"Yaar Kaps gussa toh nahi karega?" asked Kirti, pausing to glance at Patil in the mirror. "Kal match hai."

"Arey usko pata kaise chalega," pointed out Patla (with flawless logic). "Wo toh doodh pee kar ab tak so bhi gaya hoga."

The bunch of Kirti, Maddi, Yash, Shastri, Roger, Vally and Ballu, led by their night captain Patla sneaked down the corridor, hushing each other.

"Tell Kaps we used to do this all the time and he never got to know," Madan whispered to Jimmy.

Jimmy passed on the message.

"Tell Maddi pa just because I didn't try to stop them doesn't mean I didn't know," Kapil whispered to Jimmy.

Jimmy passed on the message.

"Tell Kaps—" began Maddi, but was interrupted by Kapil's satisfied, "Ah, here it is—"

"Oho. Kaha chal di baraat?" asked Kapil.

Patla, being the smartest, had quickly hidden himself around the bend of the corridor.

"World Cup ka pehla match jeete, socha celebrate karte—" said Kirti and Ballu gave an enormous fake laugh out of nervousness. "Chalega?"

"Na baba. Mai din ka kaptaan theek hu..." Kapil glanced around the bend to spot Patla. "Night captain Patla hai. Inko teri tarah fast pitch me batting karne ka experience nahi hai...helmet pehna diyo."

Amidst the laughter all around, Chirag muttered to himself, "This is the weirdest role I've ever done in my life," which only made his dad laugh harder.

"Kal ground pe kisiki ubaasi nikli aur maine dekh liya toh dekh lena!" threatened Kapil behind the partygoers. "Kirti!...Shararti..."

"Bye Kaps!"

"Tell Kaps his threats never worked on us," Maddi whispered to Jimmy.

Jimmy passed on the message.

"Tell Maddi pa—"

Jimmy sighed. "Why can you both not speak directly?"

"Because," began Kapil but stopped as Jim pa appeared on the screen.

"Ha bhai...kitthe chaliye, Kaps?"

"Jim pa...ball ghis ghis ke trouser laal ho gaya hai...it look bad. Laundry le jana hai."

"Ghar se money order aya hai?" asked Jimmy skeptically. "O Kaka...ek din ke 15 pound milte hai hume. Ha? Laundry ne 10-12 pound le lene hai tujhse. Itne me toh nayi jean aa jani hai..."

"Toh phir?"

"Aape dho le..."

Kapil studied the trousers in his arms in alarm. "Paaji maine zindagi me aaj tak rumal bhi nahi dhoya...I never done."

"Oye Kaka...isse pehle toh tune kabhi West Indies ko bhi nahi dhoya tha. You never done!" Jimmy copied his English teasingly, but in the nicest way possible. "Harr cheez ka first time hota hai yaara."

If Kaps sat down to count the number of times he'd told Jim pa he was the best vice-captain anyone could ever had asked for, and there was no way in hell they'd have won the World Cup if he wasn't the vice-captain, he'd run out of fingers.

But he repeated it anyway.

"You're the best vice-captain in the universe, Jim pa."

"Yeah, well, you've said that before," said Jimmy.

"He's the best person in the universe, Kapil paaji," put in Saqib, leaning forward.

"That goes without saying, too," Kapil agreed promptly.

Jimmy contemplated on how fond he was of both of these two in spite of them being sneaky eavesdroppers.

Kirti eased the beer glass out of Yash's hands, and the latter was handed a glass of fruit juice instead.

Real-life Yash never touched alcohol, either—except a few, er, rare occasions.

'Arey ye bhi koi umar hai kya sambhalne ki...'

Patla juggled with beer glasses, much to the admiration of his teammates—

"He still does this," said Chirag under his breath.

"And you're the only one who doesn't see the talent needed to do this," said his father swiftly.

While their teammates fooled around in the bar, Jimmy and Kapil were buying washing soda from the supermarket. Kapil was, in fact, eager to ensure they bought just exactly pound.

While they were washing the clothes in the bathtub of their hotel, Kapil said, thrilled, "Wah, Jim pa, ek pound me sara kaam ho gaya!"

"Kaka...cricket bohot kuchh sikha deta hume."

"Who taught you to wash clothes, though, Jimmy?" asked Maddi, suddenly struck.

Since putting his sons in to sweep the floor or wash clothes as punishment for misdemeanours had been one of Lala ji's tactics, Jimmy hushed Madan quickly before the others could start bugging him about it.

India vs Zimbabwe, 11th June, 1983

'...logo ke darr se hum apne dil ki masti kyu khone de...

Harkat se apni naraaz duniya hoti hai hone de...'

It was Madan's day out there versus Zimbabwe, cleaning up the top order with three wickets. Then it was subsequently Kiri's day, too, as he became the first wicketkeeper to aid 5 dismissals in an ODI.

In the batting innings, Jimmy hit Kevin Curran for a boundary and flashed his typical nice-guy undemonstrative smile at the bowler, and the line that played in the background was—

'Bigadne de...kisi ke baap se nahi darenge hum...'"

"You can't deny Kabir's got a sense of humour about his timings," said Kirti, stifling a laugh.

Cheeka, who hadn't noticed it earlier, got Roger to explain it to him. Then he roared with laughter and pushed Kapil out of the way to fall on Jimmy.

"All right, all right..." muttered Jimmy.

The lead partymakers, Patla and Shastri saw India home in the modest chase.

"A valuable half-century from the hard-hitting Patil..." said Farokh.

"The Man of the Match—Madan Lal!" announced the presenter.

From Madan's surprised and pleased expression, it was like he'd never expected this, which he probably hadn't.

"...with two back-to-back victories, India now on top of Group B."

The movie and the song at that moment captured the upbeat atmosphere of the team right then. A crowd gathered around, cheering as Team India stepped down from the bus to enter the hotel.

Half the team of 1983, who remembered the bus-debacle after this match, heaved a sigh of relief.

Maddi, who'd probably been worrying the most, said, "We needn't have worried, this isn't an A-rated movie."

This time even Hardy's curiosity was piqued, and he leaned forward, too, as Saqib asked, "Sir, sir, sir, what is this bus thing you all keep referring to?"

"I'll—I'll tell you later, beta..."

"You will?" asked Saqib in delight; this was the first time Jimmy sir had said 'I'll tell you later' instead of skirting around the topic. "You never go back on your word, Jimmy sir...so, so I'll take you up on this."

Jimmy realized his mistake a bit too late. "Oh, all right..."

Saqib leaned back again, looking pleased with himself.

"I honestly have no idea why Jimmy sir still talks to you," whispered Jatin. "If I were him, I'd be running in the opposite direction every time you approached me."

"You're not Jimmy sir," said Saqib with dignity.

**************

'...an aggressive comeback after their humiliating defeat to India...'

Cheeka and Jimmy's entry broke Kapil away from the TV which showed West Indies bashing Australia.

"Macha...free dinner khayega?" asked Cheeka.

Kapil stood up at once. "Chalo."

In spite of the less-than-decency of these gestures, the free dinners were part of the team's fondest memories of their cricketing days.

But for morality's sake, they pretended otherwise.

So they told each other—

"We were horribly immature during those days, weren't we..."

"Yea, indeed, I feel so ashamed when I think back..."

"We should've listened to Sunny bhai when he forbade us..."

Except Cheeka, who said bluntly, "Bah."

Cheeka was talking to the Natarajans in Tamil as Jimmy and Kapil kept quiet and stuffed themselves with the dosas, occasionally exchanging mute glances.

Mrs. Natarajan said something to which Cheeka blanched and looked down at his plate without replying.

Kapil looked at him enquiringly; he shook his head.

"Wo bolta hai, World Cup me back-to-back matches jeet gaye, ab life me settle ho jana chahiye," said Mr. Natarajan, obligingly, beaming.

"Achhe se settle ho gaya hai humara Cheeka—"

Jimmy leaned towards Kapil, trying to stop him, but Kapil went on, deliberately oblivious, "Abhi shaadi huyi hai March me...she's lovely..."

Kalyani, heartbroken dropped a bowl with a clatter.

The theatre erupted.

"Bataya nahi?" Kapil asked Cheeka, apparently surprised as he took in the grim expressions of their hosts.

Cheeka shoved Kapil so hard he almost fell off. Roger pulled him back up.

As they were walking out, Jimmy started to laugh silently; Kapil nudged him to shut up, but then he was laughing too.

"Kya Kapsie," complained Cheeka. "Raja Harishchandra banne ka kya zarurat tha. Mai aur do teen char dosa kha sakta tha na mai."

Kapil strangled Cheeka, saying, "Saale badmash, Vidya ko batayu mai?"

"Kapsie, Kapsie, Kapsie, South Indian vegetarian family bohot mushkil se milti hai. Sale tumlog aissi tussi kissi waissi karke—" Cheeka's voice rose. "—kahi bhi kha sakte ho!"

Jimmy and Kapil looked back at the window in alarm and hushed him.

Cheeka lowered voice. "South Indian families are rarer...aur dekh Kapsie. Biwi se dil Bharti hai, khane se peth...dono ko mix karne ka nahi."

Kapil and Jimmy stared at him.

"Po da!" Cheeka stalked forward, annoyed.

Kapil and Jimmy bumped shoulders and laughed as they hurried to catch up.

"Kheer miss ho gayi bechari ki," said Kapil.

"Payasam," corrected Jimmy.

They laughed again as they approached their hotel.

"You always took Kapsie's side, Jim pa—" said Cheeka. "You still do."

Jimmy would've been afraid of a bout of sulking if not for Cheeka himself wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

This picture is too good isn't it (: