Wow, what a finale!!!

Yes, so lets fast forward... as it happens in the movies... the camera points towards the sky.. darkness falls and soon the sun rises...

"Good Morning Ashley", RK said at about 7 AM in the morning. I tried to get up, but could not. So what was wrong, i wondered. 2 things. Firstly, Adrian had a game against Canada. It was at 1:00 AM Pacific time. So I had woken up and watched the game and then slept. That means, instead of taking rest, I was watching Hockey. Secondly and most importantly, the elephant was hurt. Elephant = ME. Last evening, when i tried to save a single i ran a little too quickly and a sudden motion seems to have hurt my knee. So I was unable to run and even climb stairs. The pain still persists now. At this juncture, I would like to please reiterate that this is NO reason for my batting failure. The pain in my knee is genuine and I will not use it as an alibi for my horrendous failure.

Ok, so it was a problem to get my ass of the bed. Somehow i did get up. It was already 7:30 now. The game was to begin at 8:30. And yea, the drive was about 40 mins. So we were running pretty close to getting late.

I packed all my stuff, the laptop, tees, tracks into my bag and took it along. So we were off, heading to the ground for a pre-quarter final. I had thought long and hard in the night, about my failure. What mistakes I was making. How could I get back to earlier times. I did my analysis and was ready to make a bigger impact. The analysis was as follows. I was trying too hard. I was trying to hit the ball out of the park everytime. Giving no respect to the ball. My footwork was also not upto the mark. I should have come on the front foot to play the shots. Ok, So there I was. All set for the big game. This is when 1 thought crossed my mind.

"I was palying such a trivial match. It was not of a serious concern to any one of us. it was just a time pass game. But there was pressure on me. Just 2 failures and there was pressure. then i thought about Adrian. he has played over 120 games for India. Every time he must be going to sleep there must be so much of pressure. I cant even imagine the pressure before a India-Pakistan game. And him being a goal-keeper, things get even bigger. He is always in the limelight. Cameras are always on him. So here, ill take a moment to raise a toast for my dear brother. Bro, I always knew playing proffesionally is a tough task, but today after a long time ive realised its a taks of unimaginable pressure and expectations. I am so proud of you, you have given your sweat, blood and tears for the game and country. You are a real Hero. That Shahrukh Khan can only make money and sleep to glory. It is people like you, the soldiers of this country, who are the real heroes. God Bless you and people who strive to bring glory to our country, day in and day out."

Ok, so we were on our way to the game. We picked another 3 friends and headed to the ground. today the ground was another one. we reached there, the ground was different, but the conditions were the same. Chilly and Unbearable for me!!!

So i did a small jog. Suddenly i realised my captain, Laxman had 2 friends who were in tracks and getting ready to play the game. Now, this was interesting. So the toss happened, we were going to field again. I went to the dug out to keep my cellphone. RK came behind me.

"Ashley, there is a slight problem. We have 12 players and either you or me will have to sit." To be frank, I was not surprised. I kind of expected it. The team had added me as a batsman and if I was unable to make runs I was of no use. So I was dropped. I sat in the dug out cheering my team. The guys bowled really well to restrict the opposite team to just 56 runs. The score was similar to the chase we performed against Infosys. So how did it go?

Did Ashley not being there make any difference?

Did the team benefit from the 2 new players whom the captain had called for?

More answers and results in the next round!!

Till Den, good nite and cya!