Chapter 34: The Semi-final Day Match [7]
The roar from the Shanti Vidya Mandir School team was a primal, collective scream.
It was the sound of disbelief turning into fact. Vikram was at the bottom of a pile of bodies, his hand—the hand that had snagged the rebound—clutched tight, the ball held aloft like a trophy.
Parag was on his knees, his face buried in the grass.
[Score: 4/1. Target: 87. Overs: 2.4]
Rohan Sharma, the "batsman," did not move. He stood at the crease in a bubble of profound, ringing silence.
The world had narrowed to the 22-yard strip. He looked at the celebrating mob. He looked at his bat, as if it had personally betrayed him.
He looked at the umpire, whose finger was still pointing to the sky, an unmoving monument to his failure.
He had been exposed.
He had been hunted.
And he had been taken down.
Slowly, deliberately, he tucked his bat under his arm. He began his walk.
It was the longest walk of his young life.
