Cricket and Malith. A long inter-twining story since I was as small as 7 years old. There used to be a time where I would play upwards of 4 hours an evening after school with neighborhood kids who induced my love for the game after I dragged them along. Now, fortunately or unfortunately, that has slowly subsided to occasional innings and close following of international cricket. But, that changes with this ASA.

Extremely jubilated by the existence of cricket as an ASA, I signed up immediately. Even though I would consider myself a veteran in tennis-ball cricket, I had never really played the game as it was meant to be played – with the leather ball, and all of the subsequent safety gear. So this was the opportunity to finally play the real game – and of course, considering my experience, which I thought I would conquer with ease.

Well was I wrong.

Even though my batting skills are quite decent, I still cannot blow legal deliveries – I can only bowl chucking. That is a bit of a setback considering I have good pace and can vary my lengths and widths to be unpredictable – so that is something I definitely need to work on.

As for battling, I am dominant on my leg side – I always try to shuffle and cover my stumps to give me the best chance of hitting the ball leg side. I would not call this much of a drawback, but it is definitely a bad habit. I do try to force myself to play the off side more often every time I get a decent bowl to cover drive.

I don’t ever think I will be a Sangakkara or Malinga, but as long as I can get Vansh out on a Tuesday evening, I’d consider that a win.