Trains, planes and biology tuitions

I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was with my cousin Dennis and we were at a pub called 'Stirling House'. It was a lovely hot day and we were very excited to see our favourite team in the final. We requested the pub to put cricket on the television as we were the only people who wanted to watch it. By the time the game had finished we had converted the whole pub into KKR fans. The atmosphere was amazing. Hopefully they can do it again. Come on KKR...

Last year during the IPL final, my college was about to start. I was travelling from Delhi to Trivandrum on a train. Due to the weak telephone network, the last update I could get was that KKR had to chase a score of 200 and that they had lost Uthapppa. I was not happy. I had dinner and went to sleep. The next day I woke up to see KKR on the front page of every newspaper they provided on the train. There was the big smile on my face. That was my happiest moment on the train.

When KKR won the IPL last year, I was at my biology tuition during the whole first innings and was checking the scores on Cricinfo after every five minutes!

I am a CSK supporter, but my mother is a KKR fan--the household is divided, starting today--and we were actually in Ettayapuram, which is a panchayat town in the interior of Tuticorin district in Tamil Nadu, attending a religious function. The KXIP innings was largely followed on the Cricinfo app at the temple itself, as a result of surprisingly effective 3G. And, we made it back to hotel just in time for watching the last 6 overs or so of the KKR innings!

I still remember I was flying from Mumbai to Delhi flight was about to take off. My mobile internet data pack wasn't working. There was a person sitting across and my attention was more towards his phone as he was using live cricket updates to check the score. Both of us sat for 10 minutes discussing the match until the last call was made!!! Match + Moment + Memories = Memorable.

Well I was in Jaipur, eagerly waiting for the IPL to start. Being a KKR fan however, I was little wary of how things would go on as the first leg was in the UAE. And being a KKR fan since the inception, memories of the tour when IPL moved outside for the first time haunted me like anything. Those memories flashed back again as the first leg couldn't have been more disastrous. Five losses and with our skipper's first four scores over there being 0,0,0,1, it couldn't have been worse. Yet kept faith on Gambhir's determination for things to turn around. And turn around we did. Nine consecutive wins (14, if I include the CLT20 as well) to clinch our second IPL trophy in three years. Boy oh boy, wasn't I excited. More so being in land of 'ROYALS' and after seeing my team succumb to two losses against them (lesser said about second one the better), nothing could hide my "On your face, We are the CHAMPS" expression when Piyush Chawla hit the winning runs. Oh boy those were the days... Wish the men in Purple and Gold recreate that memory again!