I received a missed call from my friend at 5am in the morning. I quickly got up from my bed, took a bath, pulled on my cricket kit and got ready for the match. At 5:45am, one of my teammates arrived at my door and we headed towards the ground on motorbikes.
It was a Sunday morning, and there was not much traffic on the roads. We reached the ground in ten minutes. Most of the team members were already there, warming up and getting ready for the match.
We cleaned a 16-yard area to be used as a pitch. Stumps on both ends were made with bricks. The crease was drawn with the help of limestone powder.
The other team was on its way at that time, so we hurried up and made the pitch ready to play at around 6:30am. It was our home series and we had to make all the necessary arrangements.
The other team arrived about 6:50am and did a bit of warming up for ten minutes. Then captains from both teams revised the playing conditions and set the boundaries.
“That telephone pole is the square leg boundary. That little bush is long-on boundary.” Third man and fine leg boundaries were not clearly defined as no one likes to play late cuts and sweep shots.
We won the toss and decided to bat first.
It was all set to start the match. The two umpires (both from the batting side) were ready. The field was set. The batsmen were in the middle. The ball was provided to the bowler by the batting side and the match began.
It was a six-over match which started about 7:20am.
We were off to a good start and scored 38 off the first two overs. But then our batting started to collapse and we ended up with 89 for the loss of six wickets in our six overs. It was a respectable total but surely wasn’t a match-winning one. The top score was 32. I only managed to score one run off two balls.
But we were confident that we could defend this total, because we had the firepower in the bowling; yet only if we fielded well.
We gave one hundred percent with the ball, took catches, and won the match by only six runs. It was a close encounter, but the batsmen couldn’t manage to hold their nerve and couldn’t score 15 off the last over.
Both teams took a rest for a while, and then it was all set to start the second match. This time the opposition captain won the toss and elected to bat first. We got thrashed so hard that we needed to roll the plastic tape once more on the ball. We conceded 127 runs in six overs.
We were under pressure because we expected to play well at our home. We kept the required rate at manageable point, but lost too many wickets. We needed 29 runs off the last over. I was batting on 12 off four balls. We were eight down at that moment. We tried but failed, and only managed to score 22 runs.
We were on the losing side this time and the winning margin was once again six runs. Coincidence? Or?
We were tired after playing for about two and a half hours. Two of our team members left because they had other commitments. One of them had to go on a date. One member from the opponent’s team also left. The final of the three-match series was abandoned due to some unavoidable circumstances.
This is the culture of street cricket in Pakistan, which also reflects on the performance of our national sides.
We produce some quality bowlers who can bowl a lot of variety because they are grown up playing six-over matches. They have to develop a lot of variations in their bowling to survive in street cricket. I have seen slow bouncers, slow Yorkers and ‘carom balls’ way before they were introduced in international cricket.
The only thing a batsman in our street cricket knows is to swing and swing hard. Don’t worry about the technique. Don’t worry about looking elegant. Just score quick runs. And when they reach higher levels, they struggle as they lack proper technique. They do not manage to handle the seam and swing.
We play street cricket mostly on rough, uneven dirty grounds, and no one dares to dive in the field. This is the reason that we are generally not good in the field. Good fielding is just not our culture.
We play cricket regularly on Sundays and other holidays, after a tiring week at work. This shows our passion for the game. This shows how much we love this sport. Cricket is indeed something more than just a sport in Pakistan.
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