Tuesday, September 28, 2004

3 Decades, 2 B-schools and only 1 XLRI (The story in Parts)

Over the weekend, Jamshedpur witnessed mass exodus, quality action and history as XLRI and IIM-C met for the 33-year old sports meet.

Day 1 (Morning):

It all started on Saturday 6:00 am as 250 odds students from IIM-C arrived at the Steel City for the 21 events that would challenge both sides to their limits. As the buses rolled in, the Xlers, (who are normally getting into bed at such hours) were in fact wide-awake – ready to greet the archrivals. After all, not every day at XLRI brings along such history.

The tournament kicked off with the Women’s Throwball. For the XL women, it was cake-walk. Before they knew what was happening, IIM-C found themselves hit with a score of 0-1, as the first event went in favour of XLRI.

If the IIM-Cians thought that it was simply beginner’s luck, they couldn’t have been more wrong. The scene of action soon shifted to Mohan Ahuja Stadium for badminton. Xlers of course were on tenterhooks. IIM-C boasted of Lancy Vijay of international fame. How could XLRI even hope to win this one?

On the court, it was an easy win for Lancy. However, XLRI came back in the next single with a superb win from Vikram Dani and so the score for the event stood at 1 each. The doubles game that followed was quite something. With Lancy back in action, it seemed it would have been quite a match even if he were alone on the court, facing two Xlers. Lancy, with the scintillating performance, clinched it for IIM-C. However, another win in straight sets from John Jim brought XL back to 2-2. Who would win? That would be found out later as all dispersed for lunch and the cricket match scheduled right after.

The score so far: 1-0 in favour of XLRI.

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