Master Stroke

This is "M.K. Iqbal of Parry & Co leaving the field after a scintillating batting display against India Cements in The Hindu Trophy finals (1968) at the Marina grounds." It's from this interesting piece about cricket in Madras in the pre-technology era.

This picture reminds me of a gem of an innings played by my uncle N.L. Narasimhan some time in the late nineties in a Blue-Star (or a friendly) match at the PS High School ground in Chennai. He scored just 25 runs or something (if my memory serves me right) but it was a brilliant display of strokeplay, which also took his team to victory.

It was around 4 pm, and a huge crowd had gathered around the ground. They were all waiting for this match to end, so that they could start their daily/weekly tennis-ball matches. The crowd were taken by surprise when they saw him flick the ball off his pads nonchalantly through mid-wicket for four, with such elegance as is usually associated with the likes of GR Vishwanath and VVS Laxman. That's when it struck me that we were in for a treat. The crowd watched the rest of his innings in awe and applauded and cheered each and every shot. And when his team won, they all walked back with him to the pavilion and many of them took his autograph.

Classic!