Badminton over weekends

                                                Location: Centre Court, Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy

                                                Scene: Mixed Doubles

                J and I vs H and Sr. Score: 6-9. I am not very happy. Neither is J. We both gave away cheap points on serves. H and Sr are good. Very good.

                Some context: Actually, H is a guy with good technique. You wouldn’t want to give him easy shots ever; he will pick his spot and hit an extremely fierce shot, one you can’t even think of getting to, let alone returning it. Sr is not a technical player, but very good nonetheless. Against me and J. I would say I am a good player but not with enough technique. I don’t give up easily. Neither does J. Power doesn’t come easily to J. But she doesn’t give up. So you have the teams: power, precision and technique vs heart and emotion. Classic David vs Goliath. Underdogs vs favorites. Normally I don’t think too much about things like that. But on that day I was intent on winning maximum number of games. Whoever was on my team, I wasn’t going to give up so easily. I was going to make the opposition work hard to get points off of me.

                Here we go. J serves. A short serve. Sr returns it with a backhand. Long and high to the right side back of our court. I am not worried. I can get there. I take a look at their positions. Sigh. They are well covered. We need to make them move, drag them out of position. I hit the shuttlecock hard, to the rear of their court. H is pleased with this shot, he can hit a smash on this return. Sr doesn’t move, he doesn’t need to. Meanwhile J is at prowling the front of our court, looking out for drop shots(I am not a fan of drop shots). H jumps, thwacks the shuttle hard and low. For a not so tall and  lanky guy, he generates a lot of power. Oh no. I know where this is going. J can’t do anything, I have to reach and strike it. I start running to the left. Meanwhile H shifts his position, moving opposite, ready to pounce. I make it in time to return. But the shot isn’t good, not good against those guys. Sr reaches for it and returns it. Not so well, I think. It falls for J, in the front half of our court. Come on J, hit it hard behind Sr, straight. But no. She chooses to pull off a moment of brilliance. She drops the shot close to the net diagonally opposite. Oh fantastic! I think to myself, no one is getting to that. And indeed no one does. Not H from the back, nor Sr from the left. That shot was just too good. We clink our bats. I say to her, what a superb shot. She is not one for taking credit, the team player that she is. I sense a shift in momentum. We can make a comeback.

                Fast forward, here we are: game – 18. Underdogs are making a giant killing. Our friends who were watching, are stunned. Just one more point. No time for mistakes. H’s serve to J. He likes to mix it up, with long and short serves, and slow and quick serves. J knows this, having played a lot more times against and with him, than me. H serves, quick and long. J is too forward, will she reach the back of the court to return? For a short girl and slim girl, she is quick. She is the picture of concentration for this shot. She knows what this means to herself, and to me. She stretches to hit the shot. The racquet makes sweet connection to set the shuttle on its way back to the other court. The smash is there for Sr to hit. I expect a smash, so I am falling back. Sr somehow can’t smash it cleanly, it hits the rim of his racquet. I am a little behind the falling shuttle. I can finish it. What are their positions? I take a quick look. Haha, not good this time. Too close to each other, enough to cause confusion. The shuttle was on a sweet downward trajectory, the one that is so tempting to hit a smash, like the one for Sr. I know I cannot afford to miss. I feel all eyes on me. J, H and Sr. Other friends who are on the sidelines.

                I have two choices. One: I could let the shuttle fall down a little more, and then hit it hard away from both of them. Two: I could jump, and hit it early. Give them little time to react. Much more stylish way to win( J ). The second is risky. I make up my mind in that fraction of a second. Option two. I leap into the air, all the time watching the shuttle. I start swinging the racquet downwards. It makes connection with the shuttle. I have picked my spot. The shuttle follows the path I commanded it to. Straight as an arrow, it goes in the spot exactly in the middle of H and Sr. They both swing their racquets, hoping for a lucky break. They both miss. We win. The underdogs. Against arguably two  superior players. Fantastic play all around. Even they didn’t expect to lose, not by this much. We high-five each other, and clink our racquets. Done.

                 Now we give the court to our other friends who patiently waited for their turn while we played. All of them appreciate our play.

                The above was just a single game from one of the many awesome games I have played with these guys for the past 3 or 4 weekends. I thoroughly enjoy playing badminton. Thanks for playing with me. I hope we keep playing over the coming weekends.