A Game Well Played

My organization's flavor of the month happens to be a certain ongoing T.T. tournament, that has generated enormous enthusiasm amongst both the players and the crowd alike.

As last year's undefeated semi-finalist (sounds odd - but the tourni got scraped since i went onsite), and co-winner of the 'sledger of the tournament', an award i had shared with my team-mate Aman, my team was again the dark horse this time around. Initially seeded in the top rankers, i pursued a course of Aggresive Negotitations (as Anakin Skywalker would term it) with Iyer sir, the tourni organizer, and got myself ranked lower. I mean, seriously, given the quality of players we have this time around, it was an insult to them to put me up there in their league.

Paired in the draw with Varun as my strike partner, and given a 1st round bye, we were confident of atleast winning our first game against Raunak/Amrita. But i went off on a leave for about 10 days, and the organizers un0kindly decided to put me out and continue the tournament. As fate couldn't see me so harshly treated so early (there was humiliation waiting for me ahead), another team also had a member lose out and so when i returned, i found myself paired up with Chirag.

Now the guy can play well, on his day, and given he does not tense up under pressure. Some critics found our team combo to be too strong and argued against such a formation. Most had written off Amrita and Raunak. They expected us to blaze through past them with 2 under-10 wins. On match day however, it seemed an upset was on the cards. Not only did Raunak/Amrita fight well, they pulled the crowd behind them. Every point they rallied and won was cheered voraciously. Needless to say Iyer was totally on their side, without least bit bothering to realize he was the refree. Ishan who was also assisting with the score-keeping and line calls, now faces a tough time ahead when i prepare his project review.

The first set went down to the wire. In order to make the game interesting, Chirag and I allowed some loose shots to keep the excitement. But it proved a little too lax. With Raunak/Amrita already winning a lot of points, they soon raced to a 8-2 lead, and kept us under pressure. Raunak was smashing away all of Chirag's returns and Amrita was managing to keep all her shots on the table. Iyer declared we would forfeit the match if our opponents reached double figures, over and above wanting to provide them a 5 point handicap advantage. We almost lost the first set when the score read 20-15 to them. With a single point away, i got my serves right and pulled all 5 back, to setup a deuce. From there on we regained our touch a bit (both in sledging and TT) and killed the first set.

With our nerves quite jittery and Chirag perceivably tense at the near escape, we played a bit better in the 2nd set, and won it with relative ease. Grabbed a 7-0 lead and thought officially it was Jig'saw' (remember - Game Over). But Iyer as usual, decided to give us his respect instead of the points and play continued. 21-14 i think it was, and that too when we were 18-7 up. Obviously, we were both out of form - i, perennially always am, but i didn't expect Chirag to perform under par, given my reliability of smashing the opponent or the water cooler.

With a tough first match behind us, the crowd had realized that we probably were not the team who could go on ahead given this showing. In the second round where we were facing probably the toughest team of Murarka/Kunja, we were expected to lose easily, given that they had dispatched of 2 very strong teams - Ishan/Major and Dilip in the previous round (Ninja not accounted for - actually it was Ninja's tough luck that he had a player as good as Dilip, otherwise he would have won single-handedly using some SAS macro that would control his and his opponent's serve, smash and returns).

But in today's game, we had different intentions. Deciding that we would play safe, keep the ball on the table, and let the opponents make mistakes, we started off positively. With a highly charged encounter on the cards, lots of people had gathered around to cheer the other team (not us unfortunately). But i looked in super sublime form (aka totally vaporised). Didn't know what got into the two of us, but we responded to the task and played well. With nobody to egg us on, except referee Iyer sir, who as always was sledging against us, every point that we won, silenced the crowd and only the "yes" that we shouted was audible. I had this feeling of "pin drop violence".

All dusted and done, we surprisingly shocked everybody, ourselves most of all, by winning the first set very convincingly. Iyer whispered audibly enough to Lakshmi - "was he so happy at even getting promoted?". With all the shots that i managed to make and gain points on, i would walk upto Iyer and return the jocular stare, not considering the fact that some shots which i hit at the left corner, ended up at the right. But who cared. And with all the points i lost, i was the first to joke about my weaknesses.

The second set started well again. But this time it was more competitive and we were going neck to neck. With two points away from winning the set and the match, a crucial 'twist' occurred, literally. With nothing to do as simple as finishing off a weak 6 ft high return from Kunal (that just landed across the net), i stumbled on my own toe with Chirag's foot just behind me and managed to sky the shot from the top edge of the racket. And the next instant, i lost my balance and squatted down. IT was a laugh riot. A Kodak moment that needed capturing. I couldn't stop grinning at the glaring error, and the crowd just exploded. Nearly 2-3 minutes passed before i got up and we resumed playing. As Iyer quipped, i had just dropped the cup.

And the words rang out true only a moment sooner. With both Chirag and I fatigued, with all energy spent till now, and dripping sweat, I asked Iyer if the organizers would atleast provide us some towels. But equal in sarcasm, all i received were some tissue papers. Now almost out of steam, we could just hold on to get to deuce. Finally, we lost the 2nd set with Chirag also under pressure and none of his smashes hitting the board.

Set 3 was a disappointment for us and a cake walk for them. I was too tired to even serve properly and the one weapon i had effectively used failed to get us through. An incorrect line call and some wayward returns later, finally at 18-12 (or was it 19-11) down, we were able to grab a few points that inspired us back. But it was too little too late, and we succumbed.

We weren't sad to lose, we hadn't expected to win in the first place. On the whole, whatever said and done, i think what we got as a result was an excellent game of table tennis, thoroughly entertaining, full of sledging, the stronger team winning (with a reality check nonetheless) , and a respect well earned by both teams for fine skills, a high level of commitment, and the will to fight it out till the end.

This TT tourni has been as good as the last one. The teams are definitely stronger, more skilled and each plays with wanting to win, but without being serious. There is always a fun quotient around in each match. Some of the highlights of this tourni include - Ishan/Major to be the first to get eliminated, Gaurav Iyer and Lakshmi progressing ahead and getting kicked out of the tourni on the same day itself, the all serious Rahul Pandhi storming through to the semis with no effect of sledging on him, Varun and Vicki quietly and consistently playing themselves through to the other semis, Gautum/Neha duo practicing the most and not winning, dark horses Ashish Garg and Tushar also sneaking through to the semis with a bit of 'knocks' between sets, Gidra and his sliding maneuvers which he himself could not keep pace with and thus slamming into the floor flat (another Kodak moment), and yours truly sky rocketing the simplest shot of the tournament.

A special mention to the success of the game goes to the towels that were never provided, the new bats that were never used, the referees who couldn't remember the scores, the players who couldn't stop sledging, and the audience who cheered at all good and bad shots alike.

And most importantly, the constant reminders of Iyer sir to all participants asking them to smash their shots while thinking of their lead project managers (no names named) ...