A lifelong fan watches his favourite cricketer reach a double-century
Kartikeya Kumar04-Nov-2016As a die-hard Yuvraj Singh supporter, I’ve always been perplexed as to how someone with his talent is not a permanent fixture in the Indian team. In and out of the national side since mid-2013, Yuvraj’s performances in List A and first-class cricket have been my only avenues of tracking his cricketing career.Based in Delhi, finally the time came to watch my cricketing hero live as Punjab faced Baroda in a Group A Ranji Trophy match over the Diwali weekend – October 27-30.Batting first, Baroda amassed 529. In what was effectively a one-innings shootout, Yuvraj came in to bat on Day 3. I sat glued to score updates on ESPNcricinfo as he reached his century – regretting not heading to the Feroz Shah Kotla that day. My only solace was that Yuvraj was unbeaten on 179 at stumps. I was determined to head to the ground on Day 4 with a chance to witness a double century from a champion cricketer, though Diwali fell on that very day.On Sunday, October 30th, I started early from home, travelled by the Delhi Metro and stationed myself outside Gate No. 7. This gate is the one next to the DDCA office, and leads to the south stand where the tickets are usually quite expensive for international and IPL matches. A small group of about ten men slouched in their seats, watching the game. The men were in a wintery daze on this autumn morning which led me to presume that Yuvi was out and my trip to the stadium was in vain.The batsman at the crease, with his back towards us was right handed, clearly not Yuvraj. I asked around, but none of my fellow stadium attendees seemed to know what was happening. I looked at the scorecard at the ground. There were no names. One player was batting on 181 and the other (Manan Vohra) on 210. It was now clear that the batsman at the non-striker’s end was Yuvraj Singh.Vohra, who was already past 200, dispatched all loose balls to the boundary. Yuvraj was a bit more circumspect – getting to a double century was more important than getting there quickly.After Vohra was dismissed, two spinners – Swapnil Singh and Yusuf Pathan – bowled in tandem. Yuvraj was at ease when facing Swapnil, a slow left-arm bowler, but found it rather trickier with Yusuf, who bowled with a flatter trajectory. Yuvraj was particularly nervous in the 190s, surviving a couple of lbw appeals. He soon brought up his double century though, with a casual flick of the wrists towards midwicket. Yuvraj raised his bat, and the smile on his face was visible from a distance. Having crossed 200, the time had now arrived to entertain the festive crowd in attendance.As Swapnil bowled the next over to Yuvraj, me and the fans around me yelled for a six. Long-on, long-off and midwicket were all in place. But Yuvraj’s power and a small ground proved too much for the Baroda spinner. Yuvraj deposited the first ball from Swapnil’s over to the first tier of the southern stand, right where I was sitting. It was his first six in the innings. The ball landed a few rows over the sight screen, and since that area was vacant, I ran towards the ball, and gave it to the fielder at long-on. It is a moment I will cherish throughout my life – touching the ball hit by my favourite batsman, and one of the best stroke-players to have graced the game.The second six came off the very next ball, and was hit straight to the stand I was sitting in. By this time the men who were almost asleep at the start of the day were wide awake as they attempted and failed to catch the ball. The ball did cause a bit of damage to the Kotla seats though.Yuvraj would then go on to place a straight drive for four, hit another six to the south-west stand and finally smash another six while batting from the other end.As Yuvraj walked towards the dressing room at lunch, a few fans ran towards the restricted south-west stand where the players and staff were seated, with expectations of a selfie with Yuvi. While they had to face disappointment, for me it was all about witnessing those 60-odd runs scored in that session by my favourite cricketer.With Diwali celebrations lined up for the rest of the day I left the ground, but tracked the scores until Yuvraj was dismissed by offspinner Vishnu Solanki, which triggered a Punjab collapse. Yuvraj innings of 260 though was more than sufficient for Punjab to gain a crucial first-innings lead of 141 runs and claim a vital three points. This was also Yuvraj’s highest score in first-class cricket and if he retains this belief and spirit, he will don the colours of India once again.
