IIITB Cricket Champions..

After Volley ball, now it was the turn of Cricket. We were up against our seniors. We had another good day. Yahooooo… we are the iiitb cricket champions. Thanks to chandru for making our day memorable.

The match started at 3.30PM on 8th march. Intially we thought of playing 15 overs. Later both the team captains, Rakesh and Dhruv agreed to play 12 overs. Dhruv won the toss and elected to bat first. Sun was beating down hard. As usual Chandru started off with the new ball for us. I cannot stop myself from appreciating our bowlers. They did a fantastic job on a hot day. They ran in hard and made life difficult for the batsmen. The batsmen could not adjust. Our bowlers got wickets at regular intervals. Especially our captain Rakesh bowled well. The batsmen tried to disturb his line and length, but they found themselves getting out in that act. A fine show by our bowlers meant that we had to chase only 70. I must say anything under 7 an over is excellent in our playing conditions. The boundaries are too short.

In the break all of us had one thing in mind. If we play for 12 overs we would come out as winners. I and Jadoo aka Santhosh went into bat. Jadoo took strike. Jadoo was our inform player. However, soon he returned to the pavilion without troubling the scorers. Rakesh also departed in the same over when he went for an expensive shot over the bowlers head. However, he got a leading edge and the keeper took the catch safely. In the second over, I got a juicy full toss from Ankit and I was in two minds, whether to loft the ball over the mid-on or play along the ground. Finally I just scooped it to mid-on.

Anna and Guru followed soon. Our top order went down like pack of cards. We were reeling at 11/5 at the end of fourth over. We were down and out at this stage. We were looking down the barrel. Someone in the crowd said that we could end up scoring the lowest score in the tournament. We required another 59 from 8 overs, with just 2 wickets remaining. Chandru joined Srinidhi. Sagar was the next batsman to come in. The target seemed next to impossible. With Srinidh still at the crease we had hopes of winning.

Our seniors had upper hand. However, they got complacent and they wanted to keep Chandru on strike. They moved their fielders in when Chandru was on strike. Chandru is more a bowler than a batsman. We wanted Srinidhi to keep strike most of the time as he was better than Chandru when it comes to batting. Chandru was nervous for the first two balls. Somehow he managed to keep the ball away from stumps. For the third ball he swung his bat and the ball just raised to the boundary, much to the delight of spectators and us.

Next over Chandru backed his abilities and launched two sixes. This brought some life into our innings. We all thought to ourselves that we still had a good chance to win. However the chances of winning were bleak as we just had two wickets in hand with just one batsman in Srinidhi remaining. One good ball could shatter all our dreams.

Meanwhile Chandru called for a help runner.. Guru went onto the field to run for Chandru. Chandru continued his good form and kept hitting sixes consistenlty. Srinidhi just remained as a spectator. I must say he had the best seat in the ground non-striker to watch the innings played by Chandru. Chandru took most of the strike. Contrary to what we were thinking when chadru went in. We wanted srindihi on strike for most of the time. However Chandru’s mix of aggression and defense meant that we moved closer to victory. Within no time Chandru moved into 40’s. The required rate came down drastically because of some lusty blows from Chandrus bat. We needed just 20 from last 4 overs. Chandru and Srindhi kept the partnership going. They did not want to leave it for Sagar, the next man to come in. We required 5 of the last two overs. At this point Chandru was on strike and was batting on 45. We could hear the ringing bells of victory. Chandru defeneded intial two balls and the third one, he deposited over mid wicket for a six. This shot sparked off wild celebrations in all of us. Chandru kept running. We kept running towards Chandru and caught hold of him and patted him on his back for his excellent innings and put him in pond. After that all of us gathered together and celebrated the victory. The match could have gone either way. Our seniors had done a good job. In the end we were better than them on that day

In the evening we went to Dominos. We had pizzas. Overall the tournament went well. All our teammates put up great performances. Cannot wait for the Spandan 2009.. :)

Yahoo...We are the Volley Ball Champions

Well, I am delighted to inform you all that we won the finals of the Volley Ball Match played against Guru's Team on 19th February. I would like to take you all thru the events that followed that day. The day before we had the finals I must say Rakesh's team did an excellent job. They put an amazing show the other day. They had to play a league match against Guru's team. It was a virtual semi-final. The one who wins that match would play against us in the finals. Rakesh' s team started of well and they went to win the first set against all odds. They also did well in the first half of the second set and were leading 10-2 half way thru the second set. However Guru's smash hit Chandru on the eye and he suffered a minor injury. There was a long pause in the game and this broke the rythm of Rakesh's team and Gurus team made use of this break and regrouped themselves and came back well to win the second set 13-15. And the match was evenly poised. Two teams had equal opportunity to win. Though Rakesh's team did well in the third set, Guru's team was better that day and went on to win the third set and set up a final between then and our team.

We had defeated Guru's team in the league match. So all of us were confident of giving the same treatment to them in the finals. However, we thought to ourselves not to be overconfident. It has been long since we played volleyball. As we had to go to office daily, we did not find enough time to practice. So all our team mates decided to come early on the day of finals to do some warm up. I too thought of coming early. However, as bad habits die hard, I went late to office on that day. So I had left office late in the evening. So i could not join my team mates and I came to campus by 8.30PM. I got myself ready and did some warm up just before the match began.

Lot of people turned out for the match. The stage was set up for the big match. Both the teams arrived on the ground. Our team captain Prabodh a.k.a James won the toss and we chose the court. There was lot of support for both the teams. We had a team meeting just before the match started. We just wanted to keep it simple and play our natural game. The umpires for the day were from junior batch Adavan and Khanana. The match started with huge roar from crowd. Initially ducky was little rusty, understandable as he did not play for a long time. We know each other well and we know he just needs some time to get settled before he can get going. We soon went into lead half way thru the first set. At one point the score read 14-9 in favour of us. However because of our mistakes and some good play from Guru's team they got thru the first set. After few minutes the second set started. We knew that to win the game we had to win the remaining two sets. Once again we had a team meeting and wanted ourselves to keep it simple. Second set was neck and neck. Mid way thru the second set the score read 9-9. It was Ravikanth's turn to serve. He kept it simple and we comfortably went into lead once again. Raj by this time got into the groove and started smashing the ball. We went on to win the second set 15-10.

The game went into the final set. Both the teams had to battle it out in the third set. The crowd were excited. We were also excited. We wanted to keep the rythm going. Third set too was neck and neck. At one point the score read 9-9. Once again it was Ravikanth's turn to serve. Ravikanth's serve was lucky for us that day and soon we got into lead. The score read 14-9. At this time we knew that if we do not make any mistakes the cup would be ours. However, there was an incident. The ball hit the tree and Raj hit the ball on the second attempt. And Nareen took it on the third attempt. However, it was a difficult ball for him. As the ball hit the tree we asked the umpire to rule it as reserve. Umpire Adavan ruled it as reserve. However, the opposition team were nervous by this time and wanted the decison in their favour. There were some heated arguments exchanged and finally we decided to put an end by asking umpire to give the decision in their favour. Soon we broke their serve. Prabodh made an excellent block and it brought smiles on all our faces and all those who were supporting us. We wer inching closer to win. It was Raj's turn to serve. He made a simple underarm serve and after a few rallies the opposition team hit the ball out. It kicked off wild celebrations in us. All of us were delighted to see the ball going out. All our supporters came running towards us and congratulated us. It was the most satisfying feeling. We were on cloud nine.

It was a great team effort through out the tournament. We all know each other's abilities well. Well Prabodh made our job easier. Guru known be the best smasher in our college was blocked. Prabodh made our job in the back lifting the ferociously hit balls lift easier by blocking most of his smashes. Ravikanth in the centre did a fine job. Raj and Chandu did a fine job in the smashing position. Nareen and I had to cover the second half of the court. Nareen also played his role well. Overall all of us enjoyed playing in each others company. The secret of our success is knowing each others abilities well and jelling as a unit. Last but not the least the support we received from our friends.

Team Outing Kodiak Networks

The final semester of our M.Tech course at iiitb is designated for industry internship, or the writing and defense of a research thesis. I opted for industry internship. I got placed in Kodiak networks. Our team planned for a team outing on 15th February. We went to Confident Cascade, 19Kms On Bannerghatta Main Road. I woke up at around 5.30 am. Thanks to Naveen L, one of the employee at Kodiak networks, who called me up in the morning to wake me up. I have a bad habit of waking up late in the morning :). The other day we were told to be in office by 7.30 am so that we can start early and reach the place by 8.30 am. Reason to escape the heavy traffic.. I made it to office by 7.15AM. Only few people made it to office by 7.30 AM. We had to wait for the rest before we get started to Confident club. We started at 8.00 am and reached the place at round 9.15am. On the way all of us were made to dance in the bus :).

After reaching Confident Cascade we had our breakfast. We were served Bread, Omelet and Puri. Later had tea. After that we straight away went to cricket ground. All were eager to play cricket. Two matches were played. I was in Pratap's team. Though the team against which we played i.e Naveen's team..went on to win the match we all enjoyed the game. Then we played Badminton for a while. Later, we went to play Billards. Well, this was the first time I was getting a feel of Billiards. Thanks to Shesi who helped me out in learning this game. He gave some instructions on how to go about playing this game. We played for an hour. With great difficulty after taking shots at around five balls, I finally shot one red ball in. Mission accomplished :). Had a good time playing Billiards.

It was already 2PM and it was time for our lunch. Lunch was okay. Ice Cream tasted good. After lunch we played some team games. Thanks to Raval Prakash, Naveen L who had come up with some games which entertained all and kept us engaged.

We just ran out of time and it was around 5 PM. Time just flew. It was time for us to make the return journey. Since driver was not available, We had to wait for a long time. To kill time some of our team mates started playing Badminton. After half an hour the driver returned and we had to make the return journey to office. There was heavy traffic and we reached office at around 7.15 PM. I had a great time with my Team mates @ Kodiak Networks. I Hope we have many more outings in coming days.. :)