Chapter 25: Bhopal U19 [Pt 3]
The ball looped up in the air. Aryan ran forward to take the catch off his own bowling.
Aryan came face to face with the batsman who was running down the pitch.
Kuldeep, unaware or perhaps malicious, shouldered Aryan as he ran.
Aryan stumbled but maintained his eyes on the ball. He dove.
He did a 'roll' on the ground to secure the ball—a stunning return catch.
The other Bhopal players who saw what Kuldeep did tried to defend him, but the foul play was evident.
The umpire, who saw this, hesitated before raising his finger. The catch was clean. But the collision?
Aryan even decided to be a bit theatrical, clutching his shoulder to ensure the umpire couldn't ignore the aggression.
The umpire reluctantly spoke to Kuldeep, giving him a send-off. Wicket!
Bhopal was 8 down.
Aryan took the ball again. He was on a roll. He had taken 2 wickets in this spell already..
Coach Kulkarni had already laid out a rule about death overs.
'Whoever has the hot hand bowls,' and Aryan bowled because he was better at handling pressure than all of his teammates.
Next ball. New batsman.
Aryan stood at the top of his mark.
He looked at the stumps and breathed in, trying to mute the sound of the crowd.
'Ding' [Host has unlocked Focus Lv 1]
Aryan smiled at the sound he heard.
Aryan, who was waiting for the batsman to take guard, finally stepped up and ran in. He struck the crease hard and released the ball with raw power.
The ball went in a straight, undeterred motion—a perfect yorker at 135 kmph.
The ball crashed into the base of the middle stump, uprooting it. The stump cartwheeled towards the keeper.
The batsman looked at Aryan, who had already taken off to celebrate, as if he was a murderer, and fair enough, the crowd shared his sentiments.
"Damn, was he trying to break the stump?" one fan commented.
"Honestly, I just thought he was straight up going to murder the wicket," another added.
Wicket! That was 2 in 2. He was on a hat-trick.
Last ball of the 49th over. The tail-ender walked in.
Aryan ran in. The crowd buzzed.
He bowled a bouncer. The batsman fended blindly. The ball kissed the glove and flew to the keeper.
Caught behind!
Hat-trick!
Aryan ran to the small area where the dedicated Mumbai parents were, bowed to them as they deserved this performance.
Their love for the team was commendable as traveling hours to watch a youth game was a hustle, but they had done it anyway.
The Mumbai players surrounded Aryan who had just taken his first Hat-trick in his career (and a 5-wicket haul in the match) and celebrated with him.
'Ding' Aryan heard the sound again and smiled. Aryan was tempted to open the System and see what the notifications were, but decided to finish the match first.
The last wicket fell. The match was over.
Mumbai U19 won by 15 runs.
Coach Kulkarni and the Mumbai players ran onto the pitch to celebrate.
The players after a while headed to the dressing room.
"You guys did really well, and I'm proud that you never gave up. Now let's go all the way," Coach Kulkarni said.
Some of the players decided to take a shower whilst some were on their phones after the coach left them.
Aryan sent a message telling his mum that they won.
His eyes searched through his phone before he looked at Ananya's contact which Ananya had saved onto his phone when she took it from him.
He stood up to go and bathe and before the screen could turn off, it displayed that he had sent her a text: "Won the match. Hat-trick."
Crrraccck.
The sound of shattered glass sounded in the opposition dressing room.
"How the f**k did we lose even after paying the umpires? Weren't they supposed to manipulate the match so that we could take over the top spot?" a very angry burly man—a bookie or corrupt official—said with veins on his neck and some on his face that looked like they would burst any second.
The person being addressed kept quiet as he knew something bad would happen if he spoke.
"Haaaa," the man sighed.
"Just make sure that they can't trace it back to us, ok," he said to which the man being addressed nodded.
"How is my life so shitty that I'm stuck with that frog-looking son of a bi—" the man said as a call interrupted him as soon as he was outside.
After listening to what the person on the other side of the call said, the man's face seemed to illuminate.
After he ended the call, he muttered, "Finally, it's my chance to move up the cycle," as he walked away with a smile.
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Priya was waiting for Aryan at the Wankhede Stadium parking lot, since that was the rendezvous point after the team bus dropped them off.
She looked at her watch which displayed '9:48 PM'.
She looked around and saw she was among the few parents who had come to wait for their wards, as most U19 players commuted alone.
She entered the car and, after a few minutes of waiting in the humid Mumbai air, she dozed off.
The parking lot was quiet for a few minutes before Priya heard a knocking on her window. She opened her eyes to find Aryan smiling at her, his kit bag slung over one shoulder. She smiled back and unlocked the car.
Aryan went around the car, putting his heavy cricket coffin in the backseat before settling in the front seat.
"How was it?" Priya asked, starting the engine.
"Well, what do you think? We won, and I took a hat-trick and finished the game," Aryan said with a smug expression, buckling his seatbelt.
Priya couldn't help but laugh at her son's childish behavior, ruffling his hair. They talked some more about the thrilling finish as they made their way home through the late-night traffic.
(To be Continued)