We see 5 "six"es in bold while cursing the Gods of the net channels and scamming over the Cricinfo page. Damn!..Looks like we ll lose after all... all the my bragging plans crash onto the hard earth...so much for all the yarns that I had weaved for posterity of me being there when India won the world cup (so what if it was t20!!!! they may never win a real one and I m not gonna let that stop me).
In any case another six is hit with a cheesy cricinfo comment right next to it. We are close to being in tears..damn! i should ve just gone to lab early!!...
And then... the net channel crackles to life. We see Joginder Sharma run to the wicket and bowl a harmless ball. Misbah ul haq moves away and plays the same shot that Uthappa played to take India to victory over England not too long ago. Ravi Shastri shouts in excitement... we see the ball loop over the 30 yard circle. We also hear a vague mention of Sreesanth (with the spirit of the zulu hunter)..and the net treats us to a freeze frame...goddam the net!!!...we all are on the fence... refresh refresh refresh...net is mightly slow...cricinfo comes through slowly and we see the first line on the live score board "India Wins by 5 runs".
Sreesanth took a catch running back from short fine leg..
And I will live to brag at many a fireside of this day..I already have my begining.."AAAAAh that september of 2007... "
A month back who wouldve thought.
(the photo's from Cricinfo)
