Snapshots

Match

This was only my second time watching a cricket match from the stands and I had been too young during the first to remember it. So, technically, this was a completely new experience for me, made better by the fact that it was my husband who was playing. Captaining his team, no less.

It was everything I expected and more. Rooting for your favourite team while sitting on the couch in your living room was one thing, but here, sitting among thousands of screaming, chanting fans, I could literally feel the pulsing energy of the stadium in my veins. Now I knew what Virat meant by the crowd's support spurring him on. Heck, I felt ready for action, and I wasn't even the one playing!

"That's quite the blissed out look you have on your face there", my best friend said, reappearing in her seat beside me and handing me a can of soda from her armful of bounty. "Have something you want to tell me?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows exaggeratedly.

I rolled my eyes and slugged her on the arm. "You'd know if I did, Pallavi", I told her. "And it certainly wouldn't be in the middle of a match, surrounded by who knows how many people."

She hummed as she settled in her seat,placing her bulging bag of snacks on the counter in front.

"Whoa!" I said, eyeing its size. "What did you do? Buy the entire sweet shop? And didn't you just have breakfast on the plane?"

She just stuck her tongue out at me. "This is for the entire day. I'm a growing girl. I need my nutrition."

"Sure, sure", I teased. "You mean you need a humongous sugar rush."

Suddenly, the crowd around us went wild, jumping to their feet and cheering impressively.

"Oh look!" yelled Pallavi, nudging me so hard, she almost threw me out of my chair. "The players are out!"

"Yes Pal, I can see, as good as the rest of five thousand", I remarked, drolly, even though I couldn't stop grinning, and was clapping so hard, my palms ached.

My gaze combed through the men and settled on the one I was searching for.  Virat had that look of intense focus on his face that I'd seen so many times before, as he conferred with his teammates, and arranged the fielders.

Today was the last day of the Mumbai test between India and England, and our team was already in as good a position as it could be. Based on the performance the team had delivered throughout the last four days, there could only be two outcomes of this game. Either India would win, or the match would end in a draw. And Virat had told me last night that he'd try his best to make the former happen, rather than the latter. I smiled as I remembered the conversation from last night.

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"Congratulations, Kohli!" I exclaimed over the phone. "You just became the first Indian captain to score three double tons in a year! Feel bored of scoring yet?"

Virat chuckled on the other end. "Yeah, yeah", he drawled. "I got so bored, that I gave up the easiest catch in the history of cricket."

I mentally facepalmed. That's Virat for you. He plays a scintillating knock with quite a few delightful boundaries, and what's the one thing he focuses on? The lone mistake that got him out! 

"It's probably a good thing you got out when you did", I told him. "The English fielders looked about ready to just sit on their hands and enjoy the show, the way you kept finding the boundary through every gap."

"Funny Deepika", I could hear Virat's eyeroll through the phone. "You should join a comedy show. Anyway, what's happened has happened. The team was brilliant. Now we need to focus on winning this and getting the series. That is going to be the hard part."