Justice League 2020: Player Diary | We gave our 110% and that’s all that matters

For any student of Gujarat National Law University who is even remotely passionate about sports, it’s a complete no brainer that the 4 days of our annual sports fest Justice League are the most exciting and eventful days of the year. The otherwise dull and dreary pathways of campus are absolutely bustling with energy and cheers from various students who have travelled to GNLU from all over the country to participate in this mega event. One can constantly hear shouts of “GO GNLU” and “GNLU Ka Dhoom Dhadaka” in every corner of the university right from sunrise to well into the night as the crowds gather in large numbers to boost the spirits of the home team.

Being a member of the GNLU Cricket Team right since my first year, Justice League has always been the most anticipated tournament for me all year round as it gave me and my teammates the perfect opportunity to showcase our skills in front of our home crowd. This year, we were more determined than ever to prove a point especially after our shock exit from the group stage of the tournament in the previous edition. The boys had trained extremely hard this time with our preparation starting a good 2 months before the fest. This time around, we as a team had focused particularly hard on our fielding and fitness, the lack of which had made us pay in earlier tournaments. We also made it a point to play a couple of friendlies with local teams so that each player got a feel of being in pressure situations before the real action began.

Our first match was against our traditional rivals from across the other side of Ahmedabad, Institute of Law, Nirma (ILNU). The match turned out to be a classic nail-biting affair going right down to the last ball as GNLU staged a narrow escape from the jaws of defeat. There was boisterous support for both teams in the stands which lead to some serious altercations between the supporters during the match. But at the end of the day, sport was the real winner as both the players and audience witnessed a thrilling spectacle that they would not forget for a long long time. GNLU’s second match turned out to be a hilarious no-show as we received a walkover from SMPIC college as their team failed to turn up for the match altogether. When we contacted them, their excuse was that they were not aware of their fixture but we all knew deep down they were terrified of facing us at our home ground especially after the royal bashing we served them in one of our earlier encounters. (Hahaha).

With an easy entry into the semi-finals, our team was all pumped up to dominate our next opponent and storm our way into the finals. Our match was against Nirma University, one of the best teams in the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar cricket circuit who had unassumingly gone about their way at Justice League 2020 quietly sealing their spot in the semi finals as the underdog. Unfortunately, we got off to a very average start in the match and despite a few moments of brilliance in between, we could never quite recover from the initial damage as Nirma defeated us comfortably and eventually went on to win the Cricket event. It was evident that we as a team needed to learn to handle pressure better if we wanted to win championships. Most of the boys were gutted as we saw all our efforts under the scorching sun for so many days go in vain right before our eyes. But I guess that is the beauty of sport. You win some, you lose some. We gave our 110% this year and that’s all that matters. I am confident that we will bounce back stronger and tougher next year to lift the cup in front of our home crowd.

But that is for another time. Before we get there, we need to survive what we at GNLU call our worst nightmare, the “mid-semester examinations”!