Vade padded up in his garden and was doing some practice drills.
Getting a feel of the bat.
There was a match the day after tomorrow.
There were around 3 national tournaments for cricket every year.
The test tournamnet would start from June to the end of september.
The ODI tournaments would start from December and end in december.
And Finally the T20 tournamnets would start in March and end by April.
The number of teams playing Test would always be the top 128 Schools all over the Country.
Which lasts for around 2 Months.
There are divisions 1,2,3 & 4
Each division has around 32 teams
With each divisional games taking place one part of the country.
Ours will take place in Amethyst.
Which is around 5 hour travel on train.
That is the South jurisdiction.
Just like that... The 32 best teams in each region will be taken into account
We are 1 of the 32 teams.
The other 3 are called Aqua Vista In the east, Basin City in the south and Freiburg in the West.
All these states combined make the country, Esternard.
That is where i live.
It is just one of the 27 Major countries, followed by 127 associate countries.
Right now, I'm 20 years old, participating in a national College level tournament.
If i get lucky, i might get selected for the City level tournaments.
In live in a state called Natlan In the southern State.
I might get selected for the city level tournaments if i perform well and with more performances i might get into the national team.
This game is played by around 8 of the major countrues while Almost 3/4 of the associate countries participate in the World Qualifiers.
So... it's like in my world, not very popular.
Unlike football which is played by all the main countries and the associate countries.
Cricket is still very underwhelming.
Well... it's a long firmat game and from outside prospective it seems like an easy sport because people don't really notice the variable called the pitch.
Well, that's to be expected.
The tv doesn't really catch the variations that the pitch causes.
For example, Let's take baseball for example.
There are variations that happen in air and the speed remains constant doesn't it?
The curve ball, the swinging balls and the knuckle balls.
The variations... And, people who eatch baseball think speed of the ball is everything.
Fastballs and shit.
That ain't the case for cricket.
The ball bounces on the ground before reaching the player.
But, people believe the ball get's slower after it pitches on the ground.
Believe me... Those types of pitches are harder to play in than the balls which pitch and come at the batsman at a higher pace.
Yes!
For example, a batsman is batting and the ball pitches on the ground and get's faster... That is called variable pace.
Usually the ball neither gets fast nor slow after pitching.
If it does, than the reason for that is the pitch on the ground.
And... those types are some of the hardest to bat on.
The reason for that is... there are pitches where the ball hits the pitch and skids to the batsman, called variable pace.
There are pitches were the pitch is wet and the moment the ball pitches, it stops there and comes onto the bat.
There isn't that much of a difference in pace... but it's that split second delay, that causes the batsmn's repeated honing of their reflexes that become usueless.
Imagine you are playing tennis and the speed of the ball is always constant.
Now, you have almost reflexively playing for the pace... hut imagine, theres a split second delay for the ball to come on to the bat.
Everything is the same... The form, the variation and the bat swing from the other player but... the ball instead of coming at that same pace, instead comes slower at you.
That instinct you built up playing will be completely useless unless you adjust your bat swing timing.
It's no doubt a pain in the ass and it takes a while to get used to the pace.
There is a famous word used for pitches with no purchase, no variable pace or bounce.
They are called flat tracks.
No bumps, no cracks on the pitch.
These pitches are often used in franchise cricket.
These are the kinds of pitches for which people hone their reflexes to play on.
These pitchds have many types of variables.
And the pitch isn't the only variable.
The weather, the overhead conditions and the humidity also play a major role in a match.
For example the overhead conditions help with the swing of the ball.
There's the inswing balls which come into the batsman and the outswing balls which leave the batsman.
And than There's the newly found reverse swing.
Which goes backwords after pitching.
Meaning, After it pitches it swings backwords, literally.
Which is no different from the variable pace i talked about.
Reverse swing can only happen in the latter half of the game after the ball's shiny side becomes softer due to excessive use of saliva, sweat and other substances to make the ball shine.
Shiny side of a ball is just a side of the ball which is shinier or newere than the other side of the ball.
People usually pick a sode of the balla nd use vairous means to keep it new.
So there would be purchase on the ball and there would be good amount of swing on the ball.
After excessive use of sweat, saliva and constant scraping of the ball on towels and their own pants.
The ball get's softer.
And due to the softness of the ball, Something happens (It's physics) and due to that the ball reverse swings.
I think a pakistani man first discovered the reverse swing of a ball.
You can look through some ytb videos to understand the physics of reverse swing.
Anyway... There are various variables that exist in cricket and these variables come into action thanks to the pitch and the weather conditions.
Which sometimes make batting easier and sometimes bowling easier.
Different soil forms create different variables.
That is just a part of bowling.
That part being fast bowling.
There's another form of bowling.
Spin bowling.
As a batsman, you have to be technically sound to play spin.
There are many great players who suffered against spin bowlers.
And there were many great players who treated spin bowlers like Little children.
There were those who were technically sound and those who weren't technically sound
Though the pace isn't much to talk about... what needs to be addressed is... the variables.
Reading a bowler is must for spin.
Reflexes are useless.
There are balls which should spin inwords but turn the other way and balls that should spin outwards but spin inswards.
They are called googly and doosra.
There's the conventional leg break and Googly.
and there's the conventional off break and the doosra.
The conventional leg break is something that hits the pitch but turns away from the batsman.
While the Googly is a ball which hits the pitch and goes toeards the stumps.
(Stumps are 3 wooden objects behind the batsman which are the targets of the bowlers and the batsman have to protect them while scoring runs.)
The problem here... is that both leg break and googly have similar ways at which they are balled but they react completely differently.
Same with The off break
An off break is a ball that turns sharply toeards the batsman but a doosra which is similar to the way an off break is bowled but turns away from the batsman after pitching.
The reason this happens is because of the way the ball is bowled rather than the positioning of the finger or the wrist.
Spin usually uses the flexibility of the wrists and the grips of the fingers.
There are 2 types of conventional spinners, called finger spinners who use their fingers to spin the ball.
They put the ball inbetween their fongers and use their grip to turn the ball... which is the type of bowler Vade is.
And there's the wrist spinners who catches the ball but uses his entire wrist to turn the ball.
There are other types of spinners too but thry are unconventional and rare.
Roght now... Vade is practicing every type of bowler as he keeps them in mind.
He's quite technically sound but the problem arises for him when... there's high pace on the ball.
"FUCK!!"
Again... he has missed the ball.
He still hasn't gotten a proper understanding of balls that are over 135 Kmph.
There will be many teams which will ball at over 140 Kmph and that is where the problem would arise for him.
He's managed to score back to back centuries in his lasy match but he isn't very confident about facing fast bowlers.
"SHIT!!!"
He also has a weakness... which is easily exploitable if people know of it.
"DAMN ITTT!!!"
With this... the night went by with curses and frustration.
When Malorie showed up.
"Vade! Can you keep it doen.'
Sye said as she came inside.
"Aah! Sorry Mrs Malorie... I wasn't aware that i was making a lot of noice!"
He said apologetically.
"What happened? You seem stressed?"
After having a great session with the teacher he came back home realising he couldn't waste alot of time on needless se*
The famous post nut clarity hit him after hours of Intimate moments with the teacher.
"It's nothing..."
"You seem stressed, i got you snacks, Have them."
It was 9 in the evening and he was still going at it, with the practice.
He started at around 5.
He took constant breaks but... he too realised too much of this would be painful.
He was already exhausted from the hours of intense se*.
"Thanks!"
He bowed his head as he took a bite.
"Wow! They are delicious..."
He found them increasingly delicious than usual.
He wondered if it was because he hasn't had dinner yet.
He quickly ate the food and thanked His stepmom again.
"Thanks Mrs Malorie! I'm very greatful for everything you guys are doing for me.'
"Ara! Where's all this coming from."
"It's just that... now that all the problems are sorted out... I just realised how helpful you guys have been. Especially you... If you had listened to your daughters and kicked me out... I'd have probably been done for."
"Well... you are my son afterall! You may not be my SON But you are MY Son. And, I'll do anything i possibly can to support you."
I feel relief, when i see that motherly live for me.
I may be attracted to her somewhat but... i Don't ever want this motherly relationship to go away.
"Thanks Mom!"
For the first time... i called her.
"You may not be My Mom but you are my MOM! I'll always love you... and be greatful to you."
"Ahhaha... Ofcourse! I'll always love you aswell."
She said as she hugged me.
Seeing her hug ne like this...
and caress my face to her chest, I do feel like she see's me as nothing more than a son.
"Mrs Malorie... I'm not very clean..."
I said as i got away.
"I'll go and take a bath."
I saod as i ran away.
After the bath... I'll have some dinner and play those damn fast balls for another hour.
...
Vade was taking a bath, and someone was peaking at him taking a bath.
It was his step mother Malorie.
It was pprobably the day she heard vade's mother tell her something interesting.
She grew curious and took a peek as he took a bath.
She couldn't believe her eyes as she grew wetter as she watched his thing.
"Damn it... why does this bastard always get hard when i take a bath!"
He said as he clenched his fist and tried to smack it but stopped himself.
"Fuck... whatever!"
He has a habit of talking to hinself which she found weird but...
"Damn... Why does she have to come to mind... She's like a mother to me... Yes! I can't have these kinds of thoughts about her."
Malorie was watching him.
She's seen him once or twice but she's never seen him do something like that.
and based on what he was saying...
he was thinking about someone taboo.
"Vade... no, you can't!"
She said... as she looked at him in shock.
Her hands too slipping into her private parts.
"Aah!"
As she let out a soft inaudible moan.