I guess not many people can boast that they have kept wickets in a match while Sunny Gavaskar stood at first slip. I can. Besides having others on your side like Mohinder Amarnath, Yashpal Sharma and Maninder Singh. The occasion was a cricket match between the Indian and South African media at Centurion Park on February 8, a day after Zimbabwe's historic win over India in the rain-affected onedayer at Centurion. A 35 over a side match in which the Indian media were led by R. Mohan, The Hindu correspondent, and the South Africans by Trevor Quirk, the television commentator. Batting first, the Indians scored 218 in 35 overs, two more runs than what the Indian cricket team managed against Zimbabwe the day before. Opening the batting were Maninder Singh and Mohinder Amarnath, scoring 46 and 68 respectively. Sharma and Sunny followed with 51 and 28 not out. Coming on the wicket for the last two balls in the Indian media innings was Joseph Hoover of the Deccan Herald. Batting with Sunny at the other end was the highlight of his sporting career even though he faced just two balls. He says he couldn't see either of them go past under the lights. The South African innings was interrupted by rain though the overs didn't get reduced. They got bundled out, however, for 149 runs, with Debashish Dutta from Aaj Kal taking three wickets towards the end. Of course, I had my goof-ups behind the stumps, letting the ball through my legs a couple of times on Maninder's bowling and getting shouted at by him and Sharma—"Aai Aniruda ki kar reya si. Nak katwaiga." (Hey Aniruda, will you make us lose face.) This is where Sunny's stabilising influence came in. "That's the typical Punjabi way of playing cricket," said Sunny. "'Instead of making you comfortable they've flustered you now. That's how the Pakistanis play cricket. They are at each other's throats all the time." "What about sledging the batsman?" I ask. "Only Sarfaraz used to do that. The others used to just talk amongst themselves," says Sunny. I see my opportunity to clear an 11-year-old curiosity. What was it that David Boon said to him as Sunny walked past him when he got out at 90 in the historic tied Test at Madras in 1986? From television, my memory of the scene for 11 long years was Aussie aggressiveness at its peak. It must have been something really bad, I imagined. Recalled Sunny: "I think he said, 'well played'." That was quite an anti-climax. Of course, to get my wicketkeeper slot I had to fudge issues with Yashpal Sharma. "Have you kept wickets before?" he asked me. "Sort of," I said, and started strapping my pads before he could pin me on the subject. Sitting nearby, Sunny advised me to be sure I wore my groin guard. Later, I confess to Sunny, "This was the first time I kept wickets in my entire life. Actually, I did it just to be able to stand next to you." Sunny smiles and winks.