Chapter 25 - Day 1 and 2

We lost the toss and were told to bowl first and the team was weak as shit...

They only managed to score 58 runs in the first Innings. And we were told to chase down 55 in 60 Balls.

When I sad playing against a team the average score my opponent was above 100... And we were pretty much either bowled out or didn't go above 70-80 runs.

This team seems to be in a worst state than us. My first openion after the end of the first innings was that the bowl was spinning alot and our spin packed all rounders were quite useful for us.

There was not much Swing or pace in the pitch so I got to do 2 stumpings and was able to catch an edge.

I was pretty useful at the back of the wickets. And I'm expecting something insane to happen for us while batting but I can only hope that won't be the case.

...

Aah... What the hell just happened? Who the hell is this guy? A. STeven? I've never seen someone hit the ball so cleanly and on top of that he's hitting such big sixes.

On top of that... He's hitting Sixes almost every 2-3 balls.

He's only played 10 balls and he's already hit 4 Sixes and 1 Four and gotten 3 Runs and 2 Dots.

While the other opener Y. Justin is quite majestic while playing, He's hitting boundaries so easily...

He's not trying to hit the ball in the air but he's hitting it along the ground... He's quite good...

While the bowlers... They are beyond shit... Bowling Slot balls and Fighting the balls in such small Boundary lines, are they stupid?

Even a misshit could go for a six considerating how small these boundaries are...

And yet they aren't able to adapt to the conditions and use the pitch by simply bowling fast to avert the disadvantage of Boundaries.

You can get good spin on the ball even if he were to spin at a faster pace.

And so we won the match with 36 balls remaining and We won by 10 wickets.

It was an overwhelming Victory...

The match ended with A. Steven scoring 37/14 balls and Y. Justin Scoring 21/10 balls.

And the first Match ended there, without any problems for us...

These guys are seriously talented...

...

After winning the game overwhelmingly we all were Sitting in the dressing room talking about the positives...

"How did you do it?"

As I was listening to everyone talking the captain asked me something Outta nowhere.

"What did I do??"

I asked in surprise to that question...

"That stumping... That wasn't normal was it?"

"Which one? Ooh that one... It's just something I've been practicing."

"You didn't let the Ball come to your gloves... You bought gloves close to the Stumps as you took the ball and ripped the bails off the wicket."

"It's nothing special... I've been practicing it since I was a child... Instead of letting the ball drop on my gloves... I felt like it's better to just take the ball right behind the Stumps and than Hut the stumps."

"That's exactly it... How did you do it... You didn't just predict the trajectory but also made sure you didn't catch the ball before the wickets which would have been a no ball."

Ooh there's another rule where if you catch the ball before they pass the bails that would make it an Illegal delivery or a No ball and the team would get a free hit.

"As everyone says... Practice makes a man Perfect."

He just sighed and ended the discussion, than he looked at me again and this time he looked me in the eye and said.

"Good job."

As he hit my chest with his Fist.

"It's my job afterall."

I said that but I was quite Happy.

...

The 2nd match too ended in a win, and again I couldn't get a chance to bat and it was the same pitch as before...

As expected the pitch was spinning alot...

But, the other team seemed to be good at Spin but that only lasted until the both openers got dismissed at 3rd over.

They posed a total score of 80/7 wickets.

The remaining 3 wickets were down in an instant.

The last 3 wickets were taken in the final over by a seamer who took 3 wickets and consieded only 10 runs in his 12 balls.

He's truly top class considering the remaining 8 went for 70 runs... And he was the one who took the bulk of the wickets.

This team really is filled with power houses..

His name I thing was J. Blumming, he seems like he'll be a real problem to face.

Tho he himself seems like a real problem to face considering the fact that he seems unapproachable...

Any way the 2nd innings was taken care of by the top 4...

A. Steven Scored 10/3 and got out..., Y. Justin scored 22/11 and got out. The most of the runs were made by S Gull who scored 39/18... And the match was ended by a 6 of the very first ball by the captain S. Yeverin.

Well, he is the captain for a reason afterall.

These 3 seem like they are very good against spin bowlers and seem good against whatever Seam attack that came against them.

That was how the day ended and the next match was supposed to be held Tomorrow at 7:35 Pm so we had quite a while to practice for the next match which will have a different Type of Pitch.

...

As expected we mostly did practice playing fast bowlers and everyone seemed in great nock against the fats bowlers also.

This team is really scary and as expected the Pitch today was a seaming track which had Low bounce...

This type of pitch is particularly hard to face because of the low and high bounces on the ground.

Considering it has good pace in it... It's probably one of the hardest pitches in display right now.

Well... The final would probably have all these conditions taylor made with mana so, the pitch will for sure have demons in it.

What I mean by demons is the pitch will probably be so hard that connecting the bowls would be hard.

These people need to learn the Art of Defence to fight in such a pitch

They seem like a very competent bunch when it comes to hitting the bowl with power but I wonder if they are any good with defence...

But well, for that we have to get to the final first.

...

Hmm... I was currently batting right now because of a batting collapses after a good top order start.

They as always started well by scoring 13/3 by A. Steven and Y. Justin scored a good 2 Boundaries and ended the first over with 21 runs.

But, Shit went down when A. Steven hit the bowl up in the air and was caught out of the very first bowl of the 2nd over.

And simultaneously S.Gull got out of the 3rd bowl after taking a single and hitting a 4.

And than got bowled of the 3nd bowl.

Which bought S. Yeverin to the crease.

This time He gook a single of the first bowl and gave the strike to Y. Justin who got bowled of the very next bowl.

Ending his short yet eventful Time on the crease.

That made us lose 3 Wickets and currently I was for some reason bought up the order at no 5 and I was out with 8 Overs to spare.

I Mostly took Singles and Gave the strike to the captain to which he got quite angry.

But I had my tactics.

And with that I played 4 bowls and was at 4 runs.

He on the other hand played 8 Bowls and scored a good 22 runs. And by the end of the 4th over our score was 42 for 3 but sadly after I took yet another single of the first bowl of the 5th over...

The captain got out of a flier.

And a new batsman was bought into strike, His name was N. Restorian...

He's bowled 3 overs in the 3 matches we have played and has done quite well for himself taking 1 Wicket and only giving away 22 runs of his 3 overs.

He's a promising all rounders in the team... If he bats well.

Or so I thought but the very first bowl he just danced down the pitch and smocked the bowl through long on...

It was a clean hit... So clean that I might just get side lined if I continue taking singles...

He took a single of the 2nd bowl as if telling me to show what I can do.

And how fortunate that I got a slot ball and I just cover drived it through Covers for a four.

Don't undersestimate me kid... I've played more cricket than your entire family...

I looked at him with a smug look as he tilted his head in confusion... And than smiled at me?

What? Was I mistaken? Looks like I was reading too much into just a single... Damn he seems like a nice guy...

I'm sorry...

...

Turns out that N. Restorian was quite the batsman, he took most of the strikefor the remaining 5 overs and scored a Quick fire half century while only giving me the last bowl of the over...

Why am I being treated like a tail ender in a test match? This feels infuriating but still I as a very Mature person didn't let it get to me and kept smashing the ball towards him whenever I got the chance...

He would easily dodged it... And it'd either go for a four or a flat six because I hit it a little too well into the air.

That way I got 5 balls and scored 2 fours and 1 Six and ended my innings with 22/11 balls...

Hmm, I was playing at a 200 strike rate... That's nice...

Anyway with N. Restorian's innings we managed to get past 100...

With some Wides and No balls we got to a total of 112 runs in our 10 overs.

And surprisingly this guy called J. Blumming and N. Restorian taking 6 wickets with J. Blumming with the bulk of the wickets taking 4 and Restorian taking 2 of the remaining wickets.

This Restorian guy is quite Surprisingly Talented...

I'm quite surprised.

And with that we won our 3rd match and were currently topping the Group's table.

These guys really are worse than bad...

I wonder if winning will be this-

Nah I ain't gonna jinx it...

And that's how day 1 & 2 ended...

And for the first time In my life, I went two days without thinking of the Imperial Princess...

Maybe that's what you call progress...