I’d never been to stadium before to watch any match. For myself being a die hard cricket fan and having played at fair level of standard cricket like Inter NIT for last three years and District level Under 15 in Nepal (nothing exaggeration) this thing kept me hunting for last three years since coming to NIT Rourkela (before that I spent my entire days in Nepal... that should be sufficient to explain my only 3 years old juvenile dream to watch a match in Stadium). Everything started falling in place when few of my friends started planning to watch much anticipated Mumbai Indians (MI) Vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) match at Eden Gardens in IPL IV. I had no reason to refuse to be part of this plan and in fact may reasons to go for it. Some of the reasons being... One of my wish list to watch a match in a stadium, and the match to be played on Sunday of summer vacation, second easy to reach to place (Since I am doing my summer research at IIT, KGP) and the most important one, getting chance to see " The God" playing in a match against my favorite IPL team. These motivations were sufficient for me to say YES to the plan.
I won't bore you with the intermediate events and take you straight to the Stadium. I went to the stadium in KKR Purple Golden jersey to support my favorite IPL team. As soon as I grabbed my seat, the update flashed on the giant digital screen on the ground “MI Won the Toss and Elected to Field first”. I told myself,it’s ok that I’ll have to wait for another one and half hour to see the God bat but no problem, I’ll get to see Gauti play soon (FYI- Gautam Gambhir aka Gauti is my favorite international cricketer currently and that’s the only reason that kept me stuck to KKR despite showing the door to my all time favourite Sourav “Dada” Ganguly). Indeed he came to bat early when Sreevats was run out in the second over. Though Gauti didn’t score much (precisely 8 off 7 balls) KKR looked good for most part of the game till 19th over of 2ndInnings. KKR managed to get 175 in allotted 20 overs. Mumbai started their chase well but KKR kept the required rate of 9 and above and kept chipping with wickets in between. Finally it came to the last over of MI chase and they required 21 runs to win. Anybody who knows cricket understands that 21 runs in one over is a mammoth task, so I was pretty happy that not only I watched the game and big stars but also saw my team win. From inside I was very happy and more so because my three friends who were with me supported MI. But that was not to happen.
Over no. 20 Balaji to Franklin
Ball 1: FOUR, boundary first ball, streaky, full toss and Franklin gets an outside edge as he tries to smack that through cover.
Ball 2: FOUR, four more, this game is very much alive, dropped it short on middle and Franklin went for the pull, went off the top edge and over the keeper's head
Ball 3: FOUR, Franklin's turning it on, full toss outside off and he creams that past extra cover to beat the diving fielder in the deep
Ball 4: FOUR, Streaky, streaky, streaky, three such boundaries this over, full toss outside off, its off the outside edge again to the third-man boundary
Ball 5: 1 run, low full toss and it's driven straight to extra cover, just the single
4 required of 1 and I was literally paralysed.
Ball 6: Balaji to Rayudu, SIX, Ambati Rayudu swings it over deep square leg for a six to seal a thriller.
I was stunned; in fact the whole Eden Garden was shell shocked.
I was minimum of 20m mtrs away from the last ball six Rayadu hit and ball was nowhere near me even after bouncing but the pain that six gave me is simply unbearable. When the ball was hit, I felt Rayadu targeted me only for not supporting MI for entire match... The ball came in a straight line joining me and Rayadu, but just that power was not sufficient behind the stroke and I was saved from Physical Injury... but the injury it caused on my Heart and Mind, is just inexplicable. For a moment I felt like cursing Balaji... but having played so much cricket and knowing the nature of the game, couldn't do that either... All that followed standing still in shell shock, and clapping for Franklin and Rayadu.
I was partly happy to be able to see the greats like Sachin “God” Tendulkar, Wasim Akram, Polock, Rhodes, Kallis,Gambhir and other current stars but I left the stadium and came back to room dejected and because of THAT ONE SHOT… . It was not my day simply because “The God” was on the other side playing against my team. So, it was impossible for me to win, impossible and JUST impossible!!!
