28 Comments
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Pritam Sukumar's avatar

Wow! The rhythm of your writing, rushing when it needs to, calming down when the emotion demands it β€” it’s almost like a test match itself!

With this post, I continue my unbroken streak of not watching any cricket, but reading all your posts about it with pleasure.

That moment with Jadega almost brought me to tears.

Lovely post (as usual, but I have to say it again) β€” thank you Sarthak!

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Rohan Banerjee's avatar

100% agree.

The rhythm of this piece is so good. The slow build-ups, the barrelling final sessions, the intro and outro. Great eΜΆsΜΆsΜΆaΜΆyΜΆ album.

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you, Rohan!

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much, Pritam! Glad that I'm able to bring cricket to you :D

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Amit Varma's avatar

Epic piece. Well done!

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much, Amit!

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Arvind's avatar

How to write about sports like a thriller πŸ™‚. This is just mastery at some other level. Reading about the test series was more exhilarating than watching it. That takes some doing alright. Bravo!

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much, Arvind :)

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Binu Sivan's avatar

Sarthak, you are the Agatha Christie of cricket writers. I know, I know. I am no expert. But this I am sure of - you make me feel for this silly game. Don't hate me :). Such a fabulous piece.

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Haha, thank you Binu! If I can get a non-locked in person to feel for the sport, that's my job done :D

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Sharad Chandra's avatar

Absolutely loved the way you weaved the rhythmic thread with belief in the center of it all.

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you, Sharad!

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King Sacrificer's avatar

Sad that Akashdeep's half century didn't find a mention. Brilliant read otherwise.

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you! And I hear you, should've found a way to squeeze that knock in.

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Ashish Chatterjee's avatar

Brilliantly composed and written, maintaining your usual standards. 😊❀️

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much :)

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Nihil's avatar

You've managed to capture the entire emotional arc of what sounds like an epic Test series while making every ball, every moment, every heartbreak feel visceral even for someone who wasn't there.

Reading about cricket has never felt this cinematic to me. You've turned statistics and scorecards into pure narrative gold.

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much, Sid! It means a tremendous amount that the essay felt like a story, and not just a dry description of numbers. That was the intention. I'm very glad it came through. :)

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Sanyam Jain's avatar

Sarthak, with this usual writing being spot on, catching every emotion, made me relive the series all at once, images going through the mind, Class written all over it

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you, Sanyam!

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Jeff Kurian's avatar

It took a few moments after Sirajs last ball magic for me to believe what I had just witnessed. Then began the wait to read your poetry to make sense of it all.

Thank you for this gift, this will be read on many dark days when belief is elusive, thanks to the format, the players and you to compose it all

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much, Jeff :)

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Gandhar Doshi's avatar

Sneaking through work breaks, streaming on trains, buses and footpaths-just watching this series was quite an experience, because truly- even ball-by-ball felt inadequate.

I can only marvel that pieces of such stature are free to read. Thank you, Sarthak! Will coming back to this whenever I need to reminisce this glorious English summer- which will be at least 1113 times.

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

1113 times is where it's at, especially the 1113th time haha. Thank you so much, Gandhar!

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le flaneur's avatar

Welled up and smiled more than once! Superb writing Sarthak!

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much! So glad it spoke to you :)

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Nikhil Mishra's avatar

Thanks so much for writing this, Sarthak. Such an amazing piece and what beautiful writing! Made me teared up while that build up para of Siraj. Smiled at many points but lost my shit at Spiked Hair and Forearm tattoos.

Felt so full after finishing the piece.

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Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much, Nikhil :)

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