Final - 1

We were told to bat first and we took the opportunity to good use with the first session ending with 87 for no wicket.

With Travis Scoring 33 of 79 and Norman Scoring 50 of 101. It was a real good start Considering we hadn't lost a wicket at lunch.

As I looked at the stands from the Dressing room I saw that a lot of people were present for the match.

Well, it's understandable since there was no football match going on right now.

They were on break and on the 24th is the semi final and on the 26th is the final.

It's kinda sad that not even half of the crowd will be present by the end of the match.

...

The 2nd session ended and yet again, no wickets were lost and the score ended up being 202/0 after 60 overs.

It was tea break and I didn't have to go out and bat until now. I've been doing defense practice for a while now.

I haven't really been useful when it actually mattered so I hope It doesn't end that way.

People seem to be having fun with the in and outside from both teams with the oos and aas

It's funny how indulged these people are on every ball. And making weird moans whenever the bat misses the ball.

They clap every time a boundary is hit or if someone reaches a 50 or a 100.

Travis right now is on 89/172 and Norman is on 104/188.

While everyone was waiting for their turn to bat, these both started solidly with a score like this.

...

The 3rd session ended and we were 2 down, and I was one of them with Norman being 1.

The score was 324/2 by the end of the day's play.

As everybody dispersed while gathering and gossiping over how irritating it must be for the bowlers to have the patience to bowl for 90 overs and not have a good end for the day.

Well, that's how cricket is played. It's all about patience.

They have been using Seamers alot hoping for the players to make a mistake while not using the spinners much.

They do not realise this is a spinning track.

Haha, I can use this to my advantage.

The thing is, this is infact both a seaming and a spinning pitch. They don't seem to realise it since they are totally focused on seam and think that just because there is seam movement there won't be spin Movement.

We are evading them well... The plan should work well against these folks.

The plan of a closed field should work well.

...

120 overs in and by the end of the 1st session of day 2 We ended up with a score of 447/6.

Yes we'd lost 4 wickets in this session, while we didn't score quick runs. It was to no avail since we did lose a lot of wickets.

If the opening order doesn't do well, we'll obviously collapse.

...

By the end of the 135th over we were all out for a total of 492 runs.

We made a reasonable amount of runs.

...

Shit... I was right, until those 3 were here things were going well but by the end of day 3 we were in a real pinch.

The ball... It wasn't spinning at all... And they were evading seamers well.

Our spinners aren't getting as much turn as their spinners did.

I thought that, since there wasn't much seam... Spin would probably work well.

But, I was wrong. This... Wasn't a seaming track nor was it a spinning track.

It was a flat track that offered seam. That was it...

Our runs of 492 were not enough and by the end of day 3 they scored a quick shot 732 runs and declared the innings.

Which meant that we were batting now.

The moment we entered the Dressing room, I could feel the gloomy atmosphere.

They scored 700 odd runs in just 135 overs.

This was beyond bad... This was a shit situation.

"You said, that the pitch would be difficult... You said that it'd be impossible to bat here? Haa... Forget it."

"I.. I'm sorry... I just..."

"No, forgive me... Really, all this time you have helped us to get this far by imploring such strategies."

"I'm.. not sure what to do..."

"You... Aren't the only one in the team right? You have us to rely on."

"Alright everyone. If they can do it, we can too... Let's beat their asses to a pulp and get us that lead."

"Yes, captain."

"Wait... No... Don't be aggressive."

"What? Didn't you see how they played? It's obvious it's a normal pitch and has no hardships with spin."

"Yaa..."

I don't have any confidence in me to make another wrong decision. I made a shitty mistake and now we are suffering the consequences.

"Heyyyy!!"

The one who shouted was The VC Travis.

I looked at him with dead dead eyes.

"We have trusted your judgement until now, so tell me what's bothering you."

"I don't, know... I might... Be wrong... And ... If I am... Than I'll drag the team... Into even... More... Danger."

"Just tell us what's on your mind, it's up to us to decide if it's legitimate or not. We are not dumb enough to mindlessly follow stuff, so tell us... What's bothering you."

there's no point in worrying, they are the one's who'll make the judgement. My job right now is to offer them advice and play my game.

"I think... The pitch is turning and it's still the hardest pitch out there."

And so I gave them the whole reason why I thought we shouldn't take the aggressive approach.

It was obvious really, thier bowlers had spin but ours didn't..

The obvious reasons for that was..

Finger spin, his spinners were finger spinners or rather 1 of them was and he was having great spin on the ball.

There are two types of spinners, spinners who use their entire wrists to catch the ball and spin it.

And those who use their fingers to grip and spin it. Finger spinner have a better grip than Wrist spinners.

It's a general fact everybody knows. That's why, sometimes fingers spinners have a better spinning rate than Wrist spinners.

So I told them to be aggressive against Wrist spinners and not against finger spinners.

Because they are the real threat of the pitch and as long as they don't understand this it is better for us.

And so day 4 began with the very first ball being the wicket of Norman.

***END OF CHAPTER 50***