I will skip the bidding process and the painful details
about how we went on scouting for the best talents in the junior batch to
finally land the team we did and jump straight to the event description.
Even before the start of the event, Agneya were out and out
favorites because of the sheer quality of co owners and managers they had. No
one gave any of the rest three much of a chance and we were quietly content
that we could just go out and enjoy without thinking too much about justifying
the hype. We had a decent team and were quietly confident about our chances but
taking on the might of Agneya seemed extremely daunting.
Our first match was in cricket against Lazzardous, a team
which was probably built only with the view to win only cricket. Nevertheless, they
had an extremely competitive cricket team and we started the match and
tournament as major underdogs. Our case was not helped by Sagar Kashyap who
decided to show off his batting antiques as Lazzardous raced off to 90 in 8
overs. Faced with such a steep total we were never in the game except for when
Rohit hit three consecutive sixes in the 6th over to bring the
required run rate to below 12 runs for the first time since the first over of
our innings. However, the fight was short lived and we lost the match
convincingly by 19 runs.
Probably, it was a bad way to start a tournament but that
will be a shallow judgment. It brought our entire team together as a cohesive
unit. A unit which wanted to win Titanomachy for each other. We were down but our
heads did not drop.
In the other games of the day we demolished our opponents in
TT, Football and Badminton to romp into the finals without dropping a single
fixture. Come next morning we will face our strongest test in the form of
cricket where we will have to bounce back from a crushing defeat to win two
games on a row to qualify for the finals. Backed by Udhav’s destructive opening
spell we made some serious early inroads into the Agneya batting and they were
skittled out for a lowly 42. We chased the target with minimal fuss off just 4
overs. In our last league match we faced Blazing Sunburns knowing fully well
that defeat would mean elimination. On a pitch in which the ball simply refused
to come to the bat, a fiery and inspired spell of fast bowling by Manish bhai
and Vinit Singh did not let us get off to a good start. We were merely scoring
at 6 an over by the time the opening bowlers were done with their respective
spells. Late onslaughts from Vineet Bakshi helped us to post a competitive 70
but our bowlers came to our rescue again as we bowled Blazing Sunburns for as
cheap as 45.
So, at the end of the group stages from huge underdogs we
had emerged as the only team which had qualified for all four finals. We
started to realize what being a Devil meant, we learnt how to fight bodily
limitations to win but there was no time to revel in our unity as due to
scheduling problems we had to play all four finals on that very day.
After the group stages, our toughest competition was from
Agneya who had qualified for three of the four finals. So, the equation was
simple for us, we needed to win two out of the four finals. The first final was
Cricket and already bruised and battered by the tough schedule we were farther
plagued by an incisive spell of fast bowling by Sukesh and then Sagar completed
the proceedings with a quick fire 40ish score. More worrying was the fact that Rohit had gotten injured while bowling and given our dependence on him in
Badminton and Football, it could spell doom for us. In spite of cramps Rohit
got onto the ground during the Football match but on that day Agneya’s fire
power was too much to handle for us. With Shijil and Nakul standing strong in
central defense and Nadeem connecting excellently with the strikers Karan and
Jayanth, there was little we could do to stop the marauding Agneyas. Rohit
suffered another injury during the football match and had to be carried off the
ground.
Next up was TT and from being the only team to have
qualified for four finals, we were one final away from losing our stranglehold
on the cup. But we beat Blazing Sunburns quite easily in the singles finals to
wrap up the proceedings in TT which meant it all boiled down to Badminton. It
was a scene to behold as everyone from both the teams arrived at the scene of
the clash and the players were greeted to a rapturous applause from both sides.
This was when the Let’s Go Devils Let’s Go chant was born, which would later
grow to epic proportions during the matches and managed to shake the entire
locality.
In the first match Tarun teamed up with Apurva to face
Archie and Viksit. It was an extremely close fought match which could only be
decided after two match points apiece. A telling moment was when
at match point Tarun and Apurva smashed the cork together and though we won the
point, it was awarded to them for double bat. In the second match Nadeem faced
off with the till then unbeaten Tarun and what a classic they produced!! The
game started with Nadeem dominating the proceedings and threatening to wrap it
off real soon but Tarun managed to pull off an incredible fight back to level
it 1 - 1 with all to play for. The Let’s Go Devils Let’s Go chant grew even
louder with every point and was almost deafening by now.
The next match was the girls single and Archie managed to
stroll through the match without much ado to make it 2 - 1 for Agneya. Rohit, who hardly showed little signs of movement till then, stepped up to play the
fourth match. But there was little he could do to stop an explosive display of
smashes from Vikshit. His limited movement did little to help the fact that he
was facing one of the best players on show in the tournament. Agneya
clinched the match 3 - 1 and along with it the tournament.
For a moment all felt lost but reflecting on the “what could
have been” is never a good idea!! All was not lost and Devils would come back
to fight another day with renewed vigor. Devils, was a family like never seen
before in IIFT, all motivated by the same burning fire to come back and fight
another day. We did not win the cup but we managed to win hearts for our never
say die attitude, the way we came back from being major underdogs to challenge
the might of the Agneya. Sadly enough, Agneya is not participating this time. The Agneya - Devil rivalry could have been the stuff of legends but it
is never a good idea to delve in “what could have been.”
Finally, this is just an earnest request to bring back
Agneya. Remember the name Nadeem Khan, Shijil Neyan. Remember how Nakul stood
all alone in the path of everything that was thrown his way to stop us from
clinching the title in football. Remember the rivalry of Tarun and Viksit in
Badminton and do bring back Agneya. Titanomachy will not be the same if not
braced by Devils and Agneya.
P.S. – Udhav will miss you in Devils bro.
Manish Bhai – Thanks for the support even when you were not
participating.
Rohit, Tarun and Sourav – Once more!! Let’s go Devils Let’s
go!!!
