The story so far: Ankita and Vinod’s rivalry culminates in a school match. Ankita deals with Vinod’s bowling and looks set for a good innings with the bat.
Vinod took a longer run-up, came steaming in and bowled a straight slow ball. Ankita had been expecting a scorcher and had planned to use its pace for another boundary, so that she would get three fours in a row. Instead, she missed the line completely and the ball crashed into the stumps. As Ankita walked back to the pavilion, she was joined by a smirking Vinod.
“I thought I’ll bowl some easy deliveries to allow you get off the mark. You got lucky and managed to score a couple of boundaries. And you thought you’d send me to the cleaners. This is what happens when you learn cricket from people like Geetha.”
Ankita said glumly to Aniket, “I feel so stupid. He laid a trap for me and I fell for it.”
Time to field
The Avengers managed to score a modest 118 for 9. During the huddle, Gautam told his team, “Guys, the only way we can defend our score is by bowling and fielding like tigers.”
The Badshahs started confidently, but The Avengers came back with some great bowling to restrict them to 86 for 6 in the 16th over. The match got increasingly competitive, until five runs were needed in the last over with two wickets in hand. The Avengers’ biggest problem was that Vinod was hanging in with a gritty 48.
At the other end was Roshni. She was facing Sameer who could bring in a bit of pace. Vinod’s instructions were clear. “Just tap the ball and run. I’ll take care of the rest.” Roshni missed the line of the first ball, but survived. As Sameer bowled the second delivery, Roshni slashed at it. The ball took the outside edge and flew towards the second slip. At the first slip, Ankita dived full length to her right and literally plucked the ball from mid–air. The stadium exploded into cheers.
Now the team need five runs off four balls. The last man in was lrfan. He couldn’t score off the first ball. However, on the next delivery, Irfan picked-up a single to give Vinod the strike. Vinod hit the next delivery to long off and took a couple. Ankita was now moved to mid-wicket with the equation being two runs, one wicket and the dangerous Vinod to face the last ball.
(To be continued)
