To us, winning was a habit!

The smell of success,
The blood of opponents,
The belief that your team can come from deep down and win,
The strategy of successful superstitions,
The palpable change of mood from despair to ecstasy in the dressing room(?),
The moment of pride when you say your team is the best,
The once-in-a-lifetime inning played by your teammate in turning tables.
Yes indeed - We are the best, We beat the rest.

There were stunning catches held, vital innings played, quickfire momentum built, coming out on top even when some of the premier players were not involved, tight-line bowling spells, the occassional bowlers turned their golden arm, the men behind the stumps doing a great job.
All in all, it was a great team effort from a team that was rich in talent, effort, spirit and that believed in themselves. And I am personally proud that I went out to the toss everytime and did my job to some sense of satisfaction.

Yes, I am talking about the cricket tournament organized by the ISA here at UKY.

Some tidbits that I enjoyed during this tournament -
1. The stunning catch that Kay produced under the tree (doesnt he love the trees when taking catches?) that saved us some runs more than taking that wicket.
2. The beautiful last 2 balls bowled by Pradeep when all the opposition wanted was 3 runs off 2 balls. Man! that win I will savor for a long time because we were a make-shift team for that match and that was a huge win for us!
3. The bowling effort that won us our second league match by restricting the opposition to just 65 runs. We won the match during the break itself.
4. Semis was another beautiful bowling effort. Never were the opposition in contest. An easy win with new found bowling talent in Laka and Dins. Breathtaking couple of catches from Dharma.
5. Finals, still 77 runs from 7 overs with only 3 wickets in hand. The opposition thought that the match was in their pockets by then. They talked with a sense of air during the drinks break - "You guys have already lost the match, you have to wear the runners-up shirt". Alas! Dudeeeeeeeeeeeee! Vasu and DineshP really kicked some a*&e%. What a sweet win it was :)

No wonder, when I said "We were the best team in the tournament and we proved it", I really believed it so!