60/2 in 8.3 overs. Nine runs to win. Eight wickets in hand. Our opponents are cruising.
The batter goes for a big hit the next ball, and against the run of play, Abdullah takes a spectacular one-handed running catch. Aravind has his first.
Another wicket falls. And then one more. We start to believe.
Pressure is palpable. Every dot is cheered. Plays and misses, oohs and aahs. We are locked in.
Wickets keep falling from both ends, and Aravind ends up with 5/12.
At 66/9, the last man standing is clean bowled. We sprint towards each other and celebrate in a huddle.
Disbelief. Chaos. Ecstasy. From 60/2 to 66 all out. We have actually pulled it off.
****
Last summer, I drove past the green hills of Elver Park and noticed people playing cricket.
At first, I brushed it off as a few friends playing casually, but I kept seeing different teams out there as the summer went on.
Around the same time, I had started playing soccer. A few months later, I took the leap of faith and officially joined a league.
Then one day, my brother asked me: “Bro, why are you playing soccer, which you have never played before, and not cricket?”
Fair question. So I reached out to the Madison Cricket Association and soon got a call from Prafull Bhai, the Challengers team captain, who invited me to join the team.
June 21st: My First Live Match
For six years, I have been writing about cricket. For most of my life, I have followed, analyzed, and blabbered about the sport wherever I go.
And yet, I had never once seen a professional cricket match from the stands.
That finally changed at Major League Cricket at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, where I watched Seattle Orcas vs LA Knight Riders. Great facility, wonderful ground, some free merch. Parking? That’s a story for another time.
Watching Sunil Narine and Andre Russell up close and listening to Robin Uthappa and Liam Plunkett on commentary just a few feet away was surreal. Later, Rovman Powell smashed five consecutive sixes. Not a bad way to top off the day.
One of the highlights, though, was finally meeting journalists Peter Della Penna and Aaman Patel.
I had a great conversation with Peter about American cricket and toward the end, he asked:
“So, Broken Dreams no more?”
“Almost,” I replied. “I still haven’t played an actual cricket match.”
Finally finally was able to see my first live cricket match. Broken Cricket Dreams no more!@MLCSeattleOrcas vs LA Knight Riders at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
— Broken Cricket Dreams Cricket Blog (@cricket_broken) June 24, 2026
Rovman Powell hit 5 sixes in a row 🔥There were a couple of Sunil Narine hooks, Unmukt Chand cover drives,… pic.twitter.com/LV1r2TEmFl
Also Read: Cricket Was the Dream. Life Had Other Plans
August 8th: The Mindset Shift
Fast forward to August, and it was finally time for my first match with the Challengers.
I came in at No. 6 with 64/4 on the board after 10.5 overs.
For the next couple of overs, I struggled to get the ball past the infield while being quasi-sledged by the opposition: “There’s pressure on him. Collapse coming soon.”
At the end of the over, our vice-captain Rana, who had earlier scored a quickfire 19 and was now the leg umpire, and Sujay, the rock of our batting lineup at the non-striker’s end, came over with some much-needed advice.
“Play with a free mind. Don’t worry. Loft the ball so they move the fielders outside the ring.”
Next ball, a low full toss came in. Over square leg. Four.
That shift in intent changed everything.
Next over, 4, 4, 4, 4, out.
For most of my life, my favorite innings had been an 8* in a match-winning chase when I was nine, batting at No. 3 for my school team in Mumbai.
Twenty years later, I finally had a new favorite innings.
Fielding, on the other hand, didn’t go quite as planned. I dropped three catches.
Thankfully, our disciplined bowling unit made sure we still won.
Scorecard: Challengers vs Masters XI
August 15th: Cricket Is a Great Leveler
I went into the next match feeling confident and had even hit a couple of sixes in practice that week.
We were batting first in an early morning game on a wet ground.
I came in at 9.5 overs, just two balls before the halfway drinks break. Two wickets had already fallen in the over.
A short ball came into my arc. I went for it.
Top edge. Out for a duck.
Cricket is a great leveler. One moment you are up, the next you are right back down.
Lesson learned: play according to the situation.
We eventually stumbled to 68 all out thanks to a 28-run tenth-wicket partnership between Aravind and Fahad.
And somehow, 68 turned out to be enough.
Scorecard: Challengers vs Indies Blues
August 22nd: Playing the Situation
The lesson from the previous match was still fresh. The dismissal had haunted me the entire week.
This time, the goal was simple: do not throw away your wicket.
We were chasing 127 and had slipped to 48/5 when I came in.
I made 9 off 25 balls, coming in during the ninth over and staying until the 17th.
Ram played a handy knock at the other end, and we built a partnership. However, when it was finally time to accelerate, I could not quite get going, and we finished 35 runs short.
Scorecard: Challengers vs Smashers
August 30th: Rain, Drama, and My First Catch
This one had a little bit of everything.
It was a gloomy Sunday afternoon, and we were in the field first. Rain started falling during the second half of the first innings. We went off and came back on a couple of times before they eventually completed their 20 overs and finished on 110.
Then the rain got heavier. The ground got wetter.
Surely, that was it? Not quite.
There were ground inspections. Talks of DLS. A possible five-over chase. Conference calls were made, rulebooks were checked. Even some words may have been exchanged.
We waited at the ground for more than an hour, right up until the cutoff time.
Eventually, the match was called off.
On a personal note, I finally took a catch. After dropping three in my first match, contributing to the team’s effort in the field felt good.
Scorecard: Challengers vs Gujarat Titans
Broken Dreams No More?
American philosopher Henry David Thoreau once wrote,
“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
This past week, I found myself shadow batting in the kitchen, visualizing match situations, practicing catches around the apartment, and watching AB de Villiers’ pull-shot videos on YouTube!
I had not been this invested in cricket in quite some time.
Somewhere along the way, cricket had begun to lose a little bit of its charm for me. Childhood icons retiring, ICC tournaments every year, and too much franchise cricket.
I was no longer following every series. Heck, I did not even realize the India-Sri Lanka Test series had started, let alone that players named Sonal and Saransh were playing.
Playing again brought some of that old excitement back.
More than anything, the Challengers gave me what I had been missing all along: a team to be a part of.
Twenty years later, I am finally playing cricket again.
A broken cricket dream has come back to life.
****
Thank you for reading. This article was reposted on Substack and on Medium for those who prefer reading there. If you liked this piece, you may also enjoy:
- This Wasn’t the Dream, But Maybe It’s Something Better: 400 Articles Later, This is Why I Write
- Who Can Still Afford to Host Test Cricket in 2025? Inside the $923 Million Divide in Board Finances
- Ranking England’s 65 Greatest Cricketers of All Time (Men’s)
- I Asked the NCAA if Cricket Can Become an Official NCAA Sport—Here is What I Found Out
- Top 10 Life Lessons From India Vs Australia 2020: Courage, Character, Resilience
- What Rahul Dravid Taught Me
You can follow us on:
#416 © Copyright @Nitesh Mathur and Broken Cricket Dreams, LLC 2023. Originally published on 08/31/2026. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Broken Cricket Dreams with appropriate and specific direction to the original content (i.e. linked to the exact post/article)
0 Comments