Abhinya U hopped in the centre as her shot soared over midwicket. The Palakkad dugout was up on its feet anticipating a six but the ball fell on a patch near the ropes and nearly died out before a fielder covering from long-on prevented the boundary. Abhinya punched her bat as she dawdled across to complete a single in the final against Kollam.
That was arguably the closest a batter had come to hitting a six in the U-19 girls cricket competition of the Kerala School Games at the Palace Oval in Tripunithura. No sixes were hit in the 13 matches played between 12 district teams. Of the 40 boundaries scored in the tournament, Kannur's Nivedhyamol V N accounted for nine. The right-hand batter also finished the top run-getter with 68 from four innings.
"I hit a few one-bounce fours. One or two landed just inside the square boundary," said Nivedhyamol after helping Kannur beat Alappuzha by ten wickets to take bronze. She was unbeaten on 14 off 10 in the playoff that had been reduced to just three overs per side to rush with the final before the sun went down. All the other matches were of 8-over per inning.
The matches were played on two turf wickets on the scenic venue opposite the Tripunithura Cricket Club, founded in 1931, home to a local legend, the late Rama Varma Kochaniyan Thampuran, member of the Cochin Royal Family, who famously went by the nickname of 'Sixer Thampuran' for his penchant for hitting big.
The Palace Oval is not huge; the square boundaries appeared roughly 60 metres and it did not seem any bigger straight down too. "We have cleared boundaries like these," said Alappuzha's Janki Suresh, who made 53 from four innings. "I guess it (sixes) just didn't come off," said Janki, shrugging her shoulders.
Nivedhyamol added that she did not quite follow through on some of her big shots. "I was afraid of throwing the wicket away." As Kannur's opening batter, she had great responsibility. In the semifinals against Palakkad, Kannur were chasing 56 and had made 10 off the first over. But their innings collapsed soon after Nivedhyamol fell in the second over to a casual shot. "There was some trouble with the wickets. The ball kept low on one, and the other had uneven bounce," Janki pointed out.
At that point, it seemed foolish of this writer to have even inquired about six-hitting. The actual point was lost in search of wild bat swings sending the red ball over fences, maybe even breaking parked-car windshields. Paying heed to a few onlookers yapping away about the 'Test cricket-like batting' did not help either. But the players had read the conditions, and that was the only thing that mattered.
The average first-innings score in the U-19 girls' event was 55 at an asking rate of just under 7, and that is with the inclusion of two one-sided games, in which the superior sides posted big totals of 108 and 97 in 8 overs and ended up winning by 96 and 70 runs respectively.
Teams batting second won seven of the eight matches from the quarter-final stage. Sensible batting was the key; showboating was simply unnecessary. Take the final, for instance. Abhinya's 23-ball 21 helped Palakkad post 41/2. It was a decent total, but there couldn't be any room for error with the bowling, which was tight in the first spell. Krrisha S Raj and Lekshmi S played it out, scoring four in the first over and six each from the next two. The important thing was they had built a partnership. Then they waited for some sloppiness and their patience paid off when Lekshmi, the big-hitter in the side, got a couple of juicy short balls that sat up just about at the right height. She sweetly timed her pull shots to fetch a pair of boundaries. The right-hander punished another loose ball with a four and they were almost home. Krrisha and Nandana Prakash got themselves run out in between, but the job was already done and without any fuss.
Leading lights
The participants, mostly trainees of cricket academies in their respective districts, have a real sense of direction. The state-level events, including the KCA Pink T20 Challengers Cup and local tournaments like the Kodiyeri Memorial in Kannur, have given them exposure. Now, they aspire for the Women's Premier League.
The entry of Malayali cricketers into the senior national set-up has been a great inspiration, too. In May this year, Thiruvananthapuram native Asha Sobhana became the third Keralite to appear in a women's T20I after Wayanad natives Minnu Mani and S Sajana.
"Few of us played under Minnu chechi in the Kodiyeri event," said Palakkad captain Alshifna A. "Just by talking to her, we could learn many things," said the Palakkad all-rounder. The winning captain, Nimmymol B K, echoed the views of her counterpart. "We live in a great period. Asha chechi, Minnu chechi and Sajana chechi are such an inspiration to us. We know that if we work hard, there is a lot we can achieve," Nimmymol said. Kannur's Nivedhyamol underwent a month-long training programme at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for good performances last season. "That was an excellent experience, and it has definitely benefitted me since," Nivedhyamol said.
Alappuzha skipper Gouri Upasana drew attention to the growing passion among their peers and junior squad members. "Because this is the school-level event, in most teams, you will see a combination of players who get regular training and those without it. But that gap is closing in. I would say more than 50 per cent. It could be much more, actually. More of the participants this year have been attending academies. The overall quality of our district team and the event in general was better than the previous edition," she said.
After her early dismissal to a caught-behind, Palakkad skipper Alshifna sat next to a couple of younger squad members, cheering their side on. When she heard one of them scream at the batters to push for a risky double, Alshifna promptly chided her, first with a Dhoni-esque glance, and then some wise words: "Don't confuse them, let the two make that decision." Here's an entire generation of smart cricketers coming through, just sit back and enjoy them play.