Junior Premier League by Joy Bhattacharya

Author:Joy Bhattacharya [Bhattacharjya, Joy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789351186410
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

NEEL WALKED SLOWLY OUT OF THE DRESSING ROOM TOWARDS the centre of the ground. In his hand he had a team sheet with the names of his eleven players and their shirt numbers and the four substitute fielders. He was joined by Milind, the Patriots captain, who gave him a friendly nod, and the umpires for the game, Piyush Gupta and Tarun Saklani.

Once in the middle, they exchanged the team sheets, so that each knew who was playing for the other team. These would now be given to the scorers for the match, who would use the jersey names to follow the action.

‘Neel Roy, as visiting captain, you will make the call. Milind, you will toss the coin. This is a five rupee coin; the side with the number is tails, and the side with the Ashoka Lion is heads. Please have a look.’ Saklani went through the standard umpire patter before Milind tossed it high.

‘Tails,’ said Neel. He really wanted to field. Saklani followed the coin after it dropped and picked it up.

‘Heads. Mumbai, your call.’

‘We will bat.’

Neel heaved a sigh of relief; they got what they wanted after all.

‘Game starts exactly at 1 p. m. Fielding side at the gate at 12. 58.’

Neel rushed back to the side where the other players were slowly doing their warm-ups.

‘We are bowling, coach. I called it wrong, but they wanted to bat anyway.’

Satyajit nodded. ‘Just relax and do a light warm-up, the sun here gets a bit hotter than you think.’

At 12. 55 p. m. the eleven Devils and Satyajit were next to the field, hopping around, full of nervous energy. The four reserves and the rest of the staff were right next to the ground in the dugout.

The bell went, and the two batsmen Nandan, the lefthander, and Vishal Bhalerao slowly walked past them to the middle.

‘Enjoy your game. Support each other. Keep talking. And Neel, try and field close to this dugout—I will try and tell you anything Srikkanth or I notice,’ said Satyajit.

Sachin was fielding at third man, one of the only two fielders outside the circle in the first 6 overs. His knees were still like jelly!

JPL! Sachin in the JPL! I’m playing! I’m playing! His mind was going like a roller coaster as he stood on the boundary ropes.

The first ball of the JPL was from Keshav. It was slightly outside off stump and short, and Nandan just dabbed it down to third man for a run.

As the white ball rushed towards him, Sachin actually felt his feet moving and running to the ball before his mind followed. Fortunately, he took it cleanly and threw it back to the keeper, Puneet. The game had started.

The non-striker batsman, Vishal, took his stance. Vishal was one of the most fearsome hitters in the school game, and the choice of a mid-leg guard from the umpire meant that he was ready to go from the first ball. The next ball was a bouncer, which Vishal completely ignored and allowed into the keeper’s gloves.

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