cricket

Titus & Co has lifted this year’s Turf Twenty20 Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) Cup after defeating Kochhar & Co in the finals last Saturday (15 January) to become the tournament’s champion for two years in a row in the nail-biting close to an exciting series.

Titus & Co and Kochhar & Co have defeated semi-finalists Amarchand Mangaldas and Luthra & Luthra respectively to face off against each other in the finals for the Turf Twenty20 Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) Cup.

Kochhar & Co, Amarchand Mangaldas, Titus & Co and Luthra & Luthra have defeated AZB & Partners, Dua Associates, Anand & Anand and Saikrishna Associates respectively to enter the semi-finals of the Turf Twenty20 cricket tournament for the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) Cup.

AZB & Partners, Saikrishna & Associates, Amarchand Mangaldas, Anand & Anand and Kochhar & Co have joined Titus & Co, Luthra & Luthra and Dua Associates as quarter-finalists of the TURF Twenty20 cricket tournament for the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) Cup.

Titus & Co, Luthra & Luthra, Kochhar & Co, K&S Partners and Amarchand Mangaldas were the winning teams of the intra-pool matches of the fifth weekend of the Delhi Twenth20 tournament last weekend under foggy conditions.

Karanjawala & Co, Kochhar & Co and Anand & Anand won convincingly over Khaitan & Co, KJSV and Suri & Co in the second round of matches in the the TURF Twenty20 tournament between law firms for the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) Cup.

“Next time, the eleven of us are on a corporate deal, or fighting it out in the court; we’ll know that you don’t win till the scoreboard says so”.

Cricket in my college is a lesser religion. People worship soccer more fastidiously. Nonetheless, cricket is a religion. Interbatch tournaments, inter-college tournaments, a league tournament etc.; cricket has a good share of worshippers. So, here you go; presenting before you: a cricket match.

A.      Our Team

We have the best of teams. We have the worst of teams. Out fast bowlers are the best. Every fast bowler of our 2^nd year team has represented the university. Our fast bowlers: Shah, Talwar, Kalia (thats me) and Sihag are all fearsome (even our names instil fear).

Shah is short, lean and as strong a steel; Talwar is an inch and a half taller and muscular courtesy the gym. I am as short as Shah, stockier and owe my strength to my Punjabi origins. Then we have Sihag, a Haryanvi Jaat, six feet three and built like an Ox. He bowls at a slow medium pace but swings the ball like a pendulum. 

Our batsmen are the worst. Our hopeless batsman can’t hit fours, can’t take singles and they can’t even bat the full 30 overs.

B.      The match

We won our first match and drank on the road hiding beer bottles in newspapers, which do a bad job at hiding. The semi final match was against the first years and we know what first years do: there would be serious politics being played within the team; the captain would be the most hated guy; and the most talented guy wouldn’t be in the team. We knew it through experience.

And some news: Talwar was off to Kerela for a moot and wasn’t playing the match.

C.      Well done batsmen

Our batsman did surprisingly good with 190 on board in 30 overs.

Sihag opened the bowling and began as usual, the ball coming in from a 10 foot height, moving and swirling in the air, making bee like noises. He hit the wood thrice.

We sledged the shit out of their batsman. I am a poor fielder but still was fielding in the inner circle for my sledging abilities. A batsman complained to the umpire; we laughed, the umpire laughed too and next ball the batsman was out. In about 10 overs, they were 60 for 5. We were celebrating and talking about whom we will play next. We just needed 5 wickets and we would be in the finals!

Shah was breathing fire, the ball making Bazooka like noises. Whoom! Wham! It was either the body of the batsman or his pads, but never the wicket. Alas! The captain of the first years, who is a real good batsman, was smashing Shah. So most of the Whooms and Whams were from the batsman’s blade. Things were changing like Calcutta’s weather.

D.      The shoulders dropped

I was given the ball, still newish and instead of the inward movement I get, the ball was out-swinging. I knew this tendency and was worried. A partnership happened, a long one. Choudhary, the first year hit me like anything. He hit any bowler like anything. Sihag was ineffective, as he is with the old ball. Pandeyji, the leggie tried but wasn’t good enough. We were losing.

Our shoulders dropped. Sihag’s Ox like shoulders dropped, my proud Punjabi shoulders dropped. Wasim, who was playing with an injured leg, told us from the bench to buck up.

We were losing. I was bowling too full. I changed ends but nothing happened.  “Come on Kalia! Use the shoulder”. But the shoulder had dropped. And then an edge of their wicket keeper batsman was dropped. The shoulders dropped more.

E.       A ray of hope

Some overs later, a wicket! Pandeyji got Chaudhary out!

Now the team’s blood flowed better, the mouths talked more and the raised up sleeves showed lots of aggression (and some biceps). Shah bowled over number 29 and the first years needed 10 runs to win with two wickets remaining.

Last over-4 runs-2 wickets. I got the ball. It was all on me. The score keeper shouted “Kalia! You don’t have overs left”. What! WTG?! We told him to check, the whole team, all eleven of us.  He checked and confirmed that he was right.

Pandeyji took the ball and in the first ball, a nicely tossed up leg spinner, a wicket fell! We all fell over each other. A ray of hope! A visible, clear ray of hope! We needed one wicket, they need four runs. Next ball, Tilli, who is in the first year team for nothing, edged the ball for a four.

The sun was burning down. The ray of hope had become too concentrated and it charred our hearts. The first years came running onto the field. We were devastated. Holding our hair, banging our heads on the ground. Handshakes followed. Nobody blamed anyone on the field. It was a hard fought game.

F.       After taste

In the library, in the mess and near Biju Da’s shack we looked at each other, nodded in exasperation and smiled. ‘That wicket’, ‘that ball’, ‘that 1st year’; the images flashed continuously. And then we forgot. A lesson, however, stuck on.

We learnt more about law than the ‘off to Kerela for a moot’ Talwar. Next time, the eleven of us are on a deal, or fighting it out in the court; we’ll know that you don’t win till the scoreboard says so.

 

PS- Dear recruiters, we all are team players and can ‘take on a job individually and work efficiently in a group’. (words straight from my cover letter).

PS 2- @ Recruiters again: That we lost the match makes us better team players.

PS 3- I am not regionalist and I don’t drink.

 

Luthra & Luthra has leased another 9,000 square feet in its existing Delhi office to build an indoor cricket practice pitch for fee-earners, following the firm's victory at the law firm T-20 tournament last Sunday.

Luthra & Luthra has won this year's Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) – Khushal T-20 cricket tournament against Amarchand Mangaldas in an exciting finish to a close match that was held yesterday night in Delhi after the semi-finals of Saturday.

Titus & Co, Amarchand Mangaldas, Trilegal and Luthra & Luthra have reached the semi-finals of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) – Khushal T-20 cricket tournament after defeating their rivals in four quarter final matches played over Saturday and Sunday.

CRICKET AND IPL : LESSONS FOR LAWYERS AND LAW FIRMS

 

Here a few lessons law firms and lawyers need to learn from the way cricket/ IPL is played.

1.)   Do one thing. Do it well.

Irfan Pathan was a huge success till he did one thing. And you bet he did it awesomely well. Left arm fast medium, 135ks, the ball swinging into the right hander. What a beautiful sight it was! The girls liked him too!

Then he tried to be super quick. That didn’t happen. He now is actually medium fast. He then tried to develop the ball the goes away from the right hander. Didn’t happen. He worried. Grew bald. Even the girls left him! The blue eyed boy of Indian cricket is now groping in the dark. Sad.
 

Many lawyers who concentrate on a single practice area are doing great for themselves. Take Mr. Pavan Duggal for example. He does Cyber law. Obhan and Associates do patents. That is it. Mr. Veeraghavan Inbavijayan: He does International Arbitration. Nothing else. But they all do it really well.

On the other hand, lawyers/ law firms who try to expand too much, too fast have more often then not fallen flat on their faces. 

The cat who knew to climb trees escaped the hounds; the fox who knew a hundred myriad tricks fell prey to them.

2.)   Great things remain great.

 

Australian cricket team was great, is great. Imagine this: no Waugh brothers, no McGrath, no Warne, no Gilchrist, no Hayden, no Langer. And you begin to think if it is really the Australian team. But in comes Mitchell Johnson, Nannes, Bollinger, Hussey, Clarke, Haddin et al. The Australian team still remains a world beater.

 

Fox Mandal, a great firm got into a very bad shape off late. Partners broke away. Spin-offs were quicker than Shoaib Akhtar’s 150 km/ hr thunderbolts. But Fox Mandal persevered. Today it is hale and hearty and the piggy bank too seems to be growing.

 

      3.)   Great captains are cool captains. Great captains are brave captains. Great captains are innovative captains. Great captains are fun.

 

Kian Ganz is cool. He is the editor/captain of this site folks.

He lets every comment pour in and be put on an open forum.  He is brave.

He has this blog competition running. He has a thriving discussion forum on. He has a job portal too. Kian is innovative.

Kian has a party every Saturday and Sunday. Kian is fun.

 

Dhoni never loses his cool. He tackles media with his philosophical one liners.

He parades the team before media to show unity. Dhoni is brave.

Dhoni uses Raina as a death bowler, Amit Mishra as a night watchman. He is innovative.

Dhoni loves bowling. He has even opened the bowling in a Test match. Dhoni is fun.

 

4.)   Things that don’t come on TV/ Newspapers are dead.

Many lawyers come on TV. CNBC, NDTV Profit etc. are some of the favourite hunting grounds of the eagles and beagles. Their news comes in various business newspapers. Big, visible news. They surely are living well. Domestic cricket matches aren’t even telecast live on TV. The news space of a Ranji match is, at best, microscopic. Domestic cricket is dead.

 
ps- more to come!

Seven Delhi law firms have qualified out of the group stages to the quarter finals of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) – Khushal T-20 cricket tournament after 23 matches played over four weeks.

Luthra & Luthra has beaten Trilegal in the first match in the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF)–Khushal T-20 law firm cricket tournament in Delhi, which will pit 16 teams against each other over the next four months.

Wadia Ghandy won the Mumbai ELP Masters Cricket Cup 2010 yesterday in a reversal of last year's final against Economic Laws Practice's (ELP) powerful batting line-up.

Titus & Co has lifted this year’s Delhi Twenty20 law firm cricket cup trophy after a nail biting victory against Saikrishna in Sunday's finals.

The Delhi Turf Twenty20 law firm cricket cup saw defending champion Luthra & Luthra and favourites Trilegal and Dua Associates get knocked out in the quarter finals, with Bhasin & Co, Desai & Diwanji, Titus & Co and Saikrishna qualifying for the semis.

Trilegal has qualified for Delhi's Turf Twenty20 Cup for Law Firms with a perfect score after convincing wins in two games this weekend. Luthra & Luthra has also qualified by winning all its games, while Dua Associates and Kohli & Sobti qualify with two wins each alongside four other law firm teams.

Luthra & Luthra and Dua Associates are dead certs to qualify for the quarter finals in Delhi's Twenty20 Cup for Law Firms after topping each of their respective pools though for six other teams anything is still possible.