First Screening of 83 ft. Class of '83

Chapter 7

India vs Australia, 13th June, 1983

"Sunil Gavaskar apparently is injured and has been left out. Can this cost them the match?"

"Goodness, it's that match," said Cheeka.

"It is," said Roger wryly.

"Why didn't Kabir omit this match?" wondered Cheeka out loud, like he was actually contemplating on it. "Isn't the whole point of the movie to show us winning?"

"Thank god no one made you a film director," said Dilip, who'd overheard, because unsurprisingly Cheeka had not been talking, he'd been yelling.

"Chappel displaying a tremendous array of strokes."

"That's been dropped...! Chappel given a life by Roger Binny...this could be costly."

"The captain clearly looks frustrated with his players. Too many missed opportunities...too many. Well, I hate to say this but the Indians are looking like amateurs today."

"You know what, Kaps," said Madan conversationally. "We actually went to bed that day feeling things are returning to normal."

"What does that mean?" asked Kapil suspiciously as on-screen Kapil glared at his team at the lunch break.

"Maddi—" said Jimmy.

"Stop being peaceful for one second," Madan told him tartly. "All of us—including this guy sitting beside you—had been feeling everything was off-balance since we won the first two matches, and were on top of Group B and all that..."

"Then we were thrashed by Australia," said Jimmy, giving in. "And it felt like what happened wasn't nice, but at least the ground beneath our feet had stabilized."

On the field, Kapil took wickets to pull something back for India.

"After some dismal fielding from India, Kapil Dev has taken the bowling to the opposition."

"I suppose you've spent your whole life off-balance since 25th June, 1983," said Kapil, annoyed.

Kirti snickered and indicated at the screen. Jimmy and Maddi looked up and found on-screen Kapil wearing a very similar expression as the real one was, right then.

"Well bowled, skipper," said Roger, catching up with Kapil. "Congratulations on the fifer..."

Kapil nodded briefly and looked straight ahead grimly as he walked. Jimmy and Roger exchanged a look before Roger walked ahead.

"Ki huya hai, Kaps?" asked Jimmy quietly.

"Match abhi khatam nahi huya Jim pa," said Kapil in a rather aggressive tone.

Jimmy offered Kapil a contrite pat on the shoulder to which the latter didn't react.

"Yaar tu janta hai uska hamstring kheecha huya hai..." said Jimmy. "Koshish toh kar raha hai wo..."

Swift as anything, Kapil melted.

"You're the nicest vice-captain I could've had, Jim pa," he said for the second time that evening.

"You're the nicest captain we could've had, too," said Maddi, trying to be the nice-guy like Jimmy for once, though even he knew he was just speaking the truth.

Kapil looked at him suspiciously and looked back at the screen. Jimmy grinned at Maddi.

"Meri ummeed Roger se bohot zyada hai. He better than that."