Cricket in NLU--- The Real 22 Yards

(This is the real article on cricket in NLU I wrote for RAET…not the 1 paragraph that was published)
It has been almost a year since we won the Yuvardha Cricket Cup. A lot has changed on the cricket front in NLU since then. We have new faces in contention, and some good old player have left the university.
The team that won Yuvardha had players like Tony, Musa, Raj among others. They occupied the top three positions in our batting line up for the crucial semi finals and the finals. They made very important contributions in all the matches and people like Surya Prakash, Dheeraj and myself weren’t required to bat in the competition at all. The good start they gave was complemented well by the likes of Vikram and Samudra who finished the innings with huge hits. In the bowling department we had Nagauri who gave us the early breakthroughs and then Deepak, Samudra, Tony and Musa kept it tight in the middle to restrict the runs and also took wickets. So all in all it was a combined effort that won us the trophy then.
When I look at the team today, we are in a rebuilding phase. Tony, Musa, Raj and Deepak have all passed out and we are looking to find a new composition. They were the four main contributors in our win last year and it will be very difficult to emulate what they did. Still, we have new faces this year. Priyank Mangal is an able batsman and a good wicket keeper, and this allows Kapoor to concentrate on his batting and also gives us a good fielder in the outfield. Siddharth Mishra is a good all rounder. He can open the bowling and batting with good effect and has a very safe pair of hands in the outfield. What is good to see is the emergence of the second year’s(who were in the first year when we won Yuvardha). Alok, Niket, Atanu have really worked over the last year and have emerged as good players.
Thus, in this rebuilding phase we have good options before us but we have to really work hard to match the success of Yuvardha. We will start by playing a few matched against the local teams and will look to learn a lot from them. We may win or we may not, but we will continue to fight and improve so that we can try to get close to the Yuvardha success. The Yuvardha win is a kind of a benchmark for us. We had won all the games convincingly without any worries. To reach that level, the current team will have to work really hard. Luckily for us, most of the other players of that team are still there. Nagauri, Kapoor, Samudra and Vikram’s presence will certainly boost our team and to go with them we also have Virender who has emerged as a good all rounder. In our endeavor to win, anything may happen, we may win or lose but that wouldn’t stop us from trying, after all sports teach us how to live. All we need is focus and hard work.