WINNING TIMES!!

Saturday, 15th April 2006
INDIA TAKES ON ENGLAND IN THE LAST MATCH OF THE TVS CUP AT INDORE…
These were the headlines on the sports page of the leading English daily….

A match at Indore. I’d been waiting for this since the schedule for England’s tour of India
had been announced some 2 months back.
So what if England had lost 4 out of the 5 matches of the series. After all every new match had it’s own share of excitement. England were playing badly in the one-dayers (considering their performance in the tests, they had captured the Ashes after beating Australia 2-1…This victory had come after 18 long years…last one being in 1987) but that wasn’t my worry!!

My sessional exams were to begin on 15th April, the day of the match (such an auspicious date). But then you see miracles do happen…and in my case they did!!
My exams were rescheduled and now they were to start from 17th April (as if it made a difference).
Now my problem, the first paper-Pathology and Microbiology. Microbiology was interesting (bacteria and their sterilization) but I wish I could say the same for Pathology (I never could develop a liking for it). Better still I hadn’t studied it till now (so clever of me!!)

Well whatever, I had to watch the match…anyhow!! Dad being a member of the MPCA (Madhya Pradesh cricket association) was entitled to 2 passes for the match.
Great!!
THANK GOODNESS FOR SMALL MERCIES (in this case it was a big mercy!!)

“How are going to manage your studies? ”, aai’s query.
“Arre, its Sunday the day after…Waise bhi it’s not that tough, course bhi kam hai”, my confident answer.
“Fine then you can go”
This was 14th afternoon. That same night I don’t know what prompted me into saying this-“Aai, if you wish you and Akshu can go watch the match…I got to study”.
(Ye maine kya keh diya?)

Aai was more than happy…and all I did was bang my head on the bed…hard!!!
The next morning, dad, mom and Akshu left me alone at home and went to see the match.
I tried studying but all the while my eyes were glued on to the TV set. India had won the toss and had put England in to bat…they were 288 all out in their fifty overs…



At around 1p.m mom called “Akshu wants to come home…if you want you can come here and bring along one of your friends”…I pinched myself… “Was it really aai’s voice”…who else could it be…how foolish of me!!

Phone in my hand I dialled Priyanka’s number. “Free hai naa…chal match dekhne chalte hai”. She was like “Mera paper hai Monday ko…(she’s studying engineering) par no problem manage kar lungi…(he he)…reach your place in half an hour”
“Done, I’ll wait for you”


We reached the stadium late…(the damning traffic!!)The last ten overs of India’s batting…and the Indians were cruising along. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina were at the crease…


We found our seats and grabbing a can of coke each sat down to enjoy the match
The whole atmosphere was rocking; the chants of “JEETEGA BHAI JEETEGA, INDIA JEETEGA” and girls shouting “Yuvi, Yuvi” made me realize what it was like to watch a match LIVE.



In a cricket crazy nation like ours there’s never a dull moment in any match…
As Yuvraj hit the winning runs the whole stadium erupted!!!
India had won the match by 7 wickets and the series 5-1…hurray!!!
And I had seen the match (a part of it…) LIVE!!
Shreesanth was declared man of the match for his 6 wickets and India found a new opener in Robin Uthappa who scored 86…everything had gone India’s way!!

As Rahul Dravid lifted the cup we promised each other not to tell the other girls about our adventure (nahi tha kya??)
Wow, the feeling was yet to sink in and as we chatted about the final moments of the match, smiles just couldn’t leave our faces…

I did manage to pass my patho-micro exam (pura din aur raat padhna pada) and our secret remained one till I myself revealed it here!!
I know Priyanka won’t have a problem with that!!! What say???