Things have changed!!!

Our cricket team captain had sent our team's statistics for this tournament. In a nutshell, we have played 6 matches, lost 3 matches and have one more match to go. The last match (day after tomorrow) is critical for us to stay in the current league. If we lose we would be kicked out of the current league and be pushed to a lower league!

Now, coming back to the statistics part, it had 2 parts. The first part was the statistics related to the runs scored by each member of the team and the second part was the statistics of the bowlers of our team. While our bowling is pretty strong and a couple of our bowlers had really impressive figures, it is the batting statistics that I am going to concentrate on.

The top 2 batsmen (in the order of runs scored) had scored 81 and 59 in the total of 6 matches. Myself, thrid in the order, have till now scored 36 in 5 matches and with a strike rate of roughly 60%! Just 2 months ago I had the worst day in my cricket life - could not connect 5 consecutive balls! And that too when there was no expectation on me to play any big shots (see my previous blog "A very very bad day in cricket")! How did I become the 3rd maximum run getter from a batsman who could not even connect one out of 5 balls? What made me play the way I am playing now - confident and quick?

For the record I open the innings and have all the time in the world to settle down before going for the kill. But I also have to responsibility to holding on to the wicket for the first 4 overs when the best bowlers of the opposition give their best shot at crushing us! Holding on to the wicket I do, but I try to rotate the strike too. This would make sure that we keep the score board ticking and would unsettle the bowler too.

After the 'could-not-connect-5-consecutive-balls' incident I promised myself that I would apply my brains whenever I play and make sure that I settle down a bit before going for my shots. I also let our captain know that I wanted to player higher in the batting order.

Here comes the killer. Our captain called me up one day and asked whether I am up for opening the innings! Wondering how a person who could not connect 5 consecutive balls be asked to open the innings? In the first 2 matches of the current tournament I got chances to bat for 2-3 overs in the end - with no pressure to score fast - but only to just hang around. I liked this and hung around and made a bunch of runs too. This might have made our captain to take his chances with me.

When he called, he was not sure whether I can really do it. So he made it clear that the opening slot is the only one that is free and asked whether I am 'really' up for it. I had nothing to lose and said yes immediately. When I actually openend the innings next match, I actually volunteered to face the first ball! I just wanted an opportunity pretty badly and was ready to risk everything. That match I went on to score 12 runs. The same had been the case for the past 2 matches. I opened the innings and made sure that I stayed for at least 5 overs. Takings one and twos while I was there at the middle.

I am pretty confident now. I have actually figured out a technique to avoid the indecision that I have when deciding to play a ball on the fronfoot or back foot. And I have realised that all I have to do is to 'stay in the middle' and the 'runs would follow'!

All I know is that I am on a roll. I am not going to let this go easily. I will make sure that I stay longer in the middle and score at least 20+ runs in the coming match (day after tomorrow).