The Rider of the Knight

“Team meeting in 10 minutes.”
The skipper gave us a call to the meeting room after an hour chat with the coach. We have already lost 6 out of 7 matches with only 1 win in the first match. The batting has been poor with the skipper loosing his form from the last year’s IPL. Bowling has been worst. No magic from Sharma or Dinda this year. Dropping catches in South Africa has become a fashion and we are no different from them. Only Dada has shown a new promise diving at almost impossible catches and winning a few.
Me, well, due to many stars of the team, I had to sit all throughout these 7 matches. Just like many other players who are waiting for a match to play, I also see too little chance for a luck reversal. Even if I don’t get a chance, it is always gold when you can share the dressing room with big geniuses of cricket and bollywood. I mean, only few people of our country can imagine a big actor like SRK giving you much needed cheering for the next matches. Well anyway, after some minutes, we were all in the meeting for strategy-making for the next game.

Skipper, “ Guys, we have lost almost half the battle in this IPL. And we have only 7 matches left in our hands. And we have to win almost all the remaining matches to stand a chance in the semi-final. In all we were pathetic on the field, but we have to be back with a bang.”

SRK: Ofcourse guys. We are fighters and we have the biggest fighter in our team. We need to fire as a team and we will definitely. We won the previous game with Punjab and we will do it again.

Meanwhile,
Kaartik: Stop drooling young ass. It is a team meeting. And the coach gets really angry by such negligence.
Me: I am bored with all these inspirational talks. Its almost half past nine and I cant stop my eyes. Team Announcement is no surprise.
Kaartik : Don’t know all that, but please concentrate. We have a big game tomorrow.

What Kaartik said wasn’t a news for me. Every match is crucial for us now. But, it has been almost a routine by our skipper and owner to cheer us up from a bad loss. Our team needed some real energy boost by winning some matches. So, I was sitting in a corner trying to stop my tired eyes to stop closing and concentrate on the proceedings.

Coach: We have some changes in the team for tomorrow. So, I will announce the playing 11 for tomorrow. Saurav Ganguly will open with Brendon McCullum. Then, we have Brad Hodge, Yashpal Singh, David Hussey, Morne Van Wyke will keep the wickets. For bowling, we have Ishant, Agarkar and Kaartik. And we have a replacement for Dinda. Mashrafe Mortaza will be bowling tomorrow. And will probably open the bowling with Ishant. And another inclusion is of Abhishek Mukherjee. He shows promise and can be a good help in spin department. Good night boys. Have a nice sleep because we have a big day ahead.
(Claps went loud in the room)

“Ohhh…. What happened, did the meeting end?”
Before I could react, Dada came and congratulate me. Then Skipper followed.
Skipper: Have a blast tomorrow. Good night.
When they all went out, I asked Kaartik of what happened.
Kaartik: You went off when the team was announced? Damn, you are fool Abhi. You are going to play tomorrow. Now go and sleep on your bed now.

Whaaat…. Is it true? That’s the reason Dada congratulated me? I asked Murali again while we were passing down the hallway. He laughed out loud and told Ishant of my irresponsible act in the room. Both of them laughed and kicked me on my back. Getting kicked by two persons when you have a match tomorrow is not good. I almost moved two or three steps faster when Dada scolded from behind, “Mmmm…. Go to sleep now. Don’t injure the baby before he gets a ball to play.”
Another cheer roared in the hallway and everyone went to bed smiling.

But my day started only then. All my sleep was gone. I went to bed as told but got up within few minutes. It was tough for me to stick my back on the bed. I was feeling to go on the practice area and bowl the wickets out. My hands were going out of control to hold the bat and hit some imaginary sixes. So, I decided to take my bat and do exactly the same in the little empty space of my room. I went straight to my kit and took out my bat. I went to an end of the room and started hitting the bat on the floor.
Off the bowl goes and left. The ball was just outside the Off stump and I left it giving it much respect.
Again hitting on the floor, the next ball bowled.
Huge one, getting out of the crease, straight up for a huge six.
Happily, I started hitting the bat on the floor much harder.
Next ball on the offside and beautiful cover dri... oops.
The bat went straight up in the air touching the roof. Then , it came like a steel rod hitting the glass table right in the middle. The table glass, being very strong didn’t break into pieces but a huge crack followed to the corners. The flower vase, which was also glass, couldn’t bear the vibration of the table and started rolling on the table. And before I could react to it, it went straight down on the carpet and pieces.I moved slowly to the table to pick up my bat, put it back in the kit and went straight on the bed. My day was finally over.

I slipped out early in the morning to escape the chaos in my room. Today, I pulled in extra efforts in the practice. Bowling spin to various batsman with changing pace. Then, had a chat with Coach and skipper. The coach gave me some important tip to hold the nerves when bowling and the skipper just told me what he expects of me. Dada patted me when I had a successful fielding drill. Finally, it was 3.30 pm and it was time for us to be ready for the match.
The skipper came in and told us that it is a nice batting pitch so we gonna pile up 170-180 runs in 20 overs. And ours was batting as the day started with the Toss win. Now, every player started to get ready. Dada and skipper started padding up. I have a habit to bath before I go out, so even after much denials and anger from my teammates, I went for a shower. It really helps me to be cool. Till I came out with my golden jersey and my kit to the field, the game was about to begin. Umpires were on the field and the fielding side was getting set. Yuvraj was making some last minute changes and the ball is given to Pathan.
And here goes the first ball of the innings.


Its 75-5. 14 overs gone. Van-Wyke comes back and settles on the dug-out. He had a brief partnership with Dada at the other end, but the runs seem hardly nearer to what skipper told us. Agarkar just went to play with Dada, and the bowler, Piyush Chawla is looking very confident after taking 3 wickets already.

That’s high, very high. There is a fielder under it. And he takes the catch. Yuvraj has a safe pair of hands and he takes it easily. That’s the sixth wicket of the innings and Knights are in big trouble.

“Abhishek, go.” I was already padded up but I was least expecting to get batting. I walked in the field and have to face the ball. It was a maiden over by VRV Singh, the last ball of which went high in the air for a catch. It was 75-6 in 15 overs. As I went in, Dada came to me, “Just give me the strike, u don’t have to worry.” Pathan came in as Yuvraj wanted to finish off things early. He has started his run-up and…..

1: Slower delivery. Little outside off-stump. Full swing of the bat. And off the ball goes to the Leg side for a huge six. Got the meat of the Bat finely and went away in the crowd. KKR 81-6.

2: Straight one. And down the ground, straight shot. No one there. Full strength transferred to the bat for a six. KKR with back to back 6’s on 87.

3: Bouncer, but Abhishek gets down and moves the bat with the ball, touches it in the end for huge six over the third man. This man is really ticking the scoreboard fast. KKR 93-6.

4: What is this going to be? Slower ball again, hits the ball towards the mid-cover and it agggggaaaain goes to the crowd. Oh my god, another DLF maximum. KKR 99-6.

5: Huge one. This time on the off-side. And it travelled the whole stadium. Out of the ground. This boy is really on a roll here. 100 comes up for Kolkata Knight Riders and its 105-6.

I was living a dream. Another six and I would be sharing my name with Yuvraj Singh. The ball was lost outside the stadium so the umpires are yet to come up with the new ball. Dada came up to me to keep my cool and not rush up things.
The new ball is here. Yuvraj is getting the field set with Pathan. And here he comes.

6: Abhishek walks down the pitch. Pathan senses it. Bowls a slower bouncer. But it didn’t stop Abhihek to pull it over leg. The ball goes high in the air and……….


The mobile vibrates twice and my sleep gets a stop signal. I get up on my bed in my home. My head has grew heavy and it is morning and time to start a new day in college. It is 7 am and the kids are already out with their ball and bat. I looked towards the window recounting the moments of the dream. Really, the ninth straight loss has really got on my head yesterday.