A.N.- had to write this after the home series loss.
______________
Hardik looked at the ball as it flew over his head.
The entire stadium's eyes were fixed on that white sphere, after Miller hit it.
The commentators roared, "Miller gets it, and he gets plenty of it!"
The South-African supporters rose up, hoping for a fairy-tale ending to their "choker" title.
The Indian fans, who had claimed to "accept the loss already" looked down, because no matter what they said, there was always something, something special, something beautiful about the team, that would never let them stop from hoping.
Just like everyone else, Suryakumar Yadav looked at the ball. But there was something different. The ball was coming towards him. So, he went for it. Maybe to heal some parts of him that got trolled relentlessly after the ODI world cup final.
"Does he?" The commentators roared yet again, as Surya caught the ball after quite a lot of efforts.
"Suryakumar Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav!"
And suddenly, the entire stadium was applauding him, perhaps the same people who had tweeted about his "shitty" tactics on 19th November of the year before.
But no. It wasn't 19th November. It was 29th June. A day that was much, much better than the previous one. It was the day that proved that happy endings, perhaps even fairy-tale ones do exist.
Yashasvi ran towards his Rohit bhaiya as soon as the last ball was bowled, and it was declared that India was the champions of the T20 World Cup 2024. No, he did not get a chance to play in the tournament. But after that last ball, all of the complex emotions that he had hid went away, and he hugged his bhaiyaa. The man he dreamt of becoming when he was working day and night outside the Wankhede stadium. All of that made sense to him, all at once.
Virat Kohli stood a little aside from all the chaos. He was looking at his teammates celebrating, yet he could not quite believe the fact that he had actually won. He kept pinching himself. He was ready to cry all night again. He had already prepared himself to be termed as "bad-luck" yet again. But no, this actually was real, wasn't it? Atleast to Virat it seemed so as Jassi came running towards him, pulling him into the celebrations. He went with Jassi. He was ready to dance with the team. After all, he waited since the 2013 champions trophy for this.
Sanjana ran to Bumrah. For once, they were Bumrah and Sanjana, and not a great cricketer and his interviewer. All those dreams came true. All the trolls that he had endured for the past years finally had some meaning. He wasn't the target of the ICT "fan" accounts anymore, but inside him, somewhere that vulnerable Bumrah still existed. But no, he was not vulnerable anymore. The bowler of the tournament was happy and proud of himself.
Rishabh Pant danced with the team as if there was no tomorrow. Only he knew how much this meant to him. Only he knew what he felt after the accident, when the first thought that occured to him was if he could be back on the field. He was thankful to all his family, friends and the doctors, but most importantly, he was proud of himself. If he did not push his limits, who knows where he would be right now?
