I am sure that all of you are eager to hear about how we thrashed them on Sunday. Eager to hear all the titbits. Get a complete picture since you were not able to be present. During the match, I asked for volunteers who would take on the responsibility to write this report and promptly they just nominated me as the volunteer. So, here goes one more?.

November 20, 2005 was yet another ordinary day until around 11 in the afternoon when the Men of steel from IT Industry and the lads from department of Computer Science left the comfort of their homes and headed towards the Cricket Ground, Jamia Hamdard, a venue better known for inter faculty rivalry.

The match was to start at 10:00 a.m and can you believe it - every one of our players was on the ground by that time !!!! Terrific guys - shows your enthu for just catching up with one another and somewhere down the line Jamia Hamdard has instilled core values in us. Only 5 of the XI guys were there at that time !?!?

Seemab Khan, instead of the captain, went out to toss the coin along with Amit Arya. Amit won the toss and generously asked them to bat, so that during the innings, other members of their team could join (Observe how I am not using "we" and am distancing myself from his decision. Hindsight is such a wonderful vision to have).

We allowed their openers to score freely and bowled and fielded like millionaires. Wickets did fall at regular intervals. Runs were scored without interval. We treated our guests well and continued to treat them with generosity giving extras in the form of wides and no balls. Imran and Sumit gave team a good start on which Irfan capitalised to become the highest run getter for the side. Nazish showed some late order hittings to reach a respectable total.

Alumni were sure that they would be torn apart by Mandira and SickKanth (did I spell that wrong? Or did I spell that right?) in their post match analysis. Their innings ended since they were given rest in 20 overs instead of 25.

Masih Khan and Shariq (joined us for this match along with Kapil) got trained on how to be neutral umpires - especially on wides, no balls and lbws - not that they really needed any training. We controlled all aspects of the game from then on. We allowed the senior guys to take wickets whenever we felt like it. We took runs whenever we felt like it, which wasn't very frequently. The neutral umpires were severe with any ball that pitched outside the middle stump. One of their bowlers (Wasi Ali) had a suspect action that resembled a baseball pitcher.

Everytime a wicket fell, they got into a huddle and started the refrain "Ek-do-teen-char..." and we finished it for them, while they attempted to finish it by themselves. The ending part of this famous couplet declares a keen intent to treat each other's rear sides with disrespect.

The match ended around noon. We certainly had great fun and both sides caught up with mutual friends. Seemab Khan of Alumni XI was the Man of the Match, reason, winning the match for opponents. Irfan of Student XI got the Best Batsman Award while Shadab of Alumni XI won the Best Bowler award.

Are you wondering that something is missing in this report? Some mundane things like scores, runs and wickets. We are beyond such petty, insignificant milestones. We are now playing for the larger interests, like building fellowship and friendship. Winning and losing and focus on such trivia is no more the objective. Like I said in the beginning, we won the toss!

Akif Ahmad