The slower 'un

Some childhood memories are simply unforgettable. Sports were a reasonably big part of my childhood. Cricket and football (soccer for some) were the primary obsessions. Occassional dabbles in table tennis (ping pong for some) on the the narrow benches in school with hands or notebooks doubling up as 'bats' and bricks, pencil boxes etc forming the 'net', were a seasonal rage. Volleyball, and badminton also made guest appearences. But being in India, cricket got the most 'air time'.

Luckily we had some open areas back then where we could free our arms. These were the public parks in the locality that were always busy with at least 5-6 games going on in parallel. Sundays were devoted for little more competitive versions of the game. Enterprising players from neighbouring localities challenged each other with matches. There was a 'prize' which was negotiated before hand - either a lumpsum in cash or the cricket ball with which the match was played. Each player contributes a fixed amount towards the 'prize' and the winning team gets to take the spoils. The matches themselves were usually 10-15 overs (per team) long with 5-7 members per team.

A delivery from one such match always brings a smile to my face. Some other details have mostly been completely forgotten. Like who batted first, how many runs were scored, who finally won- my 'little grey cells' fail me there. But this one ball is etched firmly in my memories.

Being the eldest member of the team (about 13 years old then), I always got elected as the captain. Raghu, Deepak, Shammi, Vicky and Pammi were the other team members (I am not sure if I got the team lineup entirely right). Danny and Co. were our opponents. Danny was batting rather well that day and seemed to be running away with the match. I started a new over. Gentle medium would be best description of my style of bowling.

The first two balls were pitched on short of a length, around off stump and moved away - he simply opened the face of his bat and ran the ball down between the wicket keeper and short third man for couple of runs. This off stump line did not seem to be working. But I could not afford to stray on the leg side either.

I walked upto to my bowling mark for the third ball of the over. Just as I turned around to bowl the next ball, a thought struck me. I paused for a second, rubbed my hands against my trousers, gripped the ball again and ran into bowl. The line was again good length, on off stump, only this time I deliberately bowled it a little slower than the previous 2 deliveries. Danny played his pre-meditated open-the-face-of-the-bat shot again. This time though the ball came after he had lifted his bat and ever so slowly,as though in a slow motion replay, it clipped the top of off stump.

Got him !

I can still recall the Danny's expression - he stared open-mouthed first at the stumps, then at his bat and finally at me. He just could'nt believed that he had been bowled ! I, of course, was smiling ear to ear and my team mates were jubilant.

As I said before, I have no recollection of the final outcome of that match, but this particular dismissal stands out in my mind.

Spinners have a rich set of variations in their armoury - googly, 'doosra' or the wrong 'un, flipper, slider etc. For the fast (or gentle medium) bowlers, there is nothing like a good slower 'un.