Arun sat solemnly, slouching on the chair. . “Hey!! What is up!? Did you hear, Anuj International School is facing us in the finals”. Said, his friend, Vicky, excitedly. Arun’s school had already reached the finals of the cricket tournament, with a comfortable win in the semifinals.

Arun, slumped deep into his chair and said” I wish the match is being held in our school premises”.

“No, it’s being held in their school. Come on Arun, surely, you are not afraid, because it’s their home ground,” said Vicky. “No, their teams Wicket keeper, Sabarish ,lives near my home and he always teases mee , sometimes he gets worse, which is why I take a longer route to reach our school”. Said Arun.

“Come on, man. Be a sport “. Said Vicky comfortingly.

On the day of the final, Arun’s school had a tough start ,with the score reading, 5-2 . The score was stabilized by the team captain, Akarsh. The score was 132, with 3 wickets left, Arun walked in .

“Here comes Mr. Honest “. Said Sabarish teasing Arun and his teammates roared with laughter.

Arun , felt anger muster up inside him. He thought that it would be best to answer him through his batting, Akarsh, his captain broke into his thoughts and said,” Arun, don’t mind them. You play your game, just take a single.” Arun nodded and went to the crease , took his guard and froze!! The bowler was , Athish , left arm leg spinner, or ,chinaman!! Athish was very popular among everyone because he had won a competition and got a chance to play with Virat Kohli. He even claimed Kohli’s wicket during the match. Athish , was by far the best of them. Arun , tentatively , faced two balls , which were bowled brilliantly by Athish. Arun then poked at an out going ball and nicked it,but luckily , Sabarish was not quick enough to grab the catch. “Oh ! you could not get to it quick enough, huh?!! “ said Arun teasingly . Sabarish glared at him but did not say anything. Akarsh said “ Arun , don’t get involved in all these things , just focus on the match and play .” Together they managed to score a decent total of about 193 runs in about 24 overs.

Next , Sabarish’s team came to bat and they did score runs quite quickly and easily. Arun was asked to ball and his spin bowling was effective too , as he picked up three wickets in quick succession.

Sabarish had come on to bat and tried to keep the scoreboard moving but the runs were hard to come by. They still required more than 50 runs to win with only 5 overs left. Sabarish and his partner at the other end scored 35 runs and needed 15 runs in the last over.

Arun was to ball the last over , he ended up bowling a short ball ,which Sabarish managed to pull for a six. Then his partner was run out . The team had to score 2 runs in the last ball to win. Sabarish swung his bat wide at the ball and started to run , the fielder picked up the ball and threw it back to Arun . Sabarish in the effort to reach the crease before Arun could run him out, ran hard but slipped and fell on the ground face down .Arun , seeing Sabarish fallen , ran to help him. Sabarish was then taken to the hospital and Arun stayed with him till he was taken to his home by his parents. Sabarish was very touched by Arun’s gesture and of his sportive nature . He thanked him and they became the best of friends.