Short Story: Around the Corner - 6

          Akil and Arjun went back to their practice session. They traveled in silence after seeing their master in the canteen. Some boys were discussing about their master and words flew into their ears. "Hey Girls team were really rocking! Sir gave them a treat in our school canteen". By hearing this, their silence and gazing continued further. After a while, Akil opened " Did you inform Anita yesterday?". "Let us face the match first" replied Arjun ambitiously.

           As planned earlier the children with master, boarded the bus for Tanjore. They took complete rest and gathered energy for the match. Consecutive winners will never enjoy such trips chatting, dancing or singing. Bus started around 8:00 am. With two breaks in the middle of the journey, they reached Tanjore around 5:30 pm. Arrangements were made in an essential way. Master announced for a short discussion and gathered the children to induce them uninterrupted focus and strength. 

          Students and young talents from allover Tamilnadu participated in this grand match. Boys team had the ground A and for Girls it is ground B. Boys were rocking  as usual as they had their great fast bowler Tharun. He is not only a fast bowler but also a good left handed batsman. So children call him as All-rounder-Tharun and some even call him as 'thunder Tharun' due to his forceful balls. There are so many historical broken bat  cases with Tharun. In short, Tharun, captain for Boys team. They won the toss and selected fielding. In this 15 over match, the opponent scored around 35 with only two mere overs. 4 sixes, 2 fours and 2 wide balls which brought them down. Hence captain Tharun started the third over and at the end, as expected 3 wickets. Boys hugged him with happiness which could never be measured. With all the great batsman losing their wicket, the opponent team lost the match and hence Arjun's team got ready to face the finals. 

            At the other end, the Girls team did not perform well as expected. As per their master's instruction they chose fielding after winning the toss. A favourable thing for boys had become an unfortunate for girls. The opponent team finished the game with 150 runs losing only 2 wickets. Now the girls team has to score more than 10 runs for each over to win the game. Since Tharun leaded the game for boys, the master was quite sure of their victory and entry to finals. Master stood as a pillar of support and guided the girls team with supreme power. Yes. Its none other than WORDS. Words have immense power. It can heal or hurt. The girls were facing the match for the first time, so the master changed their entry order and helped them to face it with more courage. The first five overs of the match were so horrible as the team lost multiple wickets with slow balls. From the sixth over, the match reached its peak. Atlast the girls team also won the match and entered the finals.

continues...