Under the Stone Armour

The fateful run-out

10th July, 2019
India vs New Zealand 
Old Trafford Cricket Ground
Manchester

"Duniya mein sirf do tarah ke log hote hai...Winners and Losers...lekin zindagi har loser ko woh ek mauka zaroor deti hai...jis mein woh winner ban sakta hai..."

Why was he thinking of such random things? thought Jaddu as he raised his bat. And in SRK's voice, no less.

"You're not a loser, Jad," he heard in Virat's voice. Better.

Jaddu's arms were shaking as he marked his half-century in his usual swordfight style. To tell himself that things were normal. To fool himself into believing that everything was normal.

As he stared at his dressing room, he saw that Virat was nowhere to be seen. Rohit stood up and flexed his muscle; he pointed at his arm and then at Jaddu.

Jaddu got the message. Very clearly.

You are strong.

And then he was choking inside, and his arms dropped down. As he was walking back to his crease, he crossed Mahi bhai, who was looking from the dressing room to him with a strange expression on his face.

"We'll be ok," said Mahi bhai softly.

That actually made his suffocating sense of responsibility reduce a bit; Mahi bhai always knew the right thing to say.

The Indians in the crowd had come back to life again, their hope palpalable.

They were all cheering him, and a scene from 2 years ago flashed in front of his eyes, though he tried to push it away with all his strength. They were cheering for him today, but these were the same people who had run him down to the dust after that fateful day.

***********

18th June, 2017
India vs Pakistan
The Oval
London

Jaddu played into the covers, and half-called down the pitch at Hardik to run. But there wasn't a run in that at all, as the fielder in Jaddu was watching the ball for confirmation.

Hardik had already run down half the pitch when he realized that his partner wasn't running.

"JADDU!" yelled Hardik.

Jaddu turned to look and saw Hardik coming, but for some reason he could not register what he had to do--try to run and save Hardik's wicket.

They threw the ball at the non-striker's end, and Hardik was run out.

Silence fell in the blue part of the stadium.

Jaddu's head was spinning...

What had he just done?

"ARE YOU DEAF?" shouted Hardik in Gujrati, his eyes flashing and looking quite insane.

"I'm sorry--I don't know how--" cried Jaddu, wild with regret.

Hardik walked off the field, swearing badly. 

Jaddu clenched his fists. He could not look at the dressing room. He could not bear to see the expressions on his teammates' faces after he had let everyone down this badly, and ended their last-ditch ray of hope.

Ash was coming down. Maybe for the first time in his life, Jaddu could not meet his twin's eyes either.

Ash walked straight over to him and said, "We have the momentum, don't worry, we can still do it."

And Ash was supposed to be the realist in the team! 

Jaddu mumbled something in a non-committal tone and they went to their respective creases.