Violent Beauty - A tale of of a pull shot that never was. JJCC were looking to recruit new opening batsmen to combat Gratis and Dulom of Red Cherry Cricketers. Thus, Bwana was appointed as 'opener' by JJCC for the crucial league match with Red Cherry. His partner at the non-striking end was no ordinary mortal.
In fact he was a surd whose previous occupation was writing poetry in the gallows. How did he get here? Yeah. What?
Day one
Getting back to the cricket, Bwana took strike and the Umpire shouted, "play". The first two balls from Gratis put the dance back into Bwana's shoes as he moonwalked frantically to avoid the missiles.
At the other end, Pappae, the surd experienced a high degree of temperature or 'heat' as some would know. He turned blue in the face and showed all his teeth to nobody in particular.
"Oye Pappae, cool down I say!", cried Lord McSod poetically. Lord McSod was a special invitee and a leftover from the story, 'Turf Luck Mate! Haw Haw!! He was seated in the members stand, obediently supping porridge supervised by his good woman - the missus.
"Oi Pappy! Get it over with man!" , said the Englishman Captain Quirk who suddenly found his voice and bleated impatiently from another story, 'Breakfast with Bhomps'.
Thereafter, while Bwana danced busily, evading the fury of Gratisfrom one end, Pappae was one angry surd at the other end while facing Dulom.
Twice in an over, Pappae was hit on the chest, once in the shoulder and another express slammed into his arse even as he turned around to pull his pants down and show Dulom what he really thought of his pace.
Needless to say, Bwana and Pappae had a torrid time at the end of the ten overs. Pappae, who had more bruise marks on his butt than runs of his bat, kept showing his teeth. For once, nobody was complaining. Except Gratis and Dulom and Bwana who felt that Pappae was overshadowing their exploits. Maybe I should have named this story, Gratis, Dulom and Bwana(and Pappae). Sorry about that.
Day one
Getting back to the cricket, Bwana took strike and the Umpire shouted, "play". The first two balls from Gratis put the dance back into Bwana's shoes as he moonwalked frantically to avoid the missiles.
At the other end, Pappae, the surd experienced a high degree of temperature or 'heat' as some would know. He turned blue in the face and showed all his teeth to nobody in particular.
"Oye Pappae, cool down I say!", cried Lord McSod poetically. Lord McSod was a special invitee and a leftover from the story, 'Turf Luck Mate! Haw Haw!! He was seated in the members stand, obediently supping porridge supervised by his good woman - the missus.
"Oi Pappy! Get it over with man!" , said the Englishman Captain Quirk who suddenly found his voice and bleated impatiently from another story, 'Breakfast with Bhomps'.
Thereafter, while Bwana danced busily, evading the fury of Gratisfrom one end, Pappae was one angry surd at the other end while facing Dulom.
Twice in an over, Pappae was hit on the chest, once in the shoulder and another express slammed into his arse even as he turned around to pull his pants down and show Dulom what he really thought of his pace.
Needless to say, Bwana and Pappae had a torrid time at the end of the ten overs. Pappae, who had more bruise marks on his butt than runs of his bat, kept showing his teeth. For once, nobody was complaining. Except Gratis and Dulom and Bwana who felt that Pappae was overshadowing their exploits. Maybe I should have named this story, Gratis, Dulom and Bwana(and Pappae). Sorry about that.
Let it be known that Pappae was a brave man. For over half a day, he had endured a nasty barrage of thunderbolts from the fast bowlers, Gratis and Dulom.
Indeed, for most part of the day, a volley of screaming leg-cutters from Gratis had chased him like Exocet missiles and had thudded into his arse with painful regularity.
On the other hand, Dulom too bowled with unbridled ferocity, but brave Pappae preferred to take the punishment on several parts of his body, refusing to surrender his wicket.
At the other end, Bwana, the disco-dancer-opener looked worried and why not; towards the end of lunch on day one, the score read 14 for no loss at the end of 45 overs! Only two of these runs had come of the bat that belonged to Bwana.
However, the immediate cause for concern was the physical appearance of Pappae that had changed beyond recognition. His posterior now resembled a sack of potatoes. And his face changed colors with every over.
It could be debated at this stage whether his genes were reengineering themselves to alter his skeletal structure, but we're discussing cricket here and not genetic manipulation so we'll lay the thought aside for now.
Around the park, the few 100 spectators didn't give a damn about the cricket, really. Most of them dozed away lulled by the warm sunshine, the smell of fresh green grass, the pleasant (?) drone of ball after ball thudding into Pappae's body followed by the distant screams of pain that escaped through his bared teeth.
At tea, a dazed Bwana wobbled into the JJCC dressing room followed by a thoroughly punctured Pappae who was assisted in his movements by half-a-dozen cricketers. Gratis and Dulom had their tongues out and a thoughtful Red Cherry 12th man sprinkled Gatorade on them with a hint of hot tabasco sauce, flavored with mint toothpowder.(YAAAARGHHH!!!)
The JJCC elders nodded their heads disapprovingly. Their arse was getting whipped literally and something had to be done to redeem their reputation. They didn't want to miss the holy dip in Darjeeling tea at the circus in Thanagar.
Now, the Captain, coach and manager of the club got up from their seats and strode with unknown purpose towards the two batsmen…
(to be continued)
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