It's the day. 9th June. The arch rivals, India and Pakistan are supposed to play against each other in New York today.
While playing in these stadiums, with barely any audience, the team sometimes the remembers the world cup from the previous year. Those Indian stadiums, filled with blue jerseys. But then again, they don't want to remember that world cup. The journey was like a dream, the best of the best fairytales.
But did it matter? The final match was the biggest nightmare that was haunting them down for the past seven months.
This match was played in that world cup in Ahmedabad. The place were the finals were played. So, something about this match, even the slightest bit, was reminding them of that world cup, of that match. It felt like their opponents weren't Pakistan anymore, it was Australia.
As the Indian team went out to bat, with their powerful opening duo, the New York stadium erupted with shouts. Of course, the stadium was filled for this match, it was the India-Pakistan match. This match is beyond any world cups for both the country's people, it was more like a self-respect game.
As the match went on, India seemed to be losing exactly that. After the rain delay, when the match resumed, the fall of wickets started. It seemed that none of the "great" batters could even stand in front of Naseem. But someone stayed.
Rishabh Pant protected his wicket while batting effortlessly, and helped India to a total of 120, when even hundred was seeming to be impossible.
In the commentary box, Ravi Shastri felt a little pain in the throat. He remembered when he got the news.
"Indian player in a life-threatening accident"
He thought it was just a clickbait that all these news channels do. But later on, the continuous calls from Rohit, Virat proved him wrong. His Rishu was in a accident, a life threatening one.
But there they both were, one and a half year later, with Rishabh batting and him in the commentary box. He used to visit Rishabh regularly while he recovered. He was impressed, even surprised by the kind of determination the kid had shown.
"Sab thik hain sir!", " I'll be back before IPL 2024...T20 world cup haina bad mein?" He would say.
Now, he was playing for India and shining bright like he always did, before the accident. He had kept his promise.
In the dressing room, Rohit was trying to be calm while motivating everyone. "Some days, it's the batters and some day the bowlers. I trust you all, we can do it, there's still chance. We aren't defeated till we are defeated." He was saying when Virat chimed in, "Rohit, Pakistan match hain, main bowling karoon?"
Rohit was just done with him at this point. "Chup kar Cheeku." was all he could say before the team took over the field for the second innings was The Pakistani players played a slower innings, but given India's huge total, it was clear that they were winning.
At a point, they needed 47 runs from 47 balls and there was a 92% chance of them winning.
The Indian players, as Rohit said, were not defeated before they were defeated.
Rohit handed over the ball to his trusted Jasprit Bumrah.
Bumrah's first ball- wicket! Moreover, it was Rizwan's wicket. The entire team jumped around in appreciation for their spectacular Jassi bhai.
The next few overs were like a haze for Virat. He only knew that India won. The match, which was out of their hands was brought back into their hands by his Jassi. Maybe it reminded him of a memory from 2 years ago, as he hugged Jassi tight.
But he wasn't the only one to do so. The entire team was celebrating around Bumrah. Rinku met them and said, "Jassi bhai ke age koi bol sakta hai kyaa?!"
Yashasvi joined with an elongated "Jassi bhaiiiiiiiii"
But everyone agreed on one thing, "Jassi jaisa koi nahi".
