Mahe’s Men
“This should have been won by us. We let go of the opportunity without a fight.” Claimed Vishu with a sigh. “Speak up guys. Any suggestions or inputs. You can’t stay like this forever.”
“Bowling could have been better. No Yorkers bowled at the death overs. Too many wides. I must admit that am one of those to be blamed. “Sushil remarked.
Shankar pitched in with his comments too. “Fielding was pathetic. Good batting performance. No point in consoling ourselves by saying that we are new to playing with the cricket ball. Our fielding standards need to improve drastically.”
“It’s none of those. It is about the frame of mind with which we entered the game. We were not serious about it in the first place. When the game was in our hands, surprisingly, for the kind of preparation we had, we just let it off the hook. We never gave our 100%. No, not even 80%.Leave this one alone, how can we win any game?” Sridhar cried out.
“Sridhar is right. It is our attitude which cost us the game. I don’t think there can be a better explanation or an excuse for our loss than what Sridhar has mentioned.” Vishu said.
Silence prevailed for a while and Vishu spoke up once again. “Okay then let us try to forget today’s game and go ahead with the rest of the games. We have 2 more left and let us try and win them both. Any of you in for a practice session next Sunday just drop me an email. “
And they all departed to their respective vehicles and drove back home.
‘Zappers’, as the team was called had registered for a cricket tournament. It was called the ALPS League cricket tournament. Each of them were extremely talented cricketers but only with the tennis ball. They were new to playing with the cricket ball and were not very comfortable initially. This was the fifth match played by them and had lost all 5. They came very close to winning this one, the fifth, but in vain. Vishu’s efforts in trying to pull off a victory seemed a distant dream as he was running out of partners at the other end. Only Sridhar gave him some support in trying to score quickly but not for long. The tail wagged to an extent but they lost the game after coming agonizingly close to the required target of 183 in 20 overs. They could only muster 171 at the end of the 19th over and were all out by then.
John and Sridhar were neighbors and were travelling together in John’s car. They didn’t speak much during the course of the journey as they knew they were at fault. About 5 minutes before reaching his house, Sridhar in a low voice said, “We must do it at least for Vishu. He has done so much for the team and has never showed off. High time we also have the same passion and commitment.”
“Very true. Unfortunately not all of us are that serious about the game. Anyways let’s do it next time.” John replied.
John was their team’s trump card as far as bowling was concerned. He bowled extremely fast and it was menacingly quick. Unfortunately he was at the receiving end in today’s game and was feeling completely low. He dropped Sridhar and went home.
Time went by and Vishu and John had caught up for tea in the food court. Vishu and John worked in the same office and were pretty close buddies.
“Do you think my captaincy is going haywire? Am I being too autocratic in my decisions? I only look at what is good for the team.” Vishu asked with suspicion.
“I don’t know why you have such a doubt. The fact remains that we all want to win and most of us want to win only for you for the kind of commitment and effort you have put in. So don’t worry about your captaincy. I don’t think there can be a better captain at the moment.” John assured him.
“We will have a practice game this Sunday. I’d love to win this one at least.” The captain remarked. “I hope Sridhar fires this time. He did well last game but I think he should also bowl well.”
John didn’t bother to reply and they left the place.
It was Sunday and the practice game was about to begin. The opponents were put into bat and John opened the bowling as usual.
Not the best of days for Vishu for he looked pale for no reason, but John did a pretty decent job with his bowling. His captain’s trust in him to open the bowling paid off with John picking up 3 quick wickets and nailing the opponents.
The score read 46/3 in the 14th over and it seemed a great start for Zappers. Vishu tossed the ball to Sridhar to bowl the 15th over. The rest of the team was amazed at the move and Sridhar himself didn’t expect this to happen.
“What are you doing Vishu, are you out of your mind? He leaked some 20 odd runs in the previous game in one over.” John came running from third man to the bowler’s end to say this.
“Hey we have so many bowlers who can do wonders for us. We are in such a strong situation. Then why give it to Sridhar?”Sushil was angry at the move. He was furious with Vishu for this move.
“Let him bowl. It’s ok.”Vishu snapped back.
Sridhar was given the ball and was smacked for 17 runs off his first over. The fielders were cursing the captain but that did no good. The following over was bowled by Ram which was pelted for 10 runs. The batsmen had come to form and were milking the bowlers for easy runs.
The following over was also bowled by Sridhar. At this, Sushil was furious. He ran up to Vishu and at the top of his voice he shouted, “Have you gone mad or what? This is the only practice game we have before our tournament game and you give the ball to Sridhar again? One over was fine. We saw what happened in that over. Another one? This is ridiculous Vish. This cannot happen. If you want him to bowl this over, I am leaving the ground.”
“Okay. Leave. I will manage with 10 players.” Vishudid not even think twice before retaliating that way.
Sushil and the rest of the team was shell shocked at the reply. Sridhar was ready with the ball and was stunned by the kind of faith his captain reposed on him.
“I will never play a game with you as captain again.” Sushil charged out of the field to take his car and just drove away. The team remained mute spectators to what was happening around and watched the incident with awe.
“Sridhar, go and bowl. We are one fielder short, but we are fine with it. Get us a wicket now. Sushil’s absence should not be felt and it depends on your bowling. I want you to bowl with all your might and fetch us a couple of wickets. These two batsmen at the center need to be back in the stands by the end of this over. Here is the ball. Do it for me.” Vishu seemed to speak out those words straight from his heart.
Vishu continued to cheer his team. “Come on guys, let’s do it. Sridhar is going to do it for us. Cheer up!”
And he did. He bowled two full Yorkers off his first two balls which swung a bit and uprooted the stumps. Call it luck or fear, Sridhar did it and was ecstatic after the fall of the two wickets and he was on a hat-trick now.
A new lease of life entered the team and it seemed to come up from nowhere. There were hi-fi’s everywhere, fielders looking real pumped up and were now ready for the challenge. The over was done without the hat-trick and drastically slowed the flow of runs. John was back in the next over and bowled a maiden.
Sridhar continued in the next over and picked another couple of wickets. The team just witnessed an outstanding bowling performance by their bowlers and very importantly Sridhar who was considered to be more of a batsman than a bowler created magic out of nowhere.
The game went by and opponents were bundled out for a paltry 92 runs.
During the innings break Vishu gave instructions to John to lead the team in his absence as he was going out for a smoke. He said he felt tired and asked him to ensure that Sridhar opened the innings.
“What’s between Vish and Sridhar? I have never seen him this biased. Maybe he has a plan.” Thought John.
“Hey Sridhar, open the innings with Sandeep. Vishu is not here and he asked me to inform you that you’d open the innings.” John told him.
John was the only player who could captain the side when Vishu was not around. Almost all the players had a fair amount of respect on him and also obeyed his decisions at Vishu’s absence.
Sridhar and Sandeep opened the innings and finished the game in less than 12 overs. Everything seemed to go the Zappers’ way in today’s game. But the captain was missing.
Sridhar was the man of the match and after they spent some time teasing each other they decided to leave. John called up Vishu to enquire about him and learnt that he had already reached home by then. He asked John to come to his house as he wanted to talk to him for a while.
“What a weirdo he is. Has he fixed the match or something. Well, no way.” John kept mumbling to himself and was wondering what caused Vishu to act so weird in today’s game.
The team dispersed and all of them left home. John dropped Sridhar and went to Vishu’s place. “Hey Vish. What happened da? You were behaving so differently today. Anything wrong?” John asked him.
“Yes John. There are a few problems.” Saying so he started weeping.
John didn’t expect such a reaction from Vishu. He was usually an emotionally strong person. Even during his tough times he never let his friends intervene in his problems. But today it seemed something different.
“What’s wrong?”
No answer. He wept.
“Tell me na. What is the issue?”
“Sridhar will not be with us for long” saying so he started weeping bitterly without a break.
“What? Why? What’s wrong with him? He seemed perfectly okay while playing today?”
“Yes. But he won’t live long.”
“But why?”
“Because, because, I poisoned him.” And I could hear reverberations of his weeping across the walls of the house.
“What the f***? What do you mean?”
to be continued........
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