Take Four
Roorkee welcomed us with cool weather. Our memories of losing to Kharagpur were still raw. The first match against Kanpur was drawn 3-3. Once again, we had lost the opportunity to break that talisman against Kanpur. But we had just started to warm up. We routed Guwahati 14-0 in the next match but failed to sense the coming danger — we were playing host Roorkee in the next match, but did not expect any resistance from them. They outplayed themselves and with great aid from the host ‘support’, they matched us shot for shot. Their various advantages were efficiently blunted by our Devanathan. The score read 2-2 until the last one minute.
Heartbeats skipped their normal pace as we remembered the last year’s semis against Kanpur. But this time was ours. This time, I scored the last 30 seconds goal and there was pin-drop silence in the pool. Everyone was disgusted by the refereeing standards, reminiscent of the 2009 Kanpur Inter IIT. Kanpur was terrified after the match because they were playing Roorkee the next morning. This Inter IIT saw, for the first time, a team withdrawing from the match after being stopped after just two minutes of play. Kanpur withdrew, bowing out because they couldn’t take the ‘penalty blows’ from Roorkee.
This was the match we all were waiting for. You can call it revenge. We knew it was coming. The semifinal against a team which had beaten us twice last year, Kharagpur, was standing in the path of our glory. The score at the end of the first quarter stood at 0-0. We assessed our position and decided to unleash our full strength. Turning aggressive, we scored five goals at a trot. Each one of us took turns to humiliate the opposition. On one hand, there were back shots from me, missiles from GPS, lobs from Krishna, ‘skipping’ from Anand and smarty by Sahaj. On the other, there was Suraj (Gullus) standing like a wall and our great goalie Deva. We trashed Kharagpur.
During the first half, the score was 3-0. In the next half, we scored eight goals against a loner by Kharagpur to take the game 11-1. GPS, one of the most ferocious players in the Inter IITs, regained his form. Anand started finding his shoots inside the goal. Our central defender Suraj (Pie Guy) stood there so firmly that KGP’s central offender punched him in an attempt to keep him out of the game. But he continued playing, even with his swollen cheeks. Every player was showcasing his talent. This match had shown us what we were capable of. Our talent, which I believed was above and beyond the level of any other Inter IIT team, had been translated into the greatest shark tale of all time.
Recognition At Last
The members, players and coaches of other contingents came to congratulate me, praising my efforts and shots, but the biggest compliment was yet to come. A Roorkee alumnus from Tattu’s time compared my skills to Tattu himself. That had been my dream since I had started playing for insti. I remembered my vow that day and felt like I had lived up to it. I was the happiest person there that day. I felt like we had finally come out of the shadows of those legends.
But the promise was not fulfilled; the final battle was yet to be won. Bombay had made it to the finals for the second year in a row. They were strong but we were confident of our victory. They scored first, but we never allowed them to shoot freely. Traditionally, the fourth quarter had been our strongest point. We had been known to play with the same speed and stamina as the first quarter throughout the match. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 4-4. And then, in the fourth, we scored two goals. It was showtime for Deva’s goalkeeping skills. Mayank Gupta from IITB, of the 2010-11 Inter IIT fame, tried everything he could to get through Deva, but in vain. Deva was the hero of that match. People came to him and kissed his hands, for the level of goalkeeping he had shown had never before been seen in an Inter IIT. One man was silently watching all of this take shape in front of him — the creator, the artist: our coach, Sunny Mathews.
The Dean himself welcomed us at the main gate. We had regained the respect we had lost. Congratulations were pouring in from all directions. Still, our names had not been written on the memory stone of the Inter IITs or the history of aquatics at IITM. To wipe out the memory of the last Inter IIT, we needed something more. The swimming podium finish had eluded us for more than four years. We couldn’t even complain because our pool had been under renovation all this time. Sunny sir continued coaching us. Most of us were final year students so we spent as much time as possible practising. We were aiming to win 20 points this time, which had never happened in the history of IITM aquatics.
