As We Leave #27 :  A tale of takeaways

I have been extremely enthusiastic about cricket since childhood and played tennis ball cricket in my hometown, mostly as a fast bowler. After coming here, I decided to give it a try but professional cricket here was literally a different ball game altogether. It was the first time that I played with a leather ball.

We were just in campus, around January’22, some of the cricket enthusiasts from our batch went to the PE Ground to explore the facilities we have. We went to the cement pitch in the nets and were playing with tennis ball as we used to play in our halls. One day, the institute team was practicing in the main pitch (open nets) and when we entered the ground, the coach called us and wanted us field for the team, although the ball was different, fielding is something I always enjoyed. Post the session, the coach asked us our expertise in the game, I said I’ll bowl leg spin, as I knew this ball was heavy and I cannot ball fast without proper control with it. But, as soon as I bowled my first leg spin delivery, I knew I’ll be thrown out of here as the bowl didn’t pitch, it directly reached the keeper’s gloves as if I was giving a catch. I tried again, no control. The coach then asked if I could do something else, then I told him that I used to bowl fast with the tennis ball. He said to try the same with this ball too, I was a bit anxious at first but thought that anyways I’ll be out so why not give it a shot. Then I took my run-up and bowled with all the effort I could, the ball pitched this time and bounced to a height no one expected, everyone looked with a shock, and the coach said to come again. I once again bowled and everyone was again taken aback with the pace the ball travelled, I couldn’t believe that it was this easy to bowl with the leather ball. The coach asked me to come for team practice from the next day.

I bowled out the captain of the Institute Cricket Team during my first practice session & soon became a permanent member of the 16-member squad that represented IIT Kanpur in Cricket. I got my first gold medal in Udghosh’21 (1st to 3rd April’22) without playing a single match, chicken dinner with zero kills as you may call it, kind of Khaleel Ahmed in this T20WC. This was followed by another gold in Spardha’21 (IIT-BHU Sports Fest: 15th to 17th April’22) and yet another gold in Udghosh’22 (14th to 16th October’22), in which I had significant contributions. By the time we reached Inter-IIT, I was the lead pacer of the team, it was something I could not even imagine in my dreams. My first two overs in our opening match were maiden, first one being a wicket-maiden, though it didn’t matter much because we soon got eliminated in our first knockout game. That phase taught us a lot, maybe we were just too overconfident and considered others too weak.

The next year’s UDGHOSH was meant to be forgotten, we stood 4th, nothing to be proud of as we lost two consecutive medal matches. I injured my left ankle & right groin during the last match of the tournament. Whenever I tried to practice, the pain would come up, even after days of resting. I wanted to play my last Inter-IIT anyhow, but I couldn’t even show up for a single practice game between Udghosh’23 (6th to 8th October’23) and Inter-IIT Camp (26th November), which made my chances of selection worse. But I wanted to play anyhow, then I figured out that if my leg fits very tightly in my shoes, my ankle won’t get strained, that was it. I wore 4 socks on my left leg along with an ankle support to start bowling. Eventually things started working out. My role was changed from an opening bowler to a death one. I knew my groin was weak, I wore crepe bandage tightly across my right groin too, to avoid any mishaps. I started playing some matches in the camp and was super happy that I was able to bowl with my full strength and also did justice to my assigned role, finally my ticket to Gandhinagar was confirmed. Meanwhile, my teammates and captain always had my back, they trusted me & my skills blindly.         

Then came the ultimate, IISM’23, in which we finally earned a podium finish. I played the entire tournament with the same setup, 4 socks & an ankle support on my left ankle & a tightly wound crepe bandage across my right groin. Though we completed our revenge with Madras in the 3rd Place match, our team deserved to win Gold. We lost the semi-final against Roorkee by just 1 run, when 2 were required off the final delivery. I ended up being the second highest wicket-taker of the tournament. This tournament will always remain closest to my heart as I was not fit enough, yet the team backed me and brought the best out of me and ofcourse, we finally got an Inter-IIT Medal before leaving.

I still enjoy bowling and very recently clicked approximately 135 kmph during a practice session. So, if you want to face some bouncers, I am always up at 9179234505.

Cricket taught me that one should always try whatever he/she likes or has the passion for, you never know where you’ll land if you don’t even give it a shot. I never bowled with a leather ball before IITK.