BEHIND THE SCENES-Best Series Ever

That instinct to protect your twin

It was a tear, not a strain.

Ash felt blood pounding in his ears as Vihari stood up (he didn't like people calling him Vihari, but they did anyway). Right from childhood, he had never liked to see people in pain. Especially the ones he cares about. Especially when they were standing in front of him.

It threw him off, made him all light headed, crazy.

The funny thing was didn't feel light headed when he was in pain, himself, unless he watched himself in the mirror. Which he, mostly, didn't.

"Can you stand?" Ash whispered to Vihari as the physio finished patching up his thigh.

Vihari accepted the hand Ash offered and pulled himself up. He winced almost imperceptibly as he gingerly put the weight on his injured leg.

"Yeah I'm ok—" said Vihari. "—ok."

"That leg isn't fit to stand on, Hanuma," said the physio. "Certainly not walk or run. You'll make it worse."

Ash twisted his fingers around his younger teammate's arm unconsciously and tried to look anywhere but at the pained expression on his bent head.

Vihari lifted up his face and fixed his gaze on the stadium scoreboard.

"Ash bhaiya, do you think," he said. "we can try to bat it out without running?"

"Yes, yes," said Ash quickly. "yes, no problem. 10 points are better than nothing."

Nitin glared at Ash, like he was disappointed in him.

And trust me, under any other circumstances Ash would have insisted that Vihari walk off. Irrespective of the consequences of the match.

But today—the situation was—delicate. Ash glanced at the team balcony.

A pair of impish eyes winked at him, and their owner raised his non-bandaged hand to wave at him before it returned to cradle his bandaged hand to his chest.

Yes, Ash knew—today's situation was special.

Specially horrible.

********

Vihari, as it soon turned out, couldn't run, couldn't walk, couldn't stretch, and could hardly stand. The duo started ensuring that Vihari didn't have to face any of Lyon's overs, so that he didn't have to stretch at all.

Then obviously the clever opposition captain replaced Green with Labuschangne, and Vihari found himself facing a spinner.

He played out the over calmly.

After it ended Ash walked up to check on him, and found his eyes over-bright.

"That fox," Ash hissed, sending a disgusted glance at Paine observing them with a grin.

The only reason he had brought on his part timer when they were desperately in need of a wicket was to cause pain to the batsman.

"Just—" Vihari was breathing hard like he had run a mile at a sprint; only, he hadn't run even 22 yards. "—just 35 overs to go, Ash bhaiya." Ash looked away from Vihari's tears, his head pounding.

It wasn't the kind of tears that the mind, when hurt, produced with consciousness.

It was the kind of tears that the body, overriding the mind and consciousness produces, just to make it known that it is being stressed beyond tolerance.

"Don't talk," whispered Ash, patting his brother on his back, once, softly. "Don't strain yourself. Just 35 overs to go, Hanuma."

Vihari actually looked pretty pleased to be called by his first name for once.