Cricket Chronicles

The Broken Warriors (Mahi-Jaddu)

A/N: This one is for you Shinymajal. I'm sorry for not updating earlier, I was about to publish it long back but realised that it had a major plot hole, and my laziness to write caused a major delay. Sometime near the start of this WC I figured that the eve of our semis was the perfect day to publish this (which unfortunately is IND vs NZ again) so I published it now. I hope you'll like it :)

MS Dhoni wandered through the streets of Manchester, without a care about where he was going, it was the last thing on his mind. Normally he would have chided anyone for such an irresponsible thing, much less do it himself, but today it didn't matter, as if anything else mattered tonight, as today was not normal, his team had lost a World Cup semi-final to NZ, because he hadn't dived when it mattered the most, he had failed his team.

On the other side, Ravindra Jadeja was in a similar state. He should not have played that shot, when he was India's only hope for victory. He had failed his team, especially Rohit and Mahi bhai.

He too was out on the streets, completely engrossed in his own thoughts, not knowing what was in front of him and what behind, until he bumped into someone, or Mahi bhai.

Both of just looked at each other for a few seconds, when Jaddu decided to break the silence, "How come you are here, Mahi bhai, at this time of the night?

"I was looking for you." MS had understood the underlying question 'are you okay', and also the reason behind him asking it this way. Ravindra didn't want to make it awkward for him.

"Don't lie Mahi bhai, I can see it in your eyes and please stop playing the fool."

"How's Rohit", asked MS diverting the topic.

"He was extremely hurt, but I somehow managed to calm him down. He's asleep now. What about Virat?"

"He's better too. I didn't expect such childish and irresponsible behaviour from them, especially in front of juniors. Hopefully they'll sort it out soon."

"True."

After the match had finished, Rohit and Virat had had an ugly fight in front of the entire dressing room, in an emotionally heightened state, they had questioned each other's contributions in the tournament, hurled abuses at each other, and had even gone as far as questioning each other's loyalty to the team.

After draining their entire energy, they had stormed off to their respective rooms. The seniors reached an unspoken agreement. MS quickly followed Virat and Jaddu went after Rohit, and the rest of the seniors geared up to handle the juniors and also the aftermath of the situation.

Mahi and Jaddu had tried their best to console Virat and Rohit respectively, tried, because no one from the team could be completely okay after the disastrous semi-final, and had only left their side after Rohirat had dozed off.

Now Jaddu was again thinking about how to approach the elephant in the room. Unable to think of a satisfactory way, he blurted out whatever came to his mind in the plainest way possible.

"Bhai, I know that you don't prefer showing your emotions to people, but you don't really have an option here. You need it bhai, you need to open up to someone. It was your last WC and especially after the run out, you do need a shoulder to cry on, the bottling up skills will be no help this time around."

MS finally conceded. He knew Jaddu was right. "But it goes both ways, I can clearly see that you aren't faring any better, so even you need a shoulder to cry on", he said.

"I need to be strong for you, just like you've been for us all these years. I assure you, when this pain will be too much to handle, I'll come to you."

"No amount of condolences are going to work for either of us today, so it's of no use. Tomorrow is when we actually need to hold ourselves together, let us embrace this night's blanket of vulnerability while it lasts."

"How poetic bhai. So bhabhi has finally managed to teach you some of her skills", joked Ravindra.

They shared a look as they laughed, and the next moment both of them burst into tears. Not having the strength to stand, they sat on a bench on the pavement, with Jadeja leaning into MS, as both held on to each other for support, no words exchanged. They cried, and only cried, for as long as they could.

"It was my last World Cup. We had a real chance this year, with such a great group stage performance. I wanted to end it on a high, lifting the trophy with my younger brothers", said Mahi bhai between sobs.

"It was my last World Cup too, with my constants for most of my career me, and the captain I debuted under. I'm not naive enough to believe that all of us will play the next WC, especially after me and Ash got dropped, Sonu is unlikely to make any comeback, and it's your last WC."

"This is the worst feeling ever. I don't know how to live with it, am I ever going to be okay?

"I know that I'll be okay, if I can be okay after losing my mom, I believe I could live with every other pain in the world, and you'll be okay too, as you're one of the strongest persons I've ever known."

"I feel like I'm back in my childhood, with someone telling me to draw a bigger line next to the original one so as to make it appear shorter."

"I never knew that silly riddle would one day make so much sense to me."

"Me too. I think we should head back to the hotel now, we need to be there before anybody knows, before they come to check on us."

This made Jaddu crack a faint smile. Even in such a situation, he was happy to share a secret with Mahi bhai. That was the thing about Jaddu, he never let the child inside the adult body die.

But MS on the other hand had a guilty expression, he hadn't checked up on any of them after the match, and being their elder brother, it was his duty, and he had failed here too. Jaddu had obviously noticed, because the next moment he gave Mahi bhai a tight hug.

MS silently thanked God for making them run into each other otherwise goodness knew what would have happened. They gripped each others hands tightly for support and silently walked back towards their hotel.

On the way to their rooms, they found Virat and Rohit together checking up on everyone, they had fought badly earlier that very night, but that's what brothers were for!

Mahi beckoned Jaddu over, indicating that they needed to be in their rooms before Rohirat found out.

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep alone tonight", whispered Jaddu.

"Me neither."

And they slipped off to MS's room successfully.