Tag: Tendulkar

Cricket Memories!!

by Harsha, posted in Cricket, Nostalgic

Presenting to you some of the Cricket memories, some unforgettable moments along with some bizarre & unseen stuff.

EAT CRICKET, SLEEP CRICKET, DRINK ONLY NIMBU PAANI!!

Cricket aficionado and of any live sport are missing the live action amidst cheering fans on & off the field in these unprecedented times. I spent some of my time to reminisce about cricket. So cherish, relive, enjoy & have fun ๐Ÿ™‚ You may like it too. Do comment if you find any other lovely memory to share. I left out half of the content from this post as it became a long post. May be another episode soon in near future ๐Ÿ™‚

DISCLAIMER:Owing to the content shared, some of it may take some time to load, so patience ๐Ÿ™‚

  • After historic win in Australia..
  • Fans are as important as Game itself ๐Ÿ˜› ๐Ÿ˜›
  • Unplayable delivery from Muttiah Muralitharan
https://twitter.com/BowledMate_/status/1277547595376873472?s=20
  • Ball of the Century!! Shane Warne, The Magician ๐Ÿ™‚ #ThePrestige
  • The in-cutter by Sandhu would be the defining delivery of that match, and it would also prove to be the defining delivery of his career. Thirty seven years on from that Greenidge non-shot, Sandhu’s visiting card has a picture of a batsman shouldering arms with his stumps broken. His website also has the same logo in the background- Indian Express ๐Ÿ™‚
  • YeM YeS Di!! Mind It!! #WhistlePodu
  • Easily, best swing bowlers of all time- Wasim Akram!!
  • Kaifu takes a stunner avoiding a imminent collision.
  • 360ยฐ Bowling Action!! by Shiva Singh in CK Nayudu Trophy match between Bengal and Uttar Pradesh
  • About Batting Stance..
  • Brian Charles Lara โค๏ธ
  • Hate Math & Love Cricket? Learn how Pythagoras theorem works practically. You will never forget now ๐Ÿ˜›
  • About baby sitting…
  • When have you seen that last time on a cricket field?
  • The Legend of Ben Stokes..
  • Just a casual day in the life of Sir Viv Richards!!
  • Dhoni finishes off in style. A magnificient strike into the crowd. India Lift the World Cup!! After 28 years.. The party starts in the dressing room.. Cant forget it? Isn’t it?
  • Why this Kohli very Kohli very AB D? Contender for Best Jodi?
  • King Of Yorkers!!
  • Boom Boom BumRah!! Jo Batsmen ko GumRah karde..
  • Monster Hitting to win a WC for WestIndies
  • Source of several great memes ๐Ÿ˜› Found you ๐Ÿ˜› Mil hi gaya. Mil gaya.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCaNphlpQPC/

Thanks for watching!! Signing off, Until Then, Be A Sport, Play your natural game & Keep your Chin up!!

P.S: All the tweet sources are mentioned and hence credited as per the twitter thread. Picture courtesy(at the top) espncricinfo.com

Gully Boy

by Harsha, posted in Cricket, Nostalgic, Reflection

Mic check bole Kya bol rele Gully Boy Kya bol rele Readers log Arey apun kuch karte hain na yaar Apne public ke liye Karte hain na Baa Reader log ke liye bhai Ahaa apne Pasha log ke liye (Oho ek number) Tum kidhar ho, kidhar ho tum abhi? Bangalore BTM mein bhai Tum kidhar ho?
Mere gully mein Gully gully gully mein Mere gully mein Gully gully gully mein

Playing It My Way..

Summer holidays was always fun. And cricket got more attention as we indulged in it religiously, a daily affair you see. I would always be lingering around at my maternal home during summer holidays more often than not. We played other sports too and indulged in different pastimes and leisure activities but cricket had our mind share. That’s when cricket viewership on TV had picked up and 1996 World Cup was a great booster as India was one of the host country. Everyone remembers 96 world cup Semifinal between India & SriLanka which was seen live by record crowd of 1,10,000 in Eden Gardens, Calcutta. India slumped while chasing and match had to be awarded to Srilanka as disappointed crowd could not be controlled. There was great hope and everyone was rallying around India to win it handsomely. Tendulkar grew into prominence during these times and had achieved demigod status. Tendulkar and other players like Warne, Kumble, Murali, Dravid, Ganguly made an impression. Can’t imagine how many times I have imitated their batting stance or peculiar bowling action while walking past and running around streets.

Playing cricket at a unique pitch like ours was pure fun to say the least. Did I say it was not a cricket pitch but a pathway?? Yes, you heard it right. No one would ever imagine to play cricket here. It was a pathway from our house backyard to a enclosed farm of coconut,mango and jack fruit trees. It was around 20 yard patch of vacant ground with width same as that of a actual cricket pitch,surrounded by godown on one side with trees and compound on either side. On left hand side there was a big drain bounded by the compound colloquially called as Maayi ghar (as a elderly woman lived in a house beside that compound)  and on the right hand side there was another house with a compound inhabited by a affluent family (saiba’s ghar). So hitting over each of these compounds was OUT. There was NO running between the wickets either, Scoring was ONLY done through a straight ground shot for a boundary or a aerial straight shot past the boundary for a six and bonus runs through wide by the bowler. A batsman could be out just by playing wayward on both sides, or by a direct catch to the bowler/fielder, get out bowled,stumped or caught behind the wicket.The wickets were huge formed by very thick paper roll picked up from the godown. No rolling of arms while bowling, just throw bowling inline with the boundary with fielders on either side.Extra fielders were posted outside the boundary so as to keep a watch on the ball as balls flew more often than not for sixes. Also one had to guard the ball from the surrounding drain and a well. Many a times, we had to do all sort of adventures to fetch the ball from the well. And if the ball was not viewed properly when being hit, it was very difficult to spot it and find it as it would go past the thick foliage of ๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŒณ๐ŸŒด all around. So one had to be vigilant, many a times whole team would indulge in hunting the ball and sometimes if we were lucky enough, we could get more than one balls(the other being a long lost ball. Hehe).To cool off after playing long time in scorching heat, we would fill a cement tank with cool water from the well and feel lazy and chill like a hippopotamus. 

This was our team- Jai and Veeru(brothers ๐Ÿ˜Ž), Murali , Dada (the eldest), Raghu, Mandy (lone female cricketer), Shantu -The ๐Ÿค, Tendlya (youngest so would bat for both the teams, hence called as limboo timboo) and myself Harshu. Most of the times, both brothers Jai and Veeru would end up in opposite teams leading to aggressive cricket from both the parties to topple one over the other. Murali was our off spinner and right hand bat. Raghu was very competitive and apart from cricket, he used to coin funny terms/expressions, so he was our situational comedy artist. Every one feared Mandy when she was bowling, as she used to bowl very fast. Just like aiming at the ripe mango with a sharp stone- one sees only the mango and nothing else, she would eye the stumps. The trick was to cover the stumps and allow the ball to come to the bat nicely. I was the mystery spinner where I used to mix up with off spin or leg spin, spin towards the body (esp. For Raghu) etc. Once Shantu asked me to help him bowl leg spin. He learnt the trick to hold the ball correctly but on release, it used to come with some latency providing the batsman ample time to hit a six, straight down the ground. And I knew exactly which way the bowl would spin. But it was fun, real fun. No amount of tiredness would prevent us from playing until the daily quota was done. Once in 1999, when World Cup was On, there was a tragic news of Tendulkar father’s demise due to which he flew to India midway from World Cup proceedings in England. On that day, being very sad, we had to abandon day’s play. 

These days, we rarely get to play cricket or any other engaging sport under the sun ๐ŸŒž in that scorching heat. We have found new avenues to entertain ourself and we hardly sweat it out in the field. We stay indoors and exercise and play different versions of a sport.

Where are we going? Where is the current generation moving to? Is it something for better? Tough questions to ask… 

Jaane Kahan Gaye Woh Din………

Signing off.

Until next time we meet, Give Love & Be Loved.. ๐Ÿ™‚

The God of Cricket

by Harsha, posted in Cricket, Nostalgic

“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives– BBC Sports, on Sachin Tendulkar.”

This tribute is to the man I admire most, the man from whom I picked up cricket as a sport-playing, watching and even imitating to some extent. The Super Man from India, the Little Master-Sachin Tendulkar.
As a kid, used to imitate him taking guard while practicing batting,sometimes people around me used to wonder what am I doing as I used to do it so often. Then went on to emulate the same in the form of HIS Boost ad role-play in a local fancy dress competition dressing up like him. Reminiscing now, realising how funny it was ๐Ÿ™‚ Back then, Doordarshan (DD1) was the only source of cricket viewing. Vividly remember many adventures tweaking the direction of the antenna as the TV screen used to go blur when it rained or any other disturance.
I was over the moon when was able to watch HIM for whole 10 minutes standing in front of HIS car when he was in my native for a function.

Back story: We (with 2 of my cousins in a bike doing triple riding) followed HIS car after greeting him in middle of the road when no person in the locality had any clue about his arrival. We had to give up the chase in between as HIS car was speeding up. As luck would have it, HIS car stopped at petrol pump on our way to our home. Didnโ€™t get a chance to get his autograph but was ecstatic to see him from very close quarters. A wave of HIS hand before leaving is something which I cannot forget. Since that day, we call that petrol pump as Tendulkar petrol pump. ๐Ÿ™‚ That was the time when he was making a comeback after career threatening tennis elbow injury. Was elated to see him score century in next couple of matches and stamp his authority over bowlers.

There was something about HIS batting which gives nothing but sheer pleasure. Whether itโ€™s dancing down the track and hitting say a Shane Warne (who can forget Sand Storm in Sharjah 98?) for a six and in turn giving the bowler a nightmare even in his sleep or premeditating a bouncer from a fast bowler like McGrath or for that matter a Andy Caddick (Remember 2003 WC Ind/Eng league match?) and hitting a hook shot. In Centurion 2003, Tendulkar’s upper cut to Shoaib Akhtar to hit a magnificent six and then guiding India to win is part of a folklore now. HE had all the time in the world to guide a high pitched ball from a bowler like Brett Lee over wicket keeperโ€™s head by a perfectly executed shot fetching nothing less than six. Not to forget the exquisite timing involved in a text book stuff cover drive or a square cut for that matter. Rarely missed a leg glance when the ball was pitched middle and leg or a paddle sweep for a spinning ball towards HIS legs. Playing according to the field was HIS forte and donโ€™t find any batsman play a straight drive as he does. HIS straight drive with full face of the bat, also HIS straight sixes of Shane Warne and others are as straight as it gets and out of fashion as he has retired now.

Then came the moment to score first 200 in ODI history and it was only fitting for HIM to do it. I was serving for Infy as a trainee in Mysore then. As he was inching towards this unbelievable milestone, got myself a forced break from training session. Since there was no TV access at the lecture hall & going back to hostel dorm was not a good idea as I would loose crucial 20 minutes, got into a call for around 30 minutes hearing the updates and getting expert commentary from my cousin bashing Dhoni for not giving enough strike to the Master. In a span of his career he has given sheer pleasure and tremendous joy by his batting in spite of carrying burden of billion people expectations right through his career. For 90’s kids, it was sense of assurance that the game is in our grasp when Tendulkar was batting and many would switch off their TV when he got out. Just for a moment think you are Tendulkar and you’re coming into bat amidst cheering fans hoping you score in that critical juncture of the match. More often than not you would get bogged down and succumb to the pressure and fail to show your application but not Tendulkar. If HIS batting was nightmare to the opposition he looked ominous with the ball too. He could do off spin, leg spin and medium pace depending on the batsman and match situation. Most of the time, he would get vicious spin and batsman failed to pick him often when it was pitched in line with the stump. He has won us many game with his bowling too.Remember his last over against South Africa in 93 Hero Cup? Apart from this, a great fielder and was good slip catcher. In short, he was a cricketer’s guide to be a champion batsman, effective bowler and a better fielder.

Off the field he was a gentleman and had a great influence over his team mates by his mere presence. He has achieved so many things which no can ever think off but still he looks like same young man who is hunger for success and better himself.Before him we had Sunil Gavaskar who was too good and when the last generation thought there will be no Indian cricketer like him we got Sachin Tendulkar who captured the imagination of my generation. In that terms, we are very lucky to witness his brilliance in his whole career. As he has retired now it pains to write in retrospect rather than introspection. Now that he has retired, we have found someone special who can fit the bill in the near future if he performs well and maintains his class-Virat Kohli. If Virat Kohli is special, Sunil Gavaskar was brilliant during those days of West Indies domination batting without a helmet, Sachin Tendulkar was something else. A place and stature which no one can match.