New Delhi: It was a challenge alright, but far removed from the court battles that they are familiar with. At 7 am Sunday morning, judges and lawyers, mostly of the Supreme Court, took to the field at Modern School Barakhamba Road to let their bats present their case for them.
Though a friendly T-20 match, the atmosphere was competitive, as both teams — the CJI (Chief Justice of India)-XI and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) — gave it their all on the field. The match was kicked-off by CJI N.V. Ramanna, who though he didn’t play, inaugurated the match by hitting three balls. The first two were dot balls with little contact, but the third connected. These three balls were, however, not part of the actual overs.
The toss was won by CJI-XI, who opted to bat first. The team was captained by Justice L. Nageswara Rao, who ensured that each player on the team got a chance to bat — replacing players at intervals, even when the previous player was not out. The SCBA side was captained by senior advocate Vikas Singh.
The judges put up an impressive score of 160-4 in 20 overs, with Justice Raja (from the Kerala High Court) becoming the highest run-scorer, with 40 runs from just 20 balls. The SCBA side failed to match up to the challenge, and were all out for only 88 runs in 12.4 overs, ensuring a 72-run victory for the judges. The trophy was received by CJI Ramana.
The lawyers lost 2 wickets within the first over itself, with the captain of the CJI-11, taking three wickets in two overs.
The friendly match between lawyers and judges is an annual event. In 2017, Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, who had inaugurated the match that year, had called the game a “stress-buster” for both the bar and the bench. In previous editions, Justice Madan Lokur, Justice Dipak Mishra, Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice U.U. Lalit have been a part of the friendly cricket match.
A different game
What added to the mood of Sunday’s match, was the witty, good-natured commentary by SCBA treasurer, advocate Meenesh Dubey. The lawyer made jibes at his own team, remarking once that from senior advocate Pradeep Rai’s bowling, it seemed he was playing for the other side.
Dubey also remarked that senior advocate Rajiv Dutta was not fielding properly, probably because he did not have to contest the elections to the bar association.
He added: Looking at (senior advocate) Ajit Sinha’s bowling it’s definite (pakka) that he has a case tomorrow before Justice (Ajay) Rastogi” — hinting that he was making it easy for Justice Rastogi to score more runs.
The SCBA team also included senior advocates Aman Lekhi, Vikas Pahwa, Tushar Mehta, and Aman Sinha, while the CJI-XI comprised Justice Vineet Saran, Justice C.T. Ravikumar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Justice M.M. Sundresh, Justice Raja and others.
The player of the match was Justice N. Anand Venkatesh, who scored 34 runs and took 3 wickets. From the SCBA side, senior advocate Col. R. Balasubramanian was complimented for his fielding by the commentator, while senior advocate Balbir Singh who praised for his bowling.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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