Cricket – as I played it .. part one

In my teenage years, I swore I’d never do this – say that things were better in my days. However, I often find myself back to my cricket playing days. The world of cricket has changed a lot off late. Apart from the good old 5 day test match games, and the 3 day format, and the 50 over one day format; we now have a 20 over format too – and there are so many new rules. With so many different formats of the game nowadays, there is a lot to choose from today. BTW, for my American friends, who don’t understand cricket, it is a “bit” more complicated than Baseball and it has a REAL “world cup” – where, unlike the world-series in US sports, the matches are played between the top 14 teams from various countries of the world.

My earliest memory of the game is from 1969-70, when New Zealand was touring India and was playing a match in Indore, my home town. Medical college Indore had reserved a pavilion there, and my dad took me to see the 3 day game. I remember G.R. Vishwanath scored a century in that match and everyone around me was praising his game. So, I wanted to be like Vishwanath. I admired the running between the wickets and attributed the speed to the leg guards that the batsmen wore.  Those 3 days started a flurry of cricket activities in my neighborhood, and all the kids were playing cricket (there was no TV in those days – we actually got out of the house to play outdoor games with our friends).

Now my neighborhood was a great place for a kid to grow up. It was a large complex that used to be a hotel complex until the 1940s. The owner sold the place to a Bengali family (Deys), and moved to England. The place was right next to the A.B. Road in Manoramaganj and the new owners promptly converted the place into residential homes. There were about 20 families that lived in that complex of single story homes, with asbestos roofs. It was here that I learned my tolerance for all faiths and cultures – there was a Bengali family,  a Parsi family, three Christian families, a Punjabi family, a Muslim family, a Marathi family.,  Almost all families had kids about the same age, and we all got together to play in the evenings or over the weekends. There were family get together and events were celebrated together.  Anyway, that is for another write up.

Back to 1969…after the game with New Zealand ended (read the score card here), all the boys from the neighborhood would gather outside. There was a small yard between my house and that of a neighbor, where all the boys would gather to play the games. Money was always tight in those days for everyone – and no one had the cash to buy bats or balls. So we did the next best thing – we shared and improvised. I remember the time when no one had a tennis, rubber, cork or leather ball to play cricket – so we made one. We took a near-spherical pebble, surrounded it by lot of vase (which was the term for the fiber used to clean cars in the nearby car-truck garage), and then used strips/bands made from the tube of a cycle tire. The bat would often be the “Mogri”, which was used in all houses to clean clothes.  I was enamored by the game, and started playing it with full earnest. In my free time, when others were not playing cricket, I’d play alone. The homes had sloping asbestos roofs in those days, and I’d throw the ball on the roof, stand ready to hit it when it came down and practiced my shots. Other times, I’d put a ball in a sock, and hang it from a wooden rod outside the house and knock the ball around.

My dad saw my interest in the game. He had played for his school and college teams, and probably recognized the spark first. Or perhaps it was just his desire to get me to do things that I liked. So he got me my first cricket bat – a size 4 bat for a tennis ball. I loved it. Then when I was 9 years old, he enrolled me in the summer camp of Maharaja Yeshwantrao Cricket Club (MYCC), which ran the early morning nets in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The secretary of the club, Mr. Kakirde, was the father of a friend of my father, and kept an eye on me. I’d walk down there from my house – about 1 km away - and play in the nets from 7 AM to 9.30 AM, and then walk back. Sometimes, on my way back I’d stop in the Medical College, where my dad was a professor (a Reader in those days), and have the orderly (Ram Chandra) make me some Chai with condensed milk. I loved condensed milk so much, that I’d often sneak in and eat a few spoons of it from my Dad’s office fridge. He’d get furious when the aid would tell him that they were out of condensed milk, and would scold the aid – until the aid told him “Sir, Deepu Baba was here and he …”. I think he secretly loved that I liked the same things that he did.

In the first year, my coach was Sanjay Jagdale. He was one of the star players for the state Ranji trophy team and was called as Gattu (Hindi slang for Shorty) – event though he was 6’7” in height. He saw me play the first day and made me the captain of the net. It was in one of the net practices there in MYCC, that Major M.M. Jagdale, Sanjay’s dad who was then the Secretary of the State Cricket Board mentioned that he saw a spark and talent in me – enough to see me playing Test matches for India in a few years. The only hassle was that I was about 10 years old and too young to understand what he meant. But, that remark got the attention of a few coaches and I was moved to the nets of senior guys, and started playing with people who were already playing for the district and some for the state. In those days, the district was divided into 5 zones and they would play matches against each other in the MYCC ground. At the age of 11 years, I was assigned to the North Zone and ended up becoming one of their good bowlers.  In that year I made several friends here – guys like Narendra Bagtheria, Manzur Hassan, Bhagwan Das – all of whom played for the MP State Cricket team, and then guys like Amardeep Pathania, Sunil Asawa, Kamaljeet Anand, Raju Patel, Rajesh Khujneri, Salil & Nikhil Saxena, Ashish and Raja Raje -- to name a few.

Around this time, I was in the seventh grade and in the senior school in Daly College. We used to have regular sports on a daily basis and in the cricket season, we groups would play games by dividing the team. One of the first games I remember is with Mr.Arun Lahari as our staff monitor and guys like Pawan Kasliwal, Ravndra Sigh Dhillon and others playing with me.  As is the case in most schools, Daly College also had a nickname for every teacher. Mr. Lahri was called as “Bum”, probably because of the song that went “Bum ba-bum bum, bum Lahri….”… and Pawan would often speak out the nick name loudly on the field – something that Mr. Lahri would hear outside and pretend to get upset. Now that I think of it, I smile at the fun – but back then, it was scary. Anyway, some of the staff members noticed my game and that same year, I was asked to represent my House Cricket team. I remember that in the very first match, Ankur Sarkar and I scored a lot of runs (I think I got a fifty) and helped the team win. Mr. G.L Verma, the house master of Jawahar house, was thrilled. The next year, when I was in my 8^th grade, I was asked to lead my house team. We won the tournament. I was applauded for my leadership, my field placement, my bowling and my batting (I think I scored well in almost all the games). Mr. Verma, called me out in the House meeting and praised me.

In the summer vacation of my 7^th grade, MYCC selected me to be coached by Mr. P.k. Dharmalingam. Prior to that it was mostly my natural game, with some bits of training advice thrown in or what I learned by watching senior players. Dharmalingam actually taught us the basics of cricket – and he liked what he saw in my game.  I learned a lot from him, and Sanjay Jagdale.

In the 8th grade, I was appointed captain of the MYCC team to play against the Malhar Ashram cricket team.  It was a good experience and I learned a lot. That same year, I approached Mr. Salim Khan, the senior master and sports in-charge in Daiy College to set up a match against St. Paul’s. A few of my cousins studied there – and after a bit of convincing, I was allowed to approach St. Paul’s for a game. I rode my cycle to that school, and talked to Mrs. Noronha – this was something that had never been done and so, she was equally surprised. But finally, I was allowed to set up a game against the 8^th grade of St. Paul’s. The teams met for a friendly game on the Bolia Ground of Daly College, and it was a good game. DC won the match, but more importantly, it had given me a good exposure.

In my 9^th grade, I was selected to represent my School Cricket team. Sandeep Parekh was the captain. Daly College is one of the Premier Public Schools in India, modeled on the British System. They used to play Triangular Matches with two other public schools- Mayo College of Ajmer, and Scindia School of Gwalior. The way it worked was – There were three major sports – Field Hockey, Cricket and Soccer. Each school would host one sport in its season.  That year, Daly College hosted the Cricket teams. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it into the first eleven – and was pleasantly surprised that I was chosen.  I still remember the very first ball of that match that was bowled – I was fielding at third man, and the ball flew to me after first bounce. Yadav, the wicket keeper of Mayo was the batsman and went on to score a fifty. I remember the Mayo players very well – Sandu, Yadav and a young guy by the last name of Giri (later I found out that he was the grandson of the former president of India, V.V. Giri). Anyway, the Mayo team was shot out for 184 runs, I took two wickets (Uday Katoch and Buddhiraja), but we lost the game and the Triangulars as we lost the next game to Scindia too. Sandu was the Mayo College Captain and Vivek Singh was the Scindia School Captain. 

In that summer, I was back with Dharmalingam, who was then the national coach.  I learned a lot that year in an indoor camp. I was also being coached by Vasu Gangwani, who was one of the umpires in the Triangular games. He recognized me on the very first day in the nets and made me the captain of the Nets. When the school cricket season started, I was full of confidence. The school team remained the same as the previous year, as we added a new class for the 12^th class. Kinjal Zaveri was the captain. Unfortunately, the team tried to experiment with my position in the batting order – and in one of the earlier games, I was asked to open against a team that had a bowler Manish Sharma, who was also the opening bowler for the State team. Well, that match cost me my confidence, especially after some of my team mates said a few nasty things to me too. Some people felt that my training in MYCC was costing me my game. I felt really low. Then one day, after school, I was talking to Mr. Dharmalingam and he offered to come to Dc and train the guys for a day. Well – it was accepted by Mr. Jagtap and Mr. Salim Khan  and I think the team had a good session with him. That year, I did not play in the Triangulars, which were in Mayo College, Ajmer – I was the 12^th man and we lost to Mayo but won against Scindia. Sandeep Parekh played a remarkable innings against Scindia School. I got some of my confidence back later in the year when we played a friendly game and I scored some much needed runs. One of the memorable games was the inter-house matches between Jawahar and Ashok house – where I took the catch to dismiss Rajib Nadkarni, and helped in tying the game. Jawahar house became the overall house champion that year.

That year in the summers, I was selected to play for the state school team. We traveled to Jaipur to play there. The team captain was Amardeep Pathania and we had folks like Kailash Gupta, Vivek Singh (who was the Scindia School Captain) and Shabbir Ali. We played against UP schools team, which had 4 state level players. I was very impressed with the UP team when I found out that that several players in that team were actually part of the Sports College. Their main job was to be good in the game. They had a player (also a Bhatnagar), who could bowl the “Doosra” – at that time, no one had coined the word Doosra in cricket. On the second day, there was talk that Raj Singh Dungarpur, the National Selector was on the ground. He was from the State of Rajasthan, and was also an Alumnus of my school. UP had piled up a huge score the first day. Their captain and star player Syed Naqvi had scored a century and was still batting. My captain asked me to bowl the first over that day. In my first two overs, fielders like Kailash Gupta and Shabbir dropped catches that were skiers. When the same thing happened in my third over, I heard a shout of “well bowled Bhatnagar” from the Pavilion. I just saw a tall, well-dressed man standing and clapping. He was wearing a dark tie and had a few guys standing with him. Later in the lunch break, the same gentleman came over to meet the players and I was surprised to see my team’s manager running around playing Mr. Goodie all with him. He stopped near me and told me that I was bowling very well and was unlucky not get those guys out. Then he introduced himself as Raj Singh Dungarpur and said he was glad to see someone from his Alma Mater playing for the State Schools. Anyway, I bowled nearly 25 overs and we ended up losing the game to UP – by an innings and a few runs. But, I was glad to have met Raj Singh and his words of encouragement helped me immensely. We met several times after that, and he would always stop by and say hello. Thorough gentleman and a great man!

When my school season started, my coach Mr. Jagtap was happy that I had played for the state schools team, but wasn’t happy that I didn’t get the runs. He wanted me to be a successful batsman too. That year, I was in the 11^th grade. Yogesh Garg became the captain of the school team. We had a new principal in the form of Mr. H.L. Dutta – who had come from Hyderabad Public School. He invited the Hyderabad Public School Team to visit us and play matches with us. We had the Hockey, Cricket, Basketball and Soccer teams visit us in early Aug. Aug was the time when we have Monsoons in India. It is not your average run-of-the-mill rainfall. The cricket ground was a mess and the pitch a dangerous one – totally underprepared.  The ball was flying all over the place. I bowled 15 overs and got 6 wickets for 29 runs. The HPS team was shot out for 150 runs and we thought we had a good chance. Well, we had a very tough time batting on that pitch. DC team was shot out for a paltry 29 runs, with only I scoring 11 runs. It was an embarrassing match – so much so that my friend Khaikalian wrote about it in my autograph book, just to rub it in.

Over the next few months, I established myself as a good all-rounder.  I was playing as the #4 batsman (batting 2 down) and was able to score in 40s and 50s in nearly every game. My confidence was back and I was taking wickets too. We participated in the first ever inter-school tournament in Indore and won that tournament. Just before the final game of that tournament, I remember biking alongside my friend, Yasmin, who was walking to her dance class – and getting stung by bees which were flying around. The funny thing was that not a single Bee stung Yasmin even once, while when I finally reached home, there were bees inside my shirt and I had a lot of stings in my back. I played the game with a lot of anti-histamines in my body. The Triangular that year was in Scindia School, Gwalior. The team was relying on me. Just before we left for Gwalior, we played a practice game against the Indore Colts, which was led by Pathania and had a few Ranji level state players. During that game, I was hit by a superfast delivery by Niranjan Shirke. To make matters worse, I was declared out LBW. Never to argue a call, I walked. It was my lowest score until then in the matches. We lost that game. The team was a bit shaken up. We left for Gwalior 2 days after that match, by bus on a rainy night, working our way through the traffic jam on AB Road, reaching Gwalior about 6 hours later than expected. We were all tired. We were set up to play the next day against Scinidhia School. Until then, we had been choosing the balls made by BDM, but for some reason we ended up choosing balls made by Recorder, which was what was used at the Test Match level, back then. We realized the difference during the game – the seam was different and our bowlers found it difficult to control the pitching. Our throws were perfect, but our fielding was poor – especially in the outfield, which was very rough. We gave a lot of overthrows too, because the ground was smaller. We lost both the games against Mayo and Scindia and were ridiculed. I still remember Mr. Dhir, the coach of Scinidhia School, making fun of Mr. Jagtap – telling him that he had only taught his players how to throw back to the wicket keeper. Poor Mr. Jagtap – he was smiling but I could see that he was very upset too. I made a silent promise to myself that I’d do my best to reverse this trend of losing games. 

 

A few weeks later, we had a practice game against Tata Leather Company. Yogesh Garg, our captain was injured and Rajib Goswami was asked to step up as captain. He was the other pace bowler. However, it was I who managed all field placements and bowling changes. Mr. Jagtap who was the umpire for the game, was very impressed with my control over the game. One of the Old Dalian (that is the term used for Alumni of Daly College) Narendra Singh Bidwal, who was also the captain of the Old Dalian’s team, watched the match from the pavilion. After the game, he gave me one of the best advices I have ever received – he told me to always look for strengths and weaknesses in the players. As a captain, it was my job to recognize the strengths or weaknesses and use them to my team’s benefit. It is something that I have never forgotten and still use it for my team’s benefit.

In the official match against the Old Dalians, I was the Vice Captain officially, while Rajib went out to toss. However, he told me to manage all the things on the field. The Old Dalian team had some star players of yesteryears, including 7 previous captains. We lost the toss and were asked to field first, much to my delight. I knew that the Old Dalian team had senior players who would find it difficult to field after lunch. Anyway, we got them out for 178 runs, with Sachindra Vyas and I doing most of the bowling and Vyas taking 5 wickets. I still remember catching Sandeep Parekh out in deep mid-wicket, and then taking the wicket of Diliip Singh of Banswara – getting him caught in the slips by Yuvraj Singh (Mr. Jagtap had jumped up with glee when Dilip was out, as he could be a match turner with his heavy hitting). We were thrilled with our show, but knew that the ODA bowling attack was very strong too. Vinod Narang and Kinjal opened the bowling for them and had 2 wickets in the first two overs. Sunil Gupta was bowled off a slow full toss to Vinod Narang, when he thought that Vinod was bowling him a beamer (I still rib him about that). I walked to the field, as I had most of that year, within the first three overs after having lost 2 quick wickets; I thought to myself that this was it. I was facing players that I had grown up admiring and I had a do my best to win. We lost one more wicket soon when Prakash Menon joined me. To make a long story short, we won the match by 7 wickets. I scored 98 runs and Prakash scored 49 runs - both of remaining unbeaten. I was tired but thrilled. We had won that trophy after nearly 9 years – with the present boys winning it last when Vinod Narang was the captain. Mr. Salim Khan and Mr. Jagtap were thrilled –they came to the dressing room and hugged me. Mr. Khan told me that it was one of the finest knocks he had seen in a long time – that was the highlight of my career, and a remark that I cherish forever. The ODA team members came over and congratulated me. The next day, I was awarded the school colors in the morning assembly.

In the summer vacations of the 11^th grade, I gathered a few friends like Prakash, Sunil, Deepak, Yuvraj and started practicing in the nets at School. I decided against playing in interstate school tournament – against the wishes of the state team’s manager. My reasoning was that 12^th grade was my senior year and I had to perform well in my studies, which had suffered off late due to my passion for cricket – my grades were just sufficient for me to pass the exams, whereas until the 10^th  grade, I was considered as one of the bright students in my class. So I went to my Math teacher Mr. Hashmi, to take some private classes to help me finish the Calculus and Trigonometry portion of the 12^th grade ahead of schedule. He was kind enough to oblige and I spent a couple of hours daily with him, trying to complete the course. It really helped me in the 12^th. Had I played for the state schools that year, I’d have been made the captain of the state team – but it would have taken a lot of time from me. Instead, Prakash went to the state school team that year.

The Cricket Triangular in my senior year was in my school. It was also my 4^th year in the school team and I was appointed the captain. I started the practice for the team with lot of rigorous training - -and a lot of emphasis on getting fit. In the rainy season, we’d run around the school campus on the tar roads, Practice bowling on the roads, practice our throws, and play indoor cricket. Of the 17 players that made the team, nearly 14 were day boarders. We played a lot of matches on Sundays – against local colleges, and clubs. I think in all, we played about 25 matches that season, and I scored over 1200 runs and took close to 90 wickets. Before the draw for the Triangular matches, I was asked if I had a preference to play on the first day and take a rest day before the final game. I declined and instead asked to play the last two days. Mr Salim Khan was surprised and asked me if I was sure – I was. My reasoning was that it would give me a chance to see both the opposing teams play at their best, and look for their strengths and weaknesses. The week before the tournament, Mr Jagtap and I sat down with the final 17 players and gave them some pep talk. I was surprised when he put me in front of the team and asked them if they had anything against me or wanted to play under a different captain or wanted me to do something different. Only Prakash said that he’d like me to control my temper on the field – and I realized that I’d been getting upset with the payers when they weren't performing at their peak. I made a promise to them that I’d not lose my cool on the field ever after that. I think that feedback from Prakash has really helped me in my life and I have attempted to keep my cool whenever things have started going wrong. Ever since, I always step back when things haven’t gone right, and try looking at the bigger picture.

I went to receive the teams as they came over the weekend. Sunil and I rode on his dad’s  Lambretta. I still remember Mr. Salim Khan stopping us and telling us not to ride the scooter. I spent hours and hours going over my plans of making field arrangements and bowling changes. On the first day of the Triangular match, Mayo played against Scindia. I sat with most of players near the sight screen, taking notes and observing every move of the batsmen and bowlers. I actually prepared notes on their strengths and weaknesses. Mayo won against Scindia -- one of their players, Martand, scored a fifty and in typical Mayo style, showed off his exuberance by throwing his gloves in the air. DC was up the next day, against Scindhia school. I only remember that match vaguely - just that we got them out very early and then after a rough start, we went through and won the game with ease. I actually experimented with my bowling attack, even giving Deepak and Sunil a couple of overs to bowl. In the end, I got 3 wickets, Rodney got a couple and Sachindra Vyas was also successful. On the batting side, I was lucky to get some runs, and it gave me some confidence.

We were playing Mayo College in the last match. I spent a sleepless night, tossing and turning – this was what I had prepared for all of the past twelve months. Mayo team was very confident, even though one of their star spinners, Mir,  had to leave to take some exam.  Giri was now their captain, and we had played 4 Triangular against each other. He was a really cocky guy, but I guess that is how all the Mayurians (as the students in Mayo College are/were called) were trained to be. We went out to toss, and before I could take out my coin, he took out a ten paise coin and asked me what I wanted. Now, I had enough experience with a ten paise coin to realize that 75% of the times, it would land as a tail for some weird reason (you may not believe that – but I used to keep flipping one while sitting in my chair) – so I called tail. And, it landed as I called. I took off my cap, and moved my fingers through my hair to signal to my team that I won the toss – and a cheer went through the pavilion. I was amused that people had already learned my signals by then. Sunil and Pradeep ran down to get ready to open, as they knew that I’d opt to bat first. I told Giri that I’d let him know in a few minutes what I’d decide and he seemed rattled. We exchanged the list of first Eleven players. The Umpires were Narendra Bagtheria (who was a top notch left arm spinner in the country and bowled for my State team) and Uday Singh.

As we started the game, the pavilion was filled to capacity with present Dalians, Old Dalians, Staff Members and support staff. Some of the teams that had helped us prepare by playing friendly games, also came to watch the match. As was the norm, we lost Pradeep in the first over and then Yuvraj in the second over to Raja. As I walked out, a very loud cheer went up in the crowd – but I felt nervous. The Mayo players crowded around me and cheered their bowler, Raja. The Very first ball I played was a bouncer, which rose to my chest from good length, and I played it defensively to the covers. Sunil walked to me from the other end and we talked as the field changed. I told him that I’d support him as I got settled in. However, it took me only 3 more deliveries, before I got into run. Before I realized, I was in my 40s and striking the ball well. The Mayo field was scattered and they were looking anxious. At one point, the umpire asked their captain, Giri, to stop wasting time on the field and he complained to me. I had to tell him to relax and get on with the game. Giri, their captain, brought himself on to bowl, and with a packed leg side field, started bowling round the wicket to me. Many of the deliveries would have been called wide by a big margin in today’s cricket, but back then, they were considered valid. Anyway, I remember going for a shot and missing the shot. There was a loud nick, and the ball landed in the keeper’s gloves. I walked even before the umpire said anything – with my score at 48. Sunil on the other end was playing on 15 odd runs, and I told him to take control. As I walked, Giri was heard telling his player that he had been trying to bowl that delivery for a long time - -and I couldn’t help but get upset with myself for not connecting that shot, which deserved to be hit for a four, if not a six. Prakash walked out and I stopped to chat with him – telling him to focus and play the innings of his life. Mr. Salim Khan came down to the dressing room and was furious with me for throwing away my wicket.  He point blank told me that I’d be to blame if we lost the game, for playing that reckless shot. Fortunately, both Sunil and Prakash played well and scores into their 40s. DC team was all out for 170 runs – not a large score, but it was something we could try to defend. 

We started our bowling after a light lunch (I refused to let my players eat a lot –which upset Rodney, who was getting ready to tear into the delicacies that were served), with Kacholia starting from the Junior School end. He was fast, but tended to be erratic – and I wanted to let the Mayo batsmen feel just a bit over confident thinking he was our main bowler. His very first ball was a very short delivery, which surprised the opening batsman, Karul, who managed to hit it towards midwicket. I ran from Mid On to field it – I saved a boundary, but it yielded a couple of runs. The next one was hit directly to me with great force, but I managed to stop it. Rodney started the bowling from the other end, and got us the breakthrough in his 4^th over by getting Raja out. Since each bowler was only allowed to bowl nine overs each, I told him that the next over would be his last, even if he got another wicket. I continued with Kacholia from the other side right upto his 7^th over. I brought myself to bowl from the Staff Quarters end, replacing Rodney. I can still hear the cheer from the crowd. Vijay Agar was sitting with the scorers, and his job was to tell me after each over how many overs that bowler had bowled. I got Karul out leg before on my third delivery. The crowd was ecstatic. Martand (Or Marty) was the next guy to walk in – I had seen him play against Scindia and he had scored a fifty. However, I had also seen that he had a weakness - when he hit the ball towards covers, it would be an uppish stroke and there a good chance to get him caught with some intelligent field placement. I placed Sunil at covers and moved Pradeep in deep Extra cover. Kacholia was replaced in the bowling attack by Sachindra Vyas. I directed Vyas to keep the attack on the offside, and bowl fuller. And Marty took the bait – however, he hit the first two deliveries towards the boundary. It didn’t help that Sunil was slow to react, as the ball raised past him. Kacholia and Prakash came to me and suggested that I put Kacholia in place of Sunil – it was a good suggestion and I followed the advice. Kacholia’s strength was that he was an ace sprinter and had great reflexes. And he caught the very next shot from Martand – just inches from the ground. We were all thrilled, shocked and ecstatic – our ploy had worked. I told the team not to relax and stay on the alert. We were still away from victory. Giri walked out to bat and I asked the team to make sure that we got him out too. My next over was the game changer. Giri was on the non-striker’s end. I bowled to the batsman, who was obviously a junior guy, as he was in awe of Giri. The batsman missed the ball, and it landed in Prakash’s hands. Prakash missed catching it, and the ball fell behind him. Giri thought the ball had gone way behind him, called for a run and ran towards the other end. For a second I thought Prakash was shocked that someone would do that – and as I shouted for him to throw the ball, he picked it up and broke the wickets on the striker’s end. Giri was out – and he walked dejected to the pavilion, cursing himself loudly. When he reached the pavilion, he threw the bat into his team and cursed loudly – drawing an immediate reprimand from Mr. Salim Khan. In my very next over, I ran out another batsman when Matkar threw the ball towards me from square leg – he was placed to field there, as he was a left hander and I thought it would be easier for him to throw balls coming on his left side. We were on a roll – I took 1 wicket, Sachindra took 3 wickets and Anmol took 3 wickets. We got Mayo out under 90 runs, and we won the match. I still remember Kacholia running towards me shouting “Bhattu we did it” and I just stayed calm, smiling ear to ear, but calm. Even back then, I believed in showing less emotions when losing, and even lesser emotions when winning. We all hugged each other, and the team wanted me to lead back. We instead agreed to walk back in one file – with our hands on each other’s shoulders. There were fireworks all around – the support staff was going nuts. We got a standing ovation – and there were celebrations for several days after that. My Principal, Mr. Dutta, came and patted my back as did Mr. Salim Khan. Only my coach, Mr. Jagtap was missing – he had been sitting for the past 3 hours under the score board, watching our every move and guiding us – now he had gone home. I am positive that he had become too emotional to face us. We got to see a different side of him later that night, when the team was invited for an impromptu dinner at the principal’s house. Several of the present boys and girls came over to congratulate me and the team. It was easily one of the best moments of my life – as I wrote to my dad, who was posted in Gwalior then. We had won after nearly 10 years – and it was an awesome feeling. The celebrations lasted for a few months -- Principal's dinners. I treated the team to a grand dinner party at Apsara and a lot more...

We lost the match against the old Dalians that year – I was upset, because I was expecting to win. Pawan Sharma was the only batsman to score 22 runs in that game. It was just a bad performance from us – and as Narendra Baghteria, who was the umpire in the game, explained that it was difficult to get the same peak performance which we showed in the Triangular that year. I won the second College Colors that year and also the best batsman award for the second year running. Jawahar house won the Inter House Cricket matches again -- and as per the tradition that allowed a junior (with a high probability to become the school captain next year) to lead, I asked Prakash to lead the Jawahar House team against Ashok House and Sunil to lead against Vikram House. Matkar was allowed to lead in the final game against Rajendra. I also played one last match that year against a group of Old Dalians and remember coaching Paul Barua on how to bowl with less speed and more accuracy -- he was a good fast bowler, but lacked the accuracy.

Overall - it was a very satisfying year -- something I remember so well even today.