Simon Go Back

Simon Speller, of all the people I know, comes into the class and says

"339 and still you could not beat us!!!"

I accept that it was one of the most irritating match I have seen. Both the teams let the advantage go by some silly cricket.

Last ball of the Indian innings, Zaheer and Munaf try to cheek in a second run and in the process score none because Munaf scored a short run and Zaheer got run out.

Last over of the England innings Shahzad hits a six and then only thing India could hope for was a tie. And Tie it was.

We were happy that India had not lost the match. But that gave England (a not so favourite side) 1 unwanted point and Simon - a chance to speak.

So as soon as Simon comments over India's bowling attack I remind him that Ireland are not far behind from the English score of 327.

The lecture went on. Every time Simon tried to get cheeky I updated him with the score. The staunch supporter kept saying that 2 more wickets and England are home. But the wickets never came.

At around 3.40pm GMT one Mr Kevin O'Brien came in to bat in the 23rd over.

The batting powerplay was taken at around 4.10 GMT in the 32nd over. by then K O'Brien was on 35 in just 23 balls.

What followed next was a massacre of the English attack. By the end of the power play in the 36th ovr the partenership between O'Brien and Cusack was worth 118. The target was just 99 runs away and the required run rate was 7.07. By all angle it looked that Ireland had this match in its pocket.

Everyone was stunned. It was difficult to keep pace with the scoring rate at which there two here going. The only question was.. "do they know how to finish it?"

Just for records O'Brien went on to score a century. He had done enough to be a superhero of the World Cup.But he carried on.

At around 4.30 I told Simon that Ireland need 27 runs of the last 4 ovs. He still maintained the English would win it. It reached to a state where 12 were needed odf 12 balls. And 1st ball of the 49th ovr O'Brien got run out.

Now even Simon could not control his anxiety. He wanted to see the match.

for the next 15 mins the class got a break. Simon and me went to the back benches where we were having the live streaming. And we Indians took a go at the English. Each one in the class cheered for Ireland and laughed at Simon. We were just too happy to see England lose than anything else. And for one I could shout "329 and still you could not win."

Cometh the last over and Ireland are 4 runs away

Simon says " I bet on 2 wickets in this over."

PS says" I bet on 4 off the 1st ball."

PS gets it right and we have a celebration - a small one but a thorough one.

Now Simon is all red.

" you guys will be reprimanded. You have broken the discipline of the class. You have disturbed those people who were not interested in the cricket. If Vinaya asks me I wont lie. As a punishment the lecture will go on too 6.00 pm".

This was another victory for us .. We proved that English just don't lose badly. they are bad losers too.

Taking inspiration from what Lalaji did at Lahore in 1928, we said " SIMON GO BACK" on our facebook walls.