For a few dollars more

There was no rush of blood or ugly stares at the batsmen. There wasn't any dissent shown by the opponents in crucial moments too. It was the spectacular visit to the old times when emotions always ran subdued. The team we played last week were not the obnoxious bunch we witnessed last week. Yet there was an intense game played truly in spirit and in character. Winning the toss earlier, it was the wise decision to bat first as bowling would have meant disastrous with the cold winds. Said that, we still had to bat out of the skin to post any decent total. We had a nice start to the innings but that was all to be content with as Praveen immediately holed one to long on. Strike one for Adroit CC. From then on we just stood like a leaf on a windy day perishing one after the other. On the other hand, Paresh looked like he was playing on a different planet. There was one shot in particular when he picked a ball angled in to his pads and dispatched it neatly over the mid wicket fence. Slight reminiscence of Moin Khan when he played that shot. Finally when he got out bowled by a spinner, he looked like a soldier being run over by a bicycle back home in his village after bravely combating a barrage of bullets in the battle. The innings ended when we were finally bowled out for 71. It was not a giveaway total but a very modest one to that of an Indian middle class family's monthly income. Our bowling started off well plucking three wickets early not before two catches were spilled down. At the break they were 23 from 8 overs and required 48 from the remaining 8. It was even worse when it climbed above 6 as 40 were required from the remaining 5 overs. Their batsmen were completely responsible for their team's predicament as they were moving the clock like snails. A wicket at that stage came a blessing in disguise for them as the next man, Srikanth, hit some meaty blows and made everyone in our camp look perplexed reducing the equation to a simple 6 from the last over. When it was down to three, we made a fumble that led to a mere one run from two balls. Thamizh beat the batsman next ball and Paresh standing at short square plucked one nice catch off the last ball to tie the match. Post match there were shouts in both the camps for a few dollars more that went begging. It was a tragedy as explained by Aristotle, one that could purge the twin emotions of pity and terror. Pity they had to tie when they could have won it easily, terror we almost lost it before the tie.