A Victory which Matters (Dedicated to 27 and 45)

Part 3

Unfortuantely, Bhuvi was right.

After the practice session, the entire team was lounging around in the lobby.

Jadeja and Dhawan were watching something on the latter's laptop--some funny videos, no doubt, judging from their frequent roars of laughter, thought a tired Ashwin, half-anmoyed, half-amused. Rahane, who was sitting near them, leaning in to have a look.

A shout of laughter came again.

"Will you guys, stop?" demanded Rohit, angrily, who had been trying to go to sleep as usual.

"Hey, Rohit--come here for a moment! It's the best kind of stuff we get. Come on!" called Dhawan cheerfully.

Rohit was about to get up. Then he saw that Rahane was with them.

"No, thanks," he said, rather shortly.

Dhawan looked startled for a moment at Rohit's tone, because Rohit never spoke to his 'brother' like that.

Rahane stared at the screen stonily. There was an awkward silence in the room.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

Hardik walked into the room, doubled up with laughter, his phone in his hand.

Thick-skinned and idiotic as he was, he did not sense an atmosphere.

"HEHE! HEHE! Look, I found a wonderful thing. It says, Kohli's had a bad run with the DRS..."

Bhuvi sent Kohli a significant glance.

"HAHA! HAHA! And d'you know what DRS stands for? Drop Roh--"

Virat had seen enough of Rohit's eyes, which seemed to be emitting sparks, to realise that the situation was going out of control.

"Hardik!" he shouted. "Come out of the room for a moment, will you?"

Hardik looked disturbed at being interrupted in the midst of a joke.

"Yeah, just a second. DRS stands for," he began with a dramatic hint. "Drop Roh--"

"Hardik!" Bhuvi's voice was fierce. "Will you listen to Virat or not?"

"Yeah, go away, Hardik," said Dhawan. "We're not in a mood for jokes."

Rohit turned to glare at Dhawan and Jadeja, and saw that they had put away their laptop, and were looking perfectly innocent.

Kohli dragged Hardik out of the room.

Rohit closed his eyes and pretended to go back to sleep. But Ashwin, hearing his erratic breathing, could understand his emotions quite well.