The Endeavors

Mr. Kill-Bill: "That’s all…!! Enough is enough!! No more!"

Rest of the friends looked at him, they knew he was correct. It was right on their face. It was time… things had to be finalized…

Few weeks back school summer vacation had started. Five friends decided that it was time to take their cricket to the next level… Bet matches! But they didn't have the team for it. Five of them were decent players. A bet matched required eleven players in a team. It was not hard to find players during vacation time in Chennai, every kid would be playing "Gully" cricket on roads! They started conference call with few schoolmates and they agreed to join their team! Now they needed an opponent, they should play well but not too good!! ;) Few more conference calls a team had agreed to play against them. They were thrilled! Every night they had conference for two hours! Deciding the team formation and strategies! At least that was the main intention, but it would end up having discussion about meaningless topics and still they laughed and enjoyed the conversation! Every now and then someone would bring up the topic of match then again after five minutes topic would have drifted away. The five enjoyed these long conferences even though it had no meaningful talks and it would go late into night adding to the parents’ fury! ;) They started practicing well before match; this is where they will decide the team formation. The opening bowler was the first slotted that needed to be filled. It is always difficult to find a good consistent bowler for a team ours was no different.

Mr. Kill-Bill was a good all-rounder. Calm, patient, opening batsmen and bowler of the team

Mr. Thiloth supposed to be another all-rounder. Short tempered and thinks he is an exceptional cricketer. His bowling action has raised questions with opponent.

Mr. Simkesh, the opening bowler. More than SIX feet tall, lean and athletic body runs in hard, jumps high and bowls a ball which a seven year old could smack out of the park. Dedicated, good hearted and ready for anything we do.

Mr. Wine, our wicket keeper (they kept him behind the wickets so that he doesn't have to take any catches!! And he would stand well behind so that he can stop the ball somehow! ;) But the guy improved far beyond their expectations) he was also above-average batsmen, on his day there is no stopping him. So he was given the one-down slot.

Mr. Wordsy, he was dedicated player. He could do a bit of bowling when other bowlers were taken for runs, a decent middle order batsmen and a good fielder (whose position in field is always deep mid-wicket!)

Rest of the team members were not fixed, they used to come and go as match goes by. A guy is recruited in team by the selection committee (the five friends) mostly because he must have either thrashed their bowling or ripped their batting line-up apart! So the selection committee would conduct another conference call and woo him into team!!

A day before match, they were practicing, Simkesh charges in jumps high with tremendous force and bowls a ball which is so slow that it pitches twice before reaching the keeper, who makes a big fumble to collect the ball! This was the situation. But this didn’t make them stop, they decided to go ahead. The bet was for Rs.100/- for a 12 over match. Match was scheduled on morning 6 A.M at IDPL ground near St. Thomas Mount, which meant getting up by 5 and cycling half way across the city! And they made it on time too! ;) You know… all these conference calls they didn’t come up with a proper team name so let’s call them “Endeavor”. Endeavor arrived at the ground. Time for toss; Mr. Wine lost the toss (Nobody knows why he goes for toss! He is not the captain!! :P :P ) opponent decided to field first. The captain of other team informed that they have only 10 players and so they should get last man batting i.e. last batsmen will play without a runner on other side. The generous good heart “Endeavor” team agreed to it!

Endeavors started batting; things went horribly wrong, entire team was all out by 65!!(Thank god there were runs for extras! Else they wouldn’t have crossed 40!) Everyone knew that they have to do exceptionally well to win it! First few over’s they had no luck. Mr. Thiloth was a medium pace bowler but suddenly he said he will bowl spin. Mr. Kill-Bill kept saying to him to continue his normal bowling style and not to change it, the guy wouldn’t agree! So again the five main members met on middle of the game.

Mr. Thiloth: “I will bowl spin today, this is a spin track”

Mr. Wordsy: “Dei!! We are playing in local ground not chepauk stadium and that is sand you see on pitch not green grass!!”

Mr. Simkesh: “Ok! Are you sure you can spin the ball?”

Mr. Thiloth: “dude! I can spin the ball either way!”

Mr. Wine: “Do you want me to stand up the wicket?”

Mr. Kill-Bill: “Onnum theva illa… nee nalla pinnadi poi nillu…” (Not necessary! Go and stand well behind the sticks)

Per bowler only 3 over’s was allowed. This was Mr. Thiloth’s first over! The first ball he bowled was called a no ball by the umpire for chucking the ball (means that you don’t have proper arm action when you are bowling). Umpires are not professionals they are just batting team members. Mr. Thiloth got angry and started arguing.

Mr. Thiloth: “Hey my arm action is like muralidharan”

Umpire: “Dei mokka! Poda poi olunga ball podu!”

Endeavor surrounded the umpire and somehow made him agree that it was a perfect arm action! The next ball he bowled didn’t spin at all but the batsmen had no time to react, the ball crashed into the stumps!! Mr. Thiloth continued the over and got two wickets! That was the break through over Endeavor was waiting for! They kept on taking wickets; Mr. Thiloth took another two wickets in his next over! The match came to the last over they needed four runs of it. Endeavors brought in Mr. Thiloth, this was crucial over, opponent were down to the last batsmen there was no one at the non-striker end. The last batsmen was a junior school boy, opponent team brought the kid just to fill in the place. Mr. Thiloth bowls two balls giving away no runs. He fires in the next ball; it passes the edge and Mr. Wine makes a brilliant diving catch! Mr. Thiloth is ecstatic and jumps all around, but the umpire gives not out! Mr. Thiloth is furious and kicks the stumps of the ground. Rest of the team comes to console him and convince him that it was not an edge. He is charged up and bowls the next ball; the kid clears his right leg and smashes the ball over the boundary! They win! It was agony! To lose coming so close to victory! The opponent walked over to collect the victory money.

Mr. Wine: “Let’s play a three match series and winner of series will get the prize!”

The opponent agreed to the three match series. Endeavor had to win the next two games at any cost! The next match Endeavor practiced even harder, they recruited in better players this time. The second game and this time the opponent chose to bat first and placed a target of 84 to win. It was not easy for Endeavor, they reached the target huffing and puffing on last over. The last match of the series, this time again the opponent chose to bat first. Endeavors were pretty confident now. They had won the last match; they kept played with unchanged team. Mr. Simkesh runs in for the second over. The batsman is a new guy (looks like opponent team has started following policy of recruiting people like endeavor). Mr. Simkesh bowls a normal delivery, looking at the height of the bowler and the speed at which he runs in the batsman miscalculated the shot and played it too early. The ball just misses the stumps.

Batsman to his teammate: “dei ennada evan mala-madu matiri odi vanthu.. ball a oruti vidran!” (He runs in like a bull and rolls the ball along the ground!)

Teammate: “nee nenaikara mathiri avan periya bowler illa…” (He is not big bowler as you think)

Mr. Simkesh heard this conversation charges in the next ball… again the batsmen misses, the ball was close to the edge…

Mr. Simkesh (sledging): “Aadra atha… aadra…” (Play that!play!)

The batsman just glares back at the bowler… Mr. Simkesh walks back talking to himself positioning his hand as if practicing some new type of delivery! Runs in even harder for the next delivery; the batsman stays in the crease waits for the ball and THWACK! No one even bothered to move!! Mr. Wordsy at the boundary couldn’t stop laughing; if Mr. Simkesh had not sledged it would have been a single! Mr. Wordsy walks up to Mr. Simkesh.

Mr. Wordsy: “ethu unnaku thevaya? Periya brett lee nenapa? Olunga offside le ball a podu pothum!” (Do you need this? Do you think you are brett lee? Just maintain a off side line)

Mr. Simkesh: “dei avan six adipannu enaku epidida theriyum?” (How do I know he would smash it for a six)

The opponent went on to make 125 in 12 over’s and the opening batsmen crossed half century! Endeavor batting started, Mr. Kill-Bill went in with Mr. Thiloth, and they got a good partnership going. Mr. Thiloth got run out and it was given out my Mr. Simkesh! Mr. Thiloth got angry again, he started shouting at Mr. Simkesh for giving him out! Mr. Thiloth said he will do the umpiring for the rest of the match. Mr. Wine walked in, five over’s 50 runs were needed then, Mr. Wine played an innings of his life but eventually he got out. Mr. Simkesh was listening to famous "Arujnar villu" song from Ghilli walked in, 8 balls 15 runs were required. Mr. Simkesh being tall guy can swing the bat a long distance!! He walks in and hits a four and a six! No one has ever seen him play like that might be the effect of the song or his fight with Mr. Thiloth. Final over 5 runs are needed now, Mr. Kill-Bill was exhausted he needed a runner, last over runner is a crucial decision, he calls in Mr. Wordsy. Mr. Kill-Bill hits a four of the first ball… Relief!! And the next ball the scramble for a single! Endeavors made it! They won the series! The opponent gives them the Rs.100/- but they made a request. Let us extend the series to a five match series and Rs.150 bet! Endeavors think over and agree as they need to win one of the two matches! That didn’t stop them from celebrating their victory at Saravana Bhavan with plates of Idlly!

Match four: The opponent sets a target of 90! Endeavors play a decent innings until last few over’s wickets start falling badly. Mr. Wordsy who has been sent up the order plays well to bring the target within reach, four runs of last over last wicket in hand…! The first ball of the last over, Mr. Wordsy jumps down the pitch and tries to smack the ball but misses it completely and stumps are shattered! Endeavors have lost it!! Next match became crucial!

Match five: The match was scheduled in the afternoon at 3.30 PM; the wind was strong across the ground. Endeavor was put to bat first! They intelligently used the wind to advantage; the wind was blowing from leg-side to off-side for right hand batsmen, so a well timed shot on off-side meant ball would run away at great speed. Endeavors posted a target of 120. Now they needed to defend it.

Mr. Wordsy: “The wind is too strong on off-side, let’s keep minimum fielder on leg side and maximum on off side” the team agreed to the idea setting only 3 fielders in leg side.

First three over’s were favorable to endeavors, the batsmen had a little chat. The next ball the batsman walks across the stumps and muscles the ball to the leg side boundary. Endeavors were dumb stuck by the batsman’s power! Three sixes of that over! The opponent continued to exploit the leg side… The entire team gave a threatening look to Mr. Wordsy!

The following conversation really happened on match, this was well before it came on movie:

Mr. Wordsy: “Dei avan thaan leg side le adikaranu theriyuthu le off side le ball poduda” (Try to bowl in offside as the batsman playing only in leg side)

Mr. Kill-Bill bowls on off side; the batsman hits the ball through the line for a boundary.

Mr. Kill-Bill turns to Mr. Wordsy: “Dei avan epidi pottalum adikaran da!!”

The opponent won the match hands down! Endeavors had to give them the bet money.
Mr. Simkesh to opponent captain: “I’ll give you the money later we don’t have it now” The captain agrees.

Mr. Wine: “Should we extend this to seven match series?”

Mr. Kill-Bill: "That’s all…!! Enough is enough!! No more!"

Rest of the friends looked at him, they knew he was correct. It was right on their face. It was time… things had to be finalized about the bet money. They decided to talk this over conference at night because most of players of didn’t play the entire series nor did they enjoy the Saravana Bhavan idly and hence who pays how much has to be decided. The conference started at night… bet money topic was lost in the sea… six years have passed and the bet money is yet to be calculated…!