King of my Heart-Unroyals #1

10 | India Vs England

Himani, Lily, and an ignorant Harry sat at the north lower stand in the Dharamshala cricket stadium, all wearing the blue Indian jersey. The 4 p.m. sun was in their eyes, blinding their vision. The India versus England T20 match was about to commence. The first two matches were played in Chepauk and Eden Gardens. Team India won the first match, and England won the second. The team that carries the day in Dharamshala will win the 3-day T20 tournament.

'Do you think we'll win today? Lily asked Himani, who was sitting left of her.

'Of course.' She replied, hopefully.

Her mind wandered through the countless memories of her watching cricket matches in the Dharamshala stadium with her papa and mama. They rarely missed a match played in Dharamshala. All of those shiny memories are rusty now.

The stadium was packed with spectators in vibrant blue jerseys cheering for India with vuvuzelas and placards. The crowd went wild when Virat Kohli and Eoin Morgan made their way to the pitch for the toss. Team India won the toss and chose to bat first. Harry had a hard time pronouncing Virat Kohli's name; no matter how many times Lily taught him the pronunciation, he ended up saying 'Why-rat Kohli'.

'Dang! Why didn't God make us cousins of random cricketers?' Lily groaned, looking at the jumbotron placed on top of the stand opposite them, which was showing the people inside the VIP box. Kedar sat next to his cousin Aryan and his girlfriend Samara Kapur; next to them were Ehan and Zara. Some people in the stadium exclaimed at seeing all of them together.

'So we could chill inside the VIP box.' Lily lamented with her gaze fixed on the giant screen opposite her.

The first ones to come up to bat were Virat Kohli and Agastya Panwar.

'He's such a cutie patootie.' Lily said as she looked at Agastya through the binoculars she was carrying with her. 'His hair, his eyes, his smile! Ah! Everything about him is 10 on 10!'

'Give some attention to Kohli too. He'd feel left out.' Himani chuckled sarcastically.

'Lemme take a look.' Harry said as he snatched the binocular from her. 'Nah, Why-rat is better.' He said and placed the binoculars in Lily's hand.

'Shut up, Hairy Lu.' She retorted and almost knocked him over with her shoulder while Himani took the binoculars from Lily's hand. She brought the binoculars up close to her eyes, gazing at the cricketers. Virat Kohli was the batsman who was currently on strike. She slightly upped her binoculars towards the VIP box. There he was, Ehan Kapur, sitting next to Zara and his sister, dressed in a grey sweatshirt. He seemed jovial and was cracking jokes often. Her gaze moved on to Aryan Kapur. He seemed to be the least interested one to be there, with a hostile expression plastered on his face. Next to Aryan sat Kedar, dressed in a navy blue turtleneck and a cream-coloured trouser. Impulsively, her fingers moved the lever, zooming in on him. Unlike the rest of the bunch, he had no particular expression on his face; it was just like a blank, unwritten page. The next instance, his head cocked slightly upwards to the screen in front of him, and quickly his eyes averted towards the north lower stand where she was sitting, which startled her instantly. It almost made her lose her footing.

'Oh, my god! We're on camera!' Harry exclaimed, pointing towards the jumbotron. When Himani turned her gaze towards the screen, the camera had already moved onto a toddler wearing a funny-looking hat.

'Oh, you missed it.' Lily said. 'Well, who were you looking at?' He questioned.

'Just... admiring Kohli's batting.' She replied vaguely.

'Girl. It's drinks break. Literally, no one's batting right now.'

'It's nothing. I was just observing him.' She said, hoping to sweep her lie under the rug, pointing towards the players on the pitch drinking colourful drinks.

Agastya was effortlessly charming when he sent the balls to the boundaries. Lily would jump up and down, screaming his name in a particular rhythm, every time he scored a six or a four, as if she were paid millions to do so. But to their disappointment, his innings came to a halt after five overs.

After 20 overs, India was at 202 runs with a loss of 6 wickets. Team England was all out after fifteen overs, and Team India emerged triumphant, bagging the series trophy.

After the match, Himani and her friends had to wait for some time outside the stadium to catch a cab to get back to her home. Since it was right after the match, there was a rush of traffic, and they couldn't find an empty taxi to take them home. After 35 minutes, Harry came back with an old Premier Padmini taxi, painted black and yellow.

'Come on, get in.' He screamed from the backseat to both girls standing in the crowd, a few meters away from him.

After five minutes, when the car reached a crossroads, instead of taking a left turn to Himani's home, the driver took a right turn.

'No, it's the wrong route.' Himani shouted from the backseat.

'No, we're going in the right direction.' Harry replied from the front seat, unbothered.

'You know the route to my home better than me?'

'We're not going to your home.' He said, looking back.

'Where are you taking us then?' Himani asked, perplexed.

'Are you part of human trafficking or something?' Lily screamed in horror.

'Woah! Woah! Chill woman! I'm not going to harm you.' He replied.

'Then tell us where you're taking us.' Himani asked.

'I can't. You'll know when you get there.' He replied.

'No way.' Lily affirmed. 'Bhaiya, stop the car.' She asked the driver to stop the car, and he halted it.

'Tell us or we'll get out of the car right now.' Lily stated, clutching the headrest in front of her.

'Ok fine.' He sighed. 'It was supposed to be a surprise...'