MS Dhoni and the useless one shots I like to come up with

02/04/11- Hysterical, Euphoric and Empty

Sachin could only watch transfixed, his heart firmly in his mouth, shutting down all conversations and all noises around him as the target neared and neared. Gauti's wicket had fallen with the match in their hands but not secured as long as Malinga and Murlitharan had overs left. There was a reason why The Great Indian Collapse was a slang known in the cricketing world. Viru too was now stuck on his seat, not moving off his own chord, uncharacteristically silent. They were just an inch away, just one inch away. But Sachin could not dare to even hope.

He had come so close, so close before too. They had done everything right in 2003 too. everything right except for the last match. He had been blindingly, stupidly optimistic even after conceding 350+ runs.

"We can do it," he had said passionately in the dressing room, "Just one boundary an over and we can get the rest from singles and doubles,".

Then ofcourse he hadn't walked his talk and lost his wicket two minutes into the innings. Viru had tried pretty successfully to follow his theory, Rahul had tried his best to support. They had gotten upto a good pace too. But after they fell it had taken barely five overs for the Australians to reach the tail and then a couple more to clean them up too. He had a legitimate reason to not dare to hope. He had failed five times before, that the sixth would be different was hard for his brain to blindly accept. He wasn't young enough to have the energy to recover again, to have blind faith again.

So he watched in a trance as Mahi began his charge, ably aided by Yuvi. There were a couple of close misses with runouts. Both times the target was Mahi, the set batsman. For two people who barely needed a glance to sync, their running had gone from synchronous to as uncoordinated a dancer with two left feet; uncharacteristic of their usual partnerships. But then again, quite a few things had been uncharacteristic in this match. Zak had bowled fire in his first spell, and then completely lost plot in his last two overs. Mahi had gone for Sree over Ash. Munaf had had the best economy. Gauti had played with fire and lost his head pretty pointlessly. Mahi had played an innings characteristic of him but had breathed fire thrice at his partners when he rarely even glared usually. He knew where the anger was coming from ofcourse, their captain could bear error in reasoning behind a decision but no reasoning and a blind decision could awaken the dormant volcano the boy was. Still, he rarely scolded mid-match.

A hand snaked over his, Viru's, as the required runs came down to a hit away, this should be in their bag. Five singles. Five singles was all Yuvi and Mahi needed to do. They were so close. There was no way they could lose from here right?

'What if Malinga conjures up a hatrick?' his mind whispered treacherously. It had happened before, the wild haired bowler had a knack for pulling out magic tricks out of nowhere, he would know, he captained the man in MI. Sangakkara threw the ball to Kulasekra, putting his fear to rest for now. Malinga was probably being saved for the last over.

'What if Kulasekra bowls a maiden and then Malinga bowls a maiden too' his brain whispered nevermind that Kulasekra had been ordinary the entire match. Sangakkara often had matched both Mahi and rahul in eccentricity. It could be a masterstroke, his brain continued telling him. His intellectual capabilities had taken a hit and now all of his brain power seemed to be concentrated on bringing up stupid fucking scenarios. Yuvi took a single. Equation was now down to four.

On one hand he did wish the nailbiting would just end now. He couldn't bear it, a second more like this and he thought he would stop breathing. As it was, his chest seemed to be shrinking on him. The nearer they got to sweet, sweet victory, the worse he kept feeling. It would be just like him, to get tantalizingly close and lose, his wretchedness alone could pull the team down from their inevitable glory. That's just how Sachin was, always depriving everyone around him in the most important moments. Mahi took his helmet off and wiped his sweat, entirely unbothered quite, in contrast to his batting partner who was gritting his teeth and Sachin who was quite close to losing all his senses. He put the helmet back on and took guard. Just four more singles, he pleaded the men on screen, just four more singles and don't do anything stupid. He felt like they were just one mistake away from losing and it will be Sachin again, jinxing this country of billion of their happiness.