The Bet Match

A huge part of the crowd, spread all across the stadium, roared as one of the West Indies batsmen drove the ball for a classic four.

“It’s 175 for 7 at the end of the 40th over…” The commentator spat on his mic. “…The Indians are only 3 wickets away from their first prudential cup victory and the West Indies are only 8 runs away from their hat-trick. I wonder on who the goddess of victory will smile upon!”

“Alright! Looks like it’s the Haryana hurricane’s over again!” The other commentator spoke into his mic with excitement.

The first 2 balls of the over turned out to be dot balls. Like every other teammate of his, Marshal too struggled against Kamal’s bowling. The raw pace of the ball made him feel perturbed.

Kamal, standing ready at the nursery end of the ground, started his sprint towards the popping crease to bowl the third ball of his over. Just as he reached a few strides away from the popping crease, he leapt into the air and loaded the ball, in his right hand, near his shoulder. He then took a stride after landing on his right foot and then planted his left foot on the ground.

The ball left Kamal’s hand as he released it while swinging down his bowling arm. It darted across the pitch, swinging to the inside of the batsman.

By the time Marshal judged the line of the ball and brought his bat down hard on the ground, it was too late. The ball had sneaked past his defense and rattled the stumps behind him.

The Indian people in the crowd set the stadium aroar, as they watched the Indian players run to their captain and throw themselves at him.

As Marshal walked out of the ground, Joel garnish took his place at the striker’s end...

Just as Kamal landed on his right leg, he immediately swung his bowling arm backwards-in a clockwise manner- and then over his head while planting his left foot firmly on the ground.

The ball left Kamal’s hand as he swung his arm down, for the fourth ball of the over, and pitched at a good length, outside off stump area. Noticing that the ball was swinging to the outside, before pitching, Joel moved towards the ball in an attempt to intercept it, but to his surprise the ball nipped back inside and got past his bat and toppled the off stump.

“Oh! Terrific piece of bowling. It’s two in two for the Haryana hurricane. He is all over the Indies, now.” The commentator said in excitement. “With that India is only one wicket away from their victory.”

The last ball of the over was a short length, slower ball. It bounced off the bat as the tail ender tried to block it. Robert, the last batsman, slammed his bat on the ground, after sending the ball straight back to Kamal.

“What a performance from the Indian captain. A hattrick to finish the game off. Played like a true leader when the team needed him.” The commentator declared, as he watched the Indian crowd invade the field, as the Indian players celebrated their victory…..

As he was receiving the award from the host of the presentation ceremony, Kamal suddenly felt something strange about his surroundings. The stadium, which was reverberant with the cheers and celebrations of the fans, had completely turned silent. Even his teammates, who were whooping it up until then, had suddenly disappeared.

Before he could realize what had happened, the prudential cup was snatched away from him in the blink of an eye. Kamal was surprised to suddenly see a completely different person standing in front of him, instead of the host; and for some reason this new face seemed quite familiar to him.

"Srinu!" The man called. "What's the relation between tangent segment and a secant segment drawn to a circle from an exterior point?" He asked.

Kamal, with a puzzled look on his face, ignored him and tried to get back the trophy from his hand. Kamal was totally shocked to see his hand phase through the trophy, as he tried to snatch it back from the man's hands. "Get up, you lazy bug!!" the man snapped at him and suddenly disappeared into thin air, along with the trophy. The next thing he knew was that a sudden blow landed on his head ....

As he groaned in pain, Srinu raised his head and realised that he was not standing in the stadium anymore; with his vision being completely blurry all he could make out was that he was sitting down on the floor of a small room, which was packed with school students. "Goodness gracious Srinu! I've had it with you...." A person spoke to him. On squinting at him, it suddenly occurred to Srinu that that man looked just like the person who had snatched the prudential cup from him....

"It's absolutely intolerable" the tutor snarled at the Lady, who had come to talk to the tutor on behalf of Srinivas. "Your brat is such an insolent one; Firstly, he fell asleep in my class and then when I try to wake him up, he grabbed me by my collar and made a fuss about some stupid trophy?"

A boy, one of Srinu's classmates (Yasir), stifled a chuckle after overhearing those words.

"I'm sorry for his mistake sir" he heard Srinu's Sister, Parvati, speak in an apologetic way, after a few moments of silence. "Please overlook this mistake of his, for this once." She pleaded.

"I'm sorry Miss! But after what he has done today, I can't excuse him anymore. So please take him home and don't bother sending him from tomorrow. I'd rather teach a small kid than a good for nothing like him" the tutor replied sternly.

The tutor's Dwelling had turned completely silent after those words. The doors burst open shortly thereafter, and Parvati walked out of the house, while looking totally helpless. Sighing feebly, she searched for her step brother near the tutor's house, but only found Yasir in that area.

"Have you seen Srinu?" She enquired him.

"He took his cricket bat and rode off on his cycle." Yasir answered sincerely.

"Damn that Kid!"

She cursed him, as she mounted her run down scooty and sped off from the tutor's gully...

"Damn it man, where is he?!" Madhav demanded.

"Just a few more minutes, he should be here any minute now." Saleem replied convincingly.

The sun descended close to the horizon, as both the boys, along with their teammates and players of the opposite team, awaited Srinu's arrival at the huge dhobi ghat ground near the Tadbund Hanuman Temple.

Noticing that hardly anything was visible anymore, the players on both the teams switched on the enormous lights which were fixed around the whole ground.

As the sky turned completely dark, a lot of people gathered around the ground, most of them were college and school students. A bookie, from the Hyderabad cricket betting club, had turned up with the umpire and started noting down the wagers of the audience and collected the amounts from them, after listing down the players of each team. He then put up 2 huge boards beside the table, near which he was seated, one of which read "Ratio: 3:1 in favour of the Sikanders." and other displayed the score info of the match. A lot of players from both the teams had placed their wagers in favour of their respective teams.

"Is he here yet?" the captain, of the opposite team, asked Madhav.

"H... He will be here shortly" Madhav replied hesitantly.

"We can't wait any longer. It's already getting dark, if we want to play a complete 20 overs match then we have to start now. Pick someone else for your team."

Saying that the captain pulled out a coin and beckoned Madhav to make his call for the toss.

Just as they were about to make the toss, they heard the gate of the ground creek open. A short, slender boy hesitantly walked into the ground, dragging his ride along with him, as the attention of all players turned towards him.

"About time!" Saleem sighed as he ran to Srinu. "You Idiot! We almost started without you. What took you so long? I thought that your money was gonna be wasted." saying that he dragged Srinu to the gang.

"Heads" Madhav called, as his opponent tossed the coin. "Bowl first" He decided upon winning the toss.

"Their Batting line-up isn't that tough, so let's just attack right from the start, alright?" saying that the captain of the Tad bund chichas' team called everyone for the hand stack.

"Bajarang Bali Ki....?"

"JAI!!" the chichas responded to their captain, in unison and simultaneously broke away from the hand stack and waited for the fielding instructions from their captain.

After randomly setting the fielders across the ground, Madhav handed the ball to Saleem-his best bowler-and jogged towards his fielding position. Shortly after the batsmen from the "Secunderabad sikanders" team showed up at the crease, Saleem checked the field set for the last time and bowled the 1st ball of the over.

The first 5 to 6 overs went on pretty quickly, as both the batsmen had scored only a few singles and only 2 to 3 boundaries. Madhav, who had tried quite a few bowling attacks until then, threw the ball to Saleem, again....

Saleem, who was pretty confident of his Pace bowling, was surprised to see his very 1st delivery get hammered out of the ground. Shortly after the huge streak of sixes in his over, Saleem walked off the imaginary pitch and joined his captain and a few of his teammates for the team meet, while looking utterly defeated.

"Go to the boundary position and calm yourself down, don't mull over this over." Madhav said hesitantly, while feeling a little helpless at his best bowler's condition.

The change in the bowling attack didn't do much for the chichas' situation. The sikanders' batsmen were totally lashing out at the chichas' bowlers. As the overs passed, it was getting hard to keep track of the score, as there were more boundaries than dots or singles in the overs bowled till then. The spectators were starting to go wild at the batting display of the Sikanders.

"I bet our money is as good as gone." One of the bowlers said to Madhav, gesturing towards the bookie, as he was trying to figure out about who the next bowler should be. "It's clear that we can't stand against these guys." The bowler added.

"I didn't know that the Sikanders were this strong. Maybe that's why the ratio is in their favour." Madhav thought to himself.

Even though the Tadbund Chichas was relatively a new team to the world of betting cricket, they had earned quite a name for themselves recently, by defeating quite a few strong teams. Madhav was totally baffled by the score on the scoreboard. He felt a little clueless on how to proceed with the match. He scanned the ground for a bowler, who could give him the break. As his eyes crossed every bowler in the field, the newest player of his team, who had come in as a substitute for one of the regular players, caught the corner of his eyes.

"What about him?" Madhav asked Saleem, who was standing beside him. "Does he bowl?"

"Huh?" Saleem followed his gaze and looked at Srinu. "um....I don't know...maybe he can. I'm familiar only with his batting." He answered indefinitely.

"Hey!" Madhav waved Srinu over to him. "Do you know how to bowl?" He asked, as Srinu reached near him.

A flare lit in Srinu's eyes as soon as he heard those words. "Hell yeah!" He cried out with a load of enthusiasm.

"Good, so what do you bowl, spin?" Madhav asked him ignoring his enthusiasm.

"Nope, fast bowling for my whole life." Srinu replied, grinning at his captain.

"Nice! Alright then, try to rattle their rhythm with your pace" Madhav handed the stumper ball to Srinu.

The bowling team's captain stood in the slips position, while feeling totally nervous about the new bowler. Srinu who was extremely excited about his bowling opportunity, marked the start position of his run-up.

Srinu ran towards the popping crease with the ball held in his right hand using the 'inswing' grip. As he took the stride near the popping crease, he firmly planted his front foot on the pitch and swung his arm down with full strength. The Chichas who were anticipating high pace delivery at the striker's end, witnessed something rather amusing a few seconds after the bowler had delivered the ball. The ball which was released at full strength, darted away from the pitch, towards the slip position and punched the Chichas' captain straight on his forehead. The captain laid flat on the ground, holding his head in pain. Some chichas, who were concerned about their captain, rushed to his aid.

"Damn! Just miss." Srinu exclaimed.

"You idiot!" one of Srinu's teammates yelled at him as he landed a kick on his ass.

As some of the chichas were cussing at Srinu and as the opponents laughed, Madhav slowly got back onto his feet, while trying to shake off the impact of the solid hit and slowly walked up to Srinu.

"Please tell me that's not how you always bowl." He requested Srinu, who was massaging his bum.

"No....the ball slipped because of the sweat in my hand" Srinu tried to cover up ...

After arguing with one of his fielders, Madhav exchanged his position with him and stood in the point area, which was away from the positions, where there was a possibility of getting another lump on his head.

The batsman who was at the striker's end, who was having a feeling that Srinu was a sorry excuse for a substitute player, nervously took his stance and hopefully looked at Srinu.

After a few moments, Srinu swung his arm down with his full strength right after taking the delivery stride. As the batsman at strike prepared to swing his bat, not sure on where the ball would pitch, the ball zoomed past him in the blink of an eye and punched the 1st slip fielder, on his nuts. The fielder immediately dropped onto the ground and writhed in pain as the striker looked at him while experiencing mixed feelings of pity and relief. As the chichas gathered around their injured teammate, the batsman on the non-striker's end walked up to his partner, while feeling a little amused about the injured player.

"That must have really hurt!" the non-striker said, stifling a chuckle.

"Yeah" the striker agreed.

"Hey Madhav!" He called out to the chichas captain. "I will shove this bat up his ass, if he bowls anymore like that" he declared fiercely, gesturing towards Srinu.

"Fine!" Madhav replied with impatience....

"Is he dead?" one of the Chichas asked, looking at his teammate lying still on the ground while holding his junk with his hand.

"Rest in peace my friend!" one of the others remarked, as he joined his hands together in respect.

"Cut it out!" Madhav snapped at them. "Fast bowling for life, my ass! He's a crappy bowler!" He said to Saleem, letting out a sigh.

As the injured Chicha got back onto his feet and the crowd on the pitch dispersed, Madhav pathetically instructed Srinu to just chuck the ball, without any bowling action or runup.

The rest of that over was a complete nightmare for the chichas as the Sikanders had banged Srinu's every ball for continuous sixes.....

Standing at the short leg position, Srinu looked in the direction of the pitch, while feeling totally dejected as the Chichas' captain handed the ball to the next bowler. He felt that he was snatched off the opportunity to make a great name as a fast bowler.

The rest of the innings continued at the same pace, as the Sikanders bashed the Chichas' bowlers all around the ground. At the end of the innings, the bookie wrote down the total score of Sikanders and the score to be chased by the Chichas, on the board. The Sikanders' score was 195-1 and so the Chichas had to chase 196 to win the match. A part of the crowd who had placed their bets on the Chichas was jeering their team. Without taking any break for the next innings, the Sikanders set their field and stood ready on the ground.

"Don't worry, this is going to be over pretty soon." Madhav said, with total confidence, to his team as he took his bat and got ready to step inside the boundary line. As the openers made their way to the play area, the bowler, who was handed the 1st over, took his run-up and threw a warm-up delivery, with his full strength. The deafening sound made by the ball as it landed in the keeper's gloves, who was standing at a distance from the stumps, startled the Chichas, especially the openers who were walking towards the pitch.

"Take it easy Kiran! You don't need to put that much effort for these guys" The keeper said, as he sneered at the stupefied Chichas....

Only 2 balls had been bowled in the 1st over and Madhav had already returned after he was dismissed by a toe crushing yorker. Seeing their captain return without scoring any runs, dropped the morale of the Chichas.

The next 10 overs were like a bowling and fielding sessions for the Sikanders. The tail of Chichas was already up on the crease and they stood helpless on the pitch, as they faced the aggressive attack of the fast bowlers, of Sikanders, with just blocks and leaves or they just simply lost their wicket.

"Is that all you got?!" One of the Sikanders taunted the Chicha at the crease, with a sneer on his face. "Why don't you just declare the match?" He added as Saleem, one of the batsmen, walked towards the pitch and took the strike. Saleem was infuriated that the opponents were looking down on them. The next ball was a medium paced, good length, just outside off stump delivery. Saleem swung his bat in the direction of covers area and tried to loft the ball with an inside-out shot. Just as he feared earlier, his swing failed to intercept the ball. The ball zipped in and tackled the off stump, making it topple onto the ground. The score was 32-9 for 10.3 overs.

"Who's next?" Madhav asked his team. As all the Chichas looked around in confusion, Srinu stood up with his hand raised. Madhav stared at him with a demotivated look.

"Go. Just don't kill anyone." He said with a sigh, as Srinu walked towards the boundary line.

As Srinu made his way towards the imaginary pitch, all the fielders of the Sikander team were casually strolling near their respective positions. After taking his guard in front of the leg stump, Srinu waited for the bowler to bowl, while feeling a little overwhelmed with excitement. The first ball for him was a slow full-length delivery, pitching right in the middle...

Madhav, who was casually scrolling through his messages in his smart phone, was startled by a crunch sound of the willow hitting the ball. On looking up, he found Srinu complete a short and compact swing with his bat.

Madhav's eyes immediately darted into the sky, but couldn't find the ball in the night sky. A few moments later he heard a loud splash from the direction of the open sewer, which was outside the compound wall of the ground, on the opposite side of the road. Everyone in the ground, including the spectators, looked at Srinu in a complete surprise, as no-one expected him to hit such a powerful shot. As one of the opponent fielders fetched the ball out of the sewer, after almost throwing up at its smell, the bowler looked at Srinu in a doubtful way. The second ball was a sharp bouncer, pitching in the middle, directed right at Srinu's face. In response Srinu shifted his weight onto his backfoot and pulled the ball towards the fine leg boundary, while swivelling his torso. Before anyone could make out what had happened, the ball sailed across the ground and landed directly on the main road, outside the ground.

As a surprised Madhav watched Srinu stand casually at the strike position, waiting for the ball to be fetched, some part of the crowd whistled and cheered for batsman.

"Don't slack off just because we're so close to finishing the match." The captain said to his bowler, who still had 2 deliveries left to bowl in that over. "Take him down quickly and end this thing." He added.

The bowler nodded at his words and started his sprint towards the popping crease. The 5th ball of that over was a toe crushing yorker at high pace, in-line with the middle stump. Srinu Immediately stepped out of the crease and slapped the ball, straight down the ground, over the bowler's head. The ball rocketed towards the metal pole holding up a tube light and clanged it, causing it to jerk violently.

"Dude watch where you hit" Srinu's partner advised him with a laugh.

As the last ball of that over was smashed to the mid-wicket boundary, the bowler realised that Srinu was no pushover, rather he was a strong hitter of the ball.

As the match unfolded, a lot of people started gathering near the ground to get a look at the batting display of the player they never heard of. Slowly both the audience and the chichas started whooping for Srinu, who was slogging the balls all over the ground....

19 overs had passed and the score was 179-9. Srinu had scored a fabulous 123 runs and was still standing on the pitch. The chichas were only 17 runs away from their victory. The Sikanders were starting to lose hope on their chances of victory. For the last 7-8 overs the Sikanders' captain tried everything that came to his mind. He tried every bowler on his team, he tried every field setup and all the strategies that he could think of, in an attempt to get the last wicket for their victory. But nothing seemed to work in front of Srinu, whose name was never heard of before. Even though Srinu didn't have a particular style of batting, he hit every kind of ball quite skillfully. He pulled the short balls, smacked the 'wide of off stump' balls, slogged the full tosses, hammered the spin deliveries, in short, he hit every delivery with raw power. Unable to take his wicket the Sikanders' captain even tried to target Srinu's partner 'Ganesh', who despite being just a fulltime bowler, defended his wicket quite efficiently and rotated the strike whenever necessary.

"Kiran" The Sikanders' captain called out his star bowler. "You're our last hope man." he handed over the ball to him....

The Sikanders sighed in defeat as the first 3 deliveries of their star bowler, Kiran, were bashed for 2 continuous boundaries and a six. The bookie got himself ready, out of complete disgust to distribute the amount to public, who had placed their bets in favour of Chichas.

As Kiran reached the crease to bowl the last ball of that match (according to him), a sudden deafening yell startled him....

"MUKUNDA SRINIVAAS SARMA!" The voice yelled again, as the ground grew silent.

Srinu, who was at the striker's end, froze in terror upon hearing that voice...

The lady, who had just yelled out Srinu's full name, started tramping across from the entry gate of the ground to the area where the play was going on.

"Hey there!" one person from the audience, standing near the entry gate, not at all interested in the match, tried to hit on her, after being mesmerized by her looks. "Care to come for a movie with me.? I promise, you will have a good-" He was punched by the lady, straight in his face, before he could finish his pickup line. The man laid flat on his face, with his nose bleeding, as the lady walked past him.

"Hey Sis!" Srinu smiled at her nervously. "What's up?" he asked.

"OH! I WILL TELL YOU WHAT IS UP!" She yelled at him and landed a punch straight on his head.

"I'm gonna pulverize you that is what is up!" she said as she dragged him, by his ear, out of the ground, towards the gate and then walked out of it...

"WHAT?? COME ON!! We were almost there." Madhav yelled out in the open, feeling pretty shocked, as the Sikanders celebrated in silence and collected their winnings from the bookie and walked off the ground.

"Leave me Akka, please!" Srinu begged, as he was dragged through a busy and impoverished street of the Tadbund basti. "I won't do it again, I promise!" he added.

Ignoring his words Parvati silently pulled him towards their apartment. As they approached nearer to their dwelling, she noticed that the lights inside were on.

"Hey Ram!" She sighed in relief "for once he has come home early!" She then Dragged him inside the run-down dwelling of theirs.

As Parvati opened the door and pulled Srinu into their cramped-up apartment, she found the old man, to whom she wanted to complaint, seated on the floor, beside the cot and watching a cricket match in his smart phone, with absolute focus.

"India vs australia?!" Srinu exclaimed. "Great! What's the score?" He asked his dad as he sat beside him.

"150 for 3 in 22.3 overs. We're batting." Himavat replied with a lot of zeal.

After watching them get totally involved in the match, Parvati cleared her throat in an attempt to draw their attention.

"Nana!" She called him loudly upon being ignored.

She suddenly snatched the phone from her father's hands and glared at him, after trying to get his attention for quite a few times.

"What?!" Himavat enquired her in a surprised tone.

"Srinu's been kicked out of the tuition." She replied in a sharp tone.

"Oh, Come on! Not again." Himavat cried out looking at Srinu.

"And that's not it. After getting Mid-term results, he hid that he has failed in 3 subjects. And also, he has again started playing betting cricket, without a care in the world."

"What?!" Himavat looked at his son in shock. "Again?" He exclaimed.

Srinu looked down at the floor, avoiding any eye contact with his elders.

"Didn't I tell you not to involve in bet cricket anymore, just a year ago, before we came here?" Himavat asked.

Srinu nodded silently in response.

"Then why?"

Upon not getting any answer from Srinu, Himavat stared at him silently for a few seconds.

"Where did you get the amount, by the way?" Parvati asked enquiringly.

"I found it."

"Where?"

"Inside Dad's bag." Srinu replied with utmost innocence.

"My bag?!" Himavat asked in surprise.

Srinu nodded.

"THAT'S NOT FINDING, YOU SCOUNDREL!!" Parvati yelled and landed a punch on Srinu's head. "THAT'S CALLED STEALING." ....

"I can't believe you have stooped so low" Parvati remarked, after a few moments of silence. She then stormed out of their cramped-up apartment, after throwing the phone on the cot, while feeling incapable of controlling her anger.

"Alright then, you leave me no choice" Himavat declared. He then walked to the nearest calendar and confirmed something.

"Tomorrow you are going to get up early and you're going to reach the hanuman temple by sharp 6:30 a.m. and wait for me outside the temple."

Srinu looked up at his dad, in confusion.

"Is that clear?" Himavat asked in a stern voice.

Srinu immediately nodded his head vigorously.

"And also, tidy yourself up. Don't you dare come to the temple, looking like this." He said, gesturing at Srinu....

The Tadbund hanuman temple thronged with huge crowd, as a neatly dressed Srinu, with his spiky hair combed to a side, awaited his dad's arrival, outside the temple. After waiting for few moments, he suddenly heard claps and loud chants of "Jai Shri ram" from the people inside the temple. Shortly after the chants died down, the crowd cleared away from the temple and Srinu's father emerged out of the temple, wearing his regular orange dhoti, which he wears for performing the rituals of the temple, and walked towards Srinu while wearing his shirt. A few people paid their respect to him, as he walked past them.

"Today is Saturday. Lord Hanuman likes this day a lot." Himavat said as he approached near Srinu, while searching for something inside his bag. He pulled out a silver locket of lord hanuman (which had lord hanuman's meditating figure as its pendant) and tied it around Srinu's neck.

"Don't remove this. Ever!" Himavat instructed his son, while inspecting the size of the silver chain, holding the locket around his neck. "Clear?" He asked in a stern tone, as Srinu drowsily looked at the locket.

Srinu vigorously nodded his head.

"Alright then! Let's get going."

As they rode past their home and headed towards Tivoli cinemas, in the Secunderabad area, on the run down scooty, Srinu thought of alerting his father that they had drove past their area. But he didn't dare to utter a word, out of fear.

"Get down" Himavat instructed his son, just as they reached near the NPS (a government boarding school), which was right behind the Tivoli cinemas.

"This is the school you are going for your +1 and +2." Himavat declared to his son, who was staring at the school campus, standing near the entry gate....