Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

Can't simply bowl after a month and expect to hit the right areas! My warm up balls today were despatched for 2 sixes to the square leg fence and the long on fence. The one despatched to the long off fence was actually on the off stump and a decent ball, but was just not fast enough to get the better of a remarkably good batsman. The guy- the right handed opening bat-was doing a Sehwag- no foot movement and then giving the ball a solid thwack.  I came back fairly strongly in my second two overs- the highlight being two yorkers on the trot- one of them squeezed out by the batsman and one of them crushing toe and getting me an LBW. This yorker, btw, was the stuff of dreams- maybe there was some reverse swing too :) Also learnt from teammates that I generate good bounce- which means that I should pitch it up more, and if I pitch it short then it may sit up and I might get the treatment that I got on this day!

If you see, I have completely steered clear of the numbers here- suffice it to say that i got a royal pasting fro Sehwag. I bowled only one bad ball in the second spell- and that was because halfway through the run up i was toying with whether i would bowl a slower ball but then i ditched it. Decide fast and stick to that decision! In bowling as in life, eh?

I made a measly 6 (5) while batting. I was middling it well- though there was a nicked 4 to the fine leg boundary which is as legit as an edged 4 gets because I was anyway flicking- so what if the ball got less of the bat than desired! I got out to a very good ball- in my defense. Outside off, good length, seaming away, and I nicked it to the keeper. It is the best ball I have gotten out to, and would have made the highlights reel of the bowler's career. But yeah- served up in reality what's served in telly all the time- new ball at good length outside off- you could let it go.

A run out followed immediately afterwards- because the non-striker V (who went on to make 47) did not set running policy at the start of their partnership. I am a scamperer and pretty quick between wickets and stolen singles are important component of my runs, but not everyone is like that. V continued scampering even after i left, and other partner N did not scamper, and the poor guy fell short. So many context elements- N had kept wickets earlier- so N and V should have had the conversation at the start about running policy.

Also learnt a lot about field placements, today- learnt more about how to quickly move the fielders rather than the actual placement. We wasted a lot of time in setting fields, and were almost docked an over. Also, was faced with the question of "when to react"- after you realize the batsman is despatching short ones, pack the square leg field- mediately? or wait for one more despatch!?

We lost the game, by the way.

Also, ITC grand central looks good- it overlooked our stadium: