(Not) Easy people to handle

Chapter 3

Nitish's next explosion came after another of KKR's spiritless displays on the field.

It was during practice the next day, when he was digging through his kitbag.

"Where's my new bat?" he asked no one in particular.

"Which one?" asked Venky.

"The SG one—with the green handle—"

Venky and Russell looked through the kitbag themselves and found nothing green inside it. Rinku, passing by, was hailed by Nitish.

"Did you take my green bat?"

"No, I only took the black one," said Rinku.

"Which black one?" asked Nitish suspiciously.

"Um, at the start of the season," said Rinku with a cough.

Nitish chose not to focus on that, even if he was pretty sure that stealth had been carried out without his permission.

"Well, you must have taken the green one as well," he said. "Hand it over, now, I need one for the next match—"

"I didn't take it," said Rinku.

"It's perfectly obvious you took it, who else will?" said Nitish, getting impatient. "Last time I'm asking—give it back to me."

"I don't have it," said Rinku, frowning. "How can I give it back to you when I don't have it?"

Venky sensed a fight coming on and hastily stepped in between the two.

"Even if you'd taken it, you've probably forgotten," he told Rinku, and turned to Nitish. "C'mon, play with the regular one now, the new one will turn up..."

"I didn't forget, I know I didn't take—"

"He's lying!"

"I'm not lying! You would've given someone your bat yourself when you were in one of your—very rare—good moods, Nitish bhaiya!"

"Rinku," thundered Nitish.

"Nitish," interrupted Venky, in a much-calmer voice. "Even if someone has taken it, what's the big deal? We do it all the time."

"But we don't lie about it. If Rinku did something wrong, he should own it, and—"

Rinku, who was at the end of his tether, shouted so loudly he was NOT lying that Chandu sir came running up to investigate.

"What on earth is the matter?"

"Rinku stole my bat, sir!"

"I didn't steal it!"

"Thieves always do say that," said Narine in a monotone.

"Exactly!" said Nitish.

"I. Didn't. Steal. It."

"Even if you did and forgot—" began Venky.

"I DIDN'T."

Rinku turned on his heel and stomped off. Nitish glared daggers after him.

Venky, who was pretty sure Rinku didn't have anything to do with the bat, nevertheless couldn't say that if he had to stop Nitish from bursting.

"Come on," he told his captain in his practised I'm-with-you tone. "Give me some throwdowns till you've forgotten about the bat. It'll turn up, you'll see."

"It won't unless Rinku decides to return it," said Nitish sourly.

Venky held out his hand firmly till Nitish was forced to accept it and haul himself up so they could find themselves a nets.

_________________

The infamous bat turned out to have been in Suyash's possession.

And he declared that most openly, streaking across the field with the bat held aloft and shouting, "Thanks for this, Nitish bhaiya, I hit a boundary with it!"

"Did you?" Nitish looked around with an indulgent smile that froze when he caught sight of the unmistakably green handle. And instantly remembered that he had, indeed, gifted it to the kid when he'd said after a match plaintively, "I wish I could bat a little, Nitish bhaiya, even if I'm the impact sub."

If he'd hoped no one else would notice, he was disappointed.

Rinku came bounding over at once.

"Oh, hey, is that a green handle?" he drawled. "You don't happen to remember where you got this from, do you, Suyash?"

Oblivious, Suyash said, "Nitish bhaiya gave me."

"Did he now?"

Rinku turned to Nitish, who looked like he'd swallowed a lemon whole.

"Who was saying an hour ago—if we do something wrong, we should own it, Nitish bhaiya?"

"Yeah, ok," said Nitish with bad grace.

Rinku would have, of course, let it go, but Nitish added, brows drawn together, "But I want my black one back, anyway!'

Then Rinku lost it.

"All right, take it!"

He fetched the bat in question, thrust it into Nitish's arms and vanished into the farthest nets before the latter could say a word. Venky could tell he regretted acting such a sore loser now.

What he didn't know was that Nitish and Rinku would continue sulking with each other for two whole days and Venky himself would have to run from one to the other, trying to get them see sense.

Obviously he knew the whole fault had been Nitish's, and he knew Nitish was the one who should apologize, but though Nitish's up-and-down temper had died down, he was still too sour to make the first move.

Rinku was much easier to coax.

"He regrets it, he does," Venky pleaded to him. "But you know how he is—and he's under a lot of pressure about the captaincy—please go and talk to him..."

"He never admits he's wrong."

"He's from Delhi," pointed out Venky.

"That's not an excuse for everything," said Rinku, but Venky could see he was relenting.

"But it is. You know they can't help it. And you know Nitish has a heart of gold. Don't you?"

Rinku gave up.

"Yes, I know." He sighed. "All right. Where's he?"

Venky gave him a bear hug.

"Sulking in the gardens."

Later that evening, Nitish and Rinku were to be found lying comfortably in the former's room, watching a movie and going off into raucous peals of laughter—a sure sign they'd stopped sulking—and the next day, Rinku had his black bat back.

Venky was very proud of himself.

That is, till in the review meeting after the next match, Nitish's Delhi-ness caught up with him.