God Was Always Visible..Its Just That The People Were Blind!!

I was in the middle of a brief siesta in office when I heard one of my colleague say..' We are batting'..I got up and thought 'HE is batting!’ . I quickly logged into cricinfo(our only source for scores) and found that the marathon had already begun. 'Not watching the match live' is the emotion i couldn't resist any more. I convinced my friend to leave the desk early. So here I was at 4 o'clock on my way to my pal’s room to watch HIM bat. At that point of time little did I know that this would be one of the best decisions i had taken. While on his bike many thoughts crossed my mind. 'What if HE becomes a victim of nervous 90's before we reach there?' ‘No way has he already conquered the nervous 90’s syndrome - I reassured myself. These very thoughts reiterated why this game is called 'The Game Of Glorious Uncertainties'. But within all these uncertainties, deep in my mind, I knew that one thing was certain - The GOD was with us.!

When we reached there, HE was batting on 96. I saw HIM bat with brutal determination which was surely missed when HE was getting out in the 90's. So I thought that No.46 was safely in HIS grasp. And as it turned out it surely was. Once HE got to this milestone the time had come to change the gears, the time had come to show the planet that he was IMMORTAL. What followed in the next hour or so left us gasping for breath. HE kept the ball boys busy. The ground seemed smaller than it actually was. No bowler was spared. There's no 'PITY' word in HIS dictionary. It was absolute carnage. HIS pitch map was filling fast. HE reached HIS 150 in no time. For once the bowlers started getting cramps. The mental wounds inflicted by HIM on the bowlers psyche were much deeper than the swollen eye and ruptured web with which they were bowling. HE is a sadist when HE has a bat in hand and bowlers running in to bowl at HIM.


But even after this display the thought of 200 was remote. Once HE crossed 180 mark is when we thought it was achievable. The time was there and the poise with which he was batting I thought we were about to watch something unimaginable even by HIS highest standards. Captain was giving HIM a good company. HE quickly past HIS previous best of 186. The next milestone was 194 - The highest score in ODIs. Without much fuss HE got past that too. Meanwhile the overall score had crossed 350 mark but no one really seemed to care. Because the moment, which we all had been waiting for, was nearing. HE was on 195 in 46th over and we thought it would be a cakewalk for HIM. But the script had its own twists. When the 49th over started HE was batting on 199 but the strike was with the Captain. He would go on and play the entire over hitting 2 sixes and a four and even end up taking a run of the last ball to keep strike. 6 balls 1 run..'Common give the strike to GOD you DOG' I said loudly.As it happened he would get strike only for the third ball and that is what he required -just 1 ball.


The fate was sealed. Atheists were compelled to believe that GOD exists after all and HE is one of us. In the presentation ceremony after the match HE said and i quote 'I would like to dedicate this double hundred to all the people of India who stood with me for the last 20 years.' I proudly say that I am one of the millions of people who stood by HIM through thick and thins of this remarkable voyage. May this journey never end. May the GOD be always with us.

POSTER COURTSEY : GAUTAM KAMAT BAMBOLKAR