World Cup'23

 

World Cup 2023 made me a cricket buff, before this I just remember watching the 2011 WC final match and I did not follow cricket after that. But this time around my father started watching and I tagged along and I feel it was the best thing I did, as I got to learn a lot from the game, players, crowd and the wins and the loses. The uncertainty of the game makes it interesting till the last ball. All the 11 matches that I saw were nerve wracking in their own unique ways. That adrenaline rush while watching the sixes, fours and wicket were all fun. I might still be an amateur cricket fan, but these are my learnings and takeaways from the series:

Let's start from the captain of the ship, Rohit Sharma played the captain's innings really well, he made the game interesting with his beautiful sixes and fours. As long as he was on the pitch the score board too knew that score would keep increasing. He thought us to be quick in hitting fours and sixes that is taking high risk shots in life, we generally wait for the right time and right situation but at times taking high risk shots in life as soon as possible is equally necessary, there are chances of getting out both in cricket and in life but like he has 9 players behind him to come and shoulder the responsibility, in life the early on we take risk we have age by our side and a lot less to lose, that early on.

Virat Kohli taught me the 'best birthday gift' concept really well. With his 49th century in ODI he gifted himself the best birthday gift possible. I often wonder what can be the best birthday gift and who can give you that, and then that day I got the answer. The answer is 'YOU'. You are the only person in your life who can give yourself the best birthday gift. There is nothing more euphoric than achieving your dreams. In contrast with the captain we see how calculated risk is taken by Virat Kohli, as at times in life after a certain age or at a certain post calculated risk is more rewarding and worth taking over high risk shots, to stay longer sometimes starting slow is a key that we see him using quite often.

 

Next in line is K.L Rahul, he feels like a calm in the chaos. He taught me the importance of keen observation with his wicket keeping, the review decisions and the number of catch outs were just commendable. Observation is everything actually, all the major discoveries are the result of observations, and he is too good at it. One more of his quality is perseverance, in spite of being a middle order batsman he comes and tries to score as many runs as possible. His partnership with Virat in the first match was amazing and in Pune  where Virat was about to score a century, the way he cooperated just shows his sportsmanship and then with Shreyas where they both scored centuries was a visual treat to watch.

 

And the bowlers made me believe that the bowling part of the match is sometimes more interesting than batting. Bumrah, Shammi, Jadeja, Kuldeep and Siraj gave us the best of all times. They showed us how a match can be turned over at any time, at any over. In the match with England they taught us how to win a losing match, sometimes we think we have lost it all but that's probably not the case, maybe a change in perspective can change our prospective.

 

At the end it's a game, someone has to lose and someone has to win. We lost, and it did feel like a personal one. Success has many parents and guardians and is owned by many, but failure is like an orphan kid , but this kid has 140Cr people to raise it to success again. So maybe next time.

 

Until then,

 

Happy Reading,

 

Siddhi Bhosale.