NOSTALGIA – a reason to smile

I just finished watching the video of the closing ceremony of the first cricket tournament that was held in our hostel. We stood 3rd in the tournament (second last) and I, as a captain of the JAGUARS team, blamed it on the senior players performance (I also didn’t play well). We were little weak as a bowling unit in that tournament and I guess that hurt us. In the opening match against the PANTHERS, they were reeling at 17/4 at one stage and then Prem-RD partnership took the game away from us and in the end the total proved to be too much for us. We all know Prem is a monster when it comes to hitting the cricket ball and RD is simply fantastic. And in our last league match against the TIGERS, which eventually turned out to be a knock out for a berth in the final, we lost. I still feel we could have made to the finals. After the early wickets fell, the onus was left on Yogesh (who won the previous game for us against the LIONS. It was always a treat watching him play.) and me. I still feel the game was very much in our control at that time and we just needed to stay together at the crease. But Yogi played a nothing of a shot on Bachani’s bowling and the ball crashed on to his stumps. I told him earlier in that over to play with straight bat but he went for the cross batted stroke, much to the disappointment of JAGUARS fans. After 3 overs I also succumbed to a very good running catch from Pappu. We definitely missed the services of Prabhat who along with yogi won the previous match for us against the LIONS. He was a key player for us and missed out due to an injury.
Not to deny, we got the best of the finals ever and in the end the TIGERS proved to be better than the PANTHERS by just 2 runs. For me the turning point was the dismissal of Prem. Super cool Bachani caught a rocket in the deep to pack his bags. An unforgettable catch! Shivram, find of the tournament, almost took the game away from the TIGERS with his wild brutal hitting but DJ had different plans. DJ, captain of the TIGERS who won many matches for us in the CSE-ECE duels, once again led from the front and came to the party. He took the last wicket to calm down the nerves and the TIGERS roared.
I still feel pain for not playing in the finale. It still hurts me to think what it would have felt to play in the front of full packed ET Hostel crowd supporting their favorites. But the two best teams of the tournament played the final and they deserved it.
It is always sad to end on the loosing side….:(