I have been in one or two scrapes in my life, but had taken it coolly. There were certain occasions where I came face to face with our perennial foe, the death itself. If not with a smile I had come out of them pretty confident.
I am not proud of the fact, fear is fear, and death is death, facing them are not easy for the best among us. I was only relieved I could pull through them without much damage.
But the one occasion I was really frightened was when I was playing a cricket match in my twentieth year or so. We had a club back home and played in whatever tournaments we could qualify into. I was only a visiting player to the team, being not a regular member because I did not stay there all the time. My younger brother who was a regular was a quickie and could drive the fear of god into any one on his days. I was an all-rounder, could bat a bit and bowl a bit.
On this occasion the match was away from home and we had reached the place late and with only nine players. The others were to reach the place within minutes. The bye law stated that we had to play under any circumstances and start the game on time or we would be disqualified. Both the captains went in to toss.
One could not play a cricket match with just 9 players in the highly competitive environment of a tournament. Our opponents were a set team which have only lost a few matches and were the current leaders in the tournament. So I approached the captain of the other team after the toss and asked him to let us bat first so that our other players could play when they reach the ground.
He refused it out right. I tried to talk sense into him, saying that we are not a match for them in our then depleted sate and we could not field with only 9 members. He refused to hear me out and told us that he was batting first. That captain was no fool. Though his team was superior to us in all departments of the game he was not going to let go of the advantage of having a member team to play against.
I was a hot headed guy then and did not believe in keeping things to myself. I declared open war on them and went into the field incensed to the core. The others in the team was not as vocal as me but shared my disappointment. You have heard about sledging haven’t you? The Aussies were the world leaders in it some time back before new rules were introduced. In this land it’s only a rumor and other than good natured banter nothing goes on between two teams on a cricket field in this land.
But on this day I took things in my hand and I am sorry to say that was very very nasty to the opposing batsmen. I would stand at the slips and would jeer, taunt, criticize the opposing batsmen on their stance, their technique, their runs between the wickets, their physiognomic features even. I was in a pretty nasty mood and must have behaved disgracefully. Our opening bowlers were real quickies and one was my brother. He was dead accurate and the other guy was fierce with a long run up but mostly spraying the ball all over with no control.
I would make snide remarks about the way people are knocked out by balls and never recovered. We were playing on a matted wicket that is a long mat was fixed on the grass and was used as the playing surface. Only those who have played on them would realize the terror and danger of playing in an uneven matted wicket. We used the regular red balls then. In the blazing sun they would draw a red line from the hands of the bowler to the stumps. Those were the days when helmets were scarce and most of us batted without them.
I would walk up to the batsmen and would drop some remark that they were not to worry if they got hit, we would carry them home. My brother is tall and has a very straight steady run up. I would murmur in a stage whisper to the batsman as he runs in, this is it boy, you have had it. Now their opening batsmen had been in the habit of forming century partnerships whenever they went on a cricket field.
We got rid of one with sheer terror tactics. Then their captain came on the field. He was their best batsman; I hinted that he would not leave the field. The poor guy got so terrified that he took to his heels when my brother was at the point of delivering the ball. Any way they fared very badly in the match. I was so wicked that I made the whole crowd against us by the time we bowled them out. Because of the terror exerted by the earlier bowlers I collected a five wicket haul in the match too. The poor guys could only score 125 runs.
Then began the real adventure, they had wonderfully accurate tall and incensed bowlers with them. When we went in to bat, the first three was brought out in stretchers. I was slated to go in four down. Honest to god I went into hiding. The other team members came in search for me saying that I only could do something. I refused saying that I am too tired to go in after my tremendous effort at bowling. Another wicket fell and our captain went in my stead. We had only scored ten or twelve by then, mostly in snicks.
Then another one fell, it seemed that the match would be over soon, we only had 9 players and the match was only five over’s old. I had to go in.
I had no helmet, the sun was blitzing overhead, and I could sense the suspense in the crowd and the opposing players. It seemed the whole world was against me and I was walking in to my own execution. I tried to console myself that it was not so bad out there; they could not have pace to rattle me.
I need not have worried, if they hadn’t the pace for anything else, they would have generated it against me. For the next sixty minutes I had the iron driven into my soul. To this date I had never faced anything of the like before, they were a pack of maniacs thirsting for my blood, the balls came with my name on it. I ducked and swayed, weaved in and out of the line of the ball and sometimes jumped out of the way because I could not run away, though every cell in my body wanted very much to run.
I was never a good hooker of the ball, that was the only way to deal with such stuff, but I doubt it very much if the great Mohinder Amarnath could have done it in that sort of circumstances. The balls would be propelled like cannon balls with fuse burning in them towards me; they would strike the lethal mat and would explode in my face with primordial hatred encoded in every molecule of them. The crowd cheered them on.
There were terrible fires burning within my head, we had only two more players to come on, if only I could get rid of their first three deadly bowlers I could have made a semblance of resistance. As it was, we were going in for a total disgrace.
So I gritted my teeth, swore, bellowed, roared, struck the bat on my pads, glared at my opponents, cussed them, feigned as if to get in line with the ball and swung my bat hard at the passing ball. I acted totally crazy. I am ashamed to admit that with all that show going on I had never intended to get in line with the balls which were all high quality body line bouncers aimed to kill or maim, it was calculated to show the opponents that I was not afraid, but in fact every inch of my body was shaking like hell.
If they had bowled sensibly they would have bowled me out, not a single ball was pitched on a good length on the stumps, if they had done it they could have uprooted my stumps anytime, I was not on a regular stance, I was standing up and square to face the bouncers, to have the advantage of my height over the ball to spot and evade them. But they were too incensed, too thirsty for my blood that they forgot they were out there to win the match.
Though it took some doing I finally got rid of the fiercest of the lot with the help of the tenacity of my captain at the other end. He was all bruised after the match. I got hit a few times too, not anywhere dangerous. After that I could chance my arms and got a few runs. Strangely I had got the spectators on my side then. People love a guy who shows visible guts in the face of real danger. They cheered every run I made and came to congratulate me after the game. I could take the dangerous bowlers to task when they came on a second time.
To cut a long story short we won the match with over’s and a wicket to spare. I could not sleep that night, not because of any elation at the win but I was too worked up and agitated even to sleep.
It still remains the scariest single hour I spent on the face of the earth.
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