Divine Intervention

Ah each time i come here im reminded of how i dont blog nearly enough. Well i have had an excuse for the last twenty days. I have been on a trip to the land of the Rhinoceros (Assam) for the 42nd Inter IIT Sports meet. And the fact that we all returned safely is going to be used as an advertisement for Assam Tourism. Well 8 bomblasts and none of them hit us of course its safe there!

Well amidst the ULFA scares the army post in the campus and an incredible abundance of tea we actually had some sport. To be honest when we got there the place looked in no shape to host a sports meet. The cricket field looked like a swamp, there was construction all around and our two day train trip had made matters worse. But then it picked up and turned out to be quite an enjoyable experience after all.

The one moment that will remain with me throughout my life from this trip is the last ball of our Bombay match. We had been mauled in the previous match and i had a front row seat for the mauling be it at covers or at the runners end when people were getting out. We needed to win the bombay match and we seemed headed to do so. After a good bowling performance we seemed to be set to register our first Inter IIT win in two years. But then the familiar batting collapse happened and we found ourselves staring at defeat once again. I remember us needing something like 40 runs of 5 overs when i got out and frankly i did not see that happening. There was the familiar silence of the previous match in the dressing room but this time we were facing elimination. For some weird reason( atleast it seemed weird at that time) the captain had saved one of our most experienced guys for the end. Something was whispered into his ear by the captain as he went out to bat but then he had done the same thing to every other guy who went out there to no avail. i dont remember most of what followed because i was mostly just looking down or trying to console other members of the team who had given up. At one point i had walked onto the field head down thinking the match was over only to be floored and pulled back by one of my teammates.

What followed after that was something i still cant comprehend. It is one of those things that just happen and you dont really know why or how. We needed 26 runs of two overs with one wicket in hand and we somehow got it to 9 off the last over. This included a misfield for four and wide that went to the boundary and many other suicidal Bombay moments. They were self destructing for no apparent reason. We got it down to three runs of one ball and still i dint believe it would happen. I was hoping for a nudge somewhere for two runs so we could tie the game and salvage something in the next game. Bombay madness again made sure we got three runs off an overthrow and we won the match against all odds.

I define anything beyond my logical comprehension as divine. And this was way beyond my comprehension. In my mind we dint deserve to win. Bombay seemed to have done everything right. They had shown no signs of crumbling till then. It all seemed to make so much sense until the last few overs. Even after the match i was shocked more than happy. This match would of course lead to us winning the tournament and with that the General Championship by two points ironically from Bombay. I never thought that at the age of 21 id be talking about a cricket match at such length but then this was one of those experiences which are so indescribable that you love trying to describe it.

There were six bomb blasts on the night we left which was our cue to leave i guess. We were falling in love with that place a little too much. Glad to be back home :)