A Wasted Saturday

Sometimes things happen without any warning and they are more endearing because they are so unexpected.
After continuing the slumber in the drawing room through the Gilchrist and Symonds show of early morning. I had no warning what is lying ahead in the day for me. Just shifted base from the diwan to easy chair, picked up the long pending Amartya Sen book (It looks more and more like I will not be finishing this one), while shifting focus from the land of Oz to South Africa.
Watched Gibbs allow one through Gateway Of India(or should it be SA?) and knuckled down further deep in the easy chair in preparation to see another Kallis show.

Built like a fortress, this guy defends like one too. His approach is so serene that the opposition is not there in the picture anywhere. He builds a shell around himself and builds the innings in that shell. Very few (maybe only the Aussies) have been able to cause discomfort for him. But here this does not seem to be his day. his defense is awkward today, inside edges the ball to fine leg. And lo and behold: chases a wide one before he opens an account. So I concfentrate more on the book and ponder at the feet of clay most of our idols now-a-days seem to have.

I have almost lost interest in this match and surfs my fav channels and it throws up a gem. This is semi finals of some non-descript masters tournament. Ferrer is taking on Andi Roddick. now Ferrer is a guy I remember very little of. There is a chance that I have not seen him play at all. And Roddick has his share of sympathy like a number of other could have been world-beaters after the versatile Swiss knife called Federer made them look uni dimensional repeatedly.

so with mild interest and a lot of sympathy I watched initial warm up. But it took exact 25 seconds of actual play to clear my misconception. Roddick was serving first, I knew him as a good serve, he fired one and to my amazement the serve was replied with a drop shot Roddick rushed to the net and what followed was deft touches like Badminton near a tennis net. Ferrer won the dual. Roddick looked stung and powered through rest of the game.

Ferrer won his serve after a deuce and broke roddick for a 2-1 lead. The match was on: I had forgotten Amartya and was on the edge of my easy chair. Yet another Saturday was spoiled but was put to a good use.

Epilogue:

At the end of the day, Ferrer defeated Roddick pretty easily. But Star Sports pulled a DD by stopping the transmission. I did not complain as by then Kallis had overcome his antsy start and resumed uninterrupted service. I was back deep in the easy chair, the Amartya Sen book still lying unopened across my knees.