Cricketing Folklore

The feverish enthusiasm in the last few weeks of IPL cricket was
matched by a bunch of passionate and committed kids in the Under 14
Heros Cup Inter-Mantri community tournament held by the Mantri Group.

The Finals on May 17th at the Loyola Grounds was agog with high
expectations from the defending champs, Mantri Paradise who took on
Mantri Gardens.

The local team discussions were all about winning handsomely as they
were brimming with self confidence with facile victories in their run
up to finals.If anything, the only concerns were lack of batting
exposure to the line up and possible overconfidence.

Mantri Paradise won the toss and electe to bat with Kunal, the state
player along with V Abhijit( AJ to his friends) who opened the innings
for the first time.

Kunal fell rather cheaply with a cut to point finding a fielder and
the responsibility of anchoring the innings fell on AJ.

Displaying a cool head and egging his partners, AJ slowly but surely
took control with deft and delectable strokes, playing late and into
the gaps cleverly and cutting out all risks with occasional
boundaries.The flicks and glances flowed as did the cuts and
pulls.Innovating all the way, the stand out shot had to be the reverse
sweep of a slow medium pacer for a rousing boundary, a shot to
celebrate his fifty,in style.

Vicky joined AJ to contribute with some lusty hitting and the
partnership paid rich dividends with AJ top scoring with a
match-winning knock of 59 off just 32 balls while Vicky blasted a few
sixes on his way to a blistering 41 off 16 balls...

A total of 140 in 15 overs meant that the opposition was already down
if not out.

But AJ was not yet finished as with his infectious enthusiasm and his
confidence running sky high after his knock, took a stunning running
and sliding catch off the very first delivery to put the opposition
further in a tight spot.

Bowling a gentle off spin, AJ got wickets off consecutive deliveries,
a stumping off a wide delivery and a catch in the deep delighting his
fans as he was on a hat trick.The crowd was now beginning to chant
AJ's name an soon he returned with figures of 5 for 5 .Along the way,
he effected a stumping as well to have a hand in 7 dismissals in
all.Fittingly, the last wicket to fall was a caught and bowled for AJ
making the finals his own. A verymemorable performance much to all our
delight.

The margin of victory of over a hundred runs was thus emphatic and
truly underscored the talent, temparament and technique of the
reigning champs.