A/N: If you like the story, rember to give a review. It'll motivate to continue with sa passion ✌️😁
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The heat at the SSN ground was now a physical presence, shimring off the grass, but Rocky was in a cold, calculated trance.
He had reached 49*, and as he stood at the crease, the high back-lift of his bat didn't just signal readiness, it signaled an impending storm.
Ball 22.4: Ashwin, visibly irritated by the previous six, shortened his length.
The ball gripped and jumped.
Rocky didn't panic.
He stayed back, used the Punter's high-elbow punch, and slapped the ball through the covers.
It didn't reach the boundary, but the timing was so crisp he jogged two comfortably.
Rocky raised his bat, a simple, brief acknowledgnt.
In the balcony, Pravin Amre didn't clap.
He just ticked a box on his notepad. He knew the job was barely half-done.
___
Over 35: (Rocky's Score: 78*)
By now, Rocky had survived the initial burst and the midday humidity.
The TNCA sears, Aswin Crist and J. Kaushik, were brought back to see if they could trap him with the old ball.
Ball 35.3: Crist attempted a slower-ball bouncer.
Rocky's eyes lit up.
He didn't just pull. He rolled his wrists over the ball exactly like Ponting at the WACA.
The ball rocketed along the ground, piercing the gap between deep square leg and fine leg.
'Shit! Don't hit it in the air. Amre sir is watching the technique. Keep it grounded. Make them chase. Make them suffer in this heat.'
Rocky told himself as he realized he got too excited and went off script.
___
The shadow of the pavilion was starting to stretch.
Rocky was on 94*.
Ashwin was back on, the field spread out.
Every single run was a battle.
Ball 48.2: Ashwin bowled a beautiful, drifting carrom ball.
It looked like it was heading for the pads, but it straightened.
Rocky stepped out, not to loft, but to drive.
He t it with a straight bat, a shot of such absolute authority that Ashwin didn't even bother to move.
It hit the boundary boards with a resounding thwack.
98*.
Ball 48.5: Ashwin tried to bowl wide, tempting the edge.
Rocky waited. He waited until the last possible micro-second, opened the face of the bat, and steered it past the vacant slip.
100*.
Century on his Buchi Babu Debut.
Rocky took off his helt. His hair was matted with sweat, his face flushed, but his eyes were like flint.
He looked toward the Mumbai balcony.
For the first ti all day, Amre stood up.
He gave a single, firm nod. To anyone else, it was a small gesture.
To Rocky, it was enough.
R. Ashwin walked up to Rocky as the over ended. He didn't offer his usual fake smile.
He just tapped Rocky's bat with his glove.
"You've got a lot of ti, kid. Don't waste it," Ashwin muttered, a rare mark of respect from the master of spin.
Suryakumar Yadav ran over from the non-striker's end and gave him a bear hug.
"Abbe, Punter! Cuttack se Mumbai via Australia, kya?" (From Cuttack to Mumbai via Australia, eh?)
___
Rocky didn't celebrate wildly as this was not international ga.
He didn't jump or scream. He just took a fresh guard.
His level of composure was frightening.
He looked at the scoreboard, Mumbai was 192/3, and he was the anchor.
'Grandma... the 11th of March fire didn't go out. Sujit Sir... the shadow is mine now. But it's just one hundred. In Mumbai, they don't count hundreds. They count how many tis you win the ga. And, Amre sir... I won't fail your trust. Watch .'
Rocky thought deeply, rembering those monts, those conversations.
He looked at Ashwin, who was preparing for the next over.
Rocky adjusted his gloves, his stance returning to that predatory, high-bat trigger.
He wasn't done.
He wanted to turn this hundred into a statent that would be heard all the way at the BCCI headquarters.
"Bowl, Anna," Rocky whispered to himself. "I'm not going anywhere."
___
The Chennai heat had claid everyone else, but Rocky was in a "Jagarana", the wakeful, divine trance Grandma Rita had spoken of.
(A/N: Jagarana/Jagaran ans wide awake.)
As the afternoon progressed, the pitch beca a minefield.
The red soil crumbled, and Ashwin was extracting viper-like bounce, but Rocky had entered The Zone.
While wickets tumbled at the other end, Suryakumar falling to a sharp catch at slip, and the lower order struggling against the turning ball, Rocky stood like a lighthouse.
Over 65 (Rocky's Score: 142): Mumbai was 210/6.
The tail was exposed.
Rocky stopped playing for the team and started playing against the opposition.
He fard the strike with a veteran's intelligence.
When the pacers ca back, he treated them with disdain.
He wasn't just pulling anymore.
He was walking across his stumps and flicking them over mid-wicket, a shot that combined Ponting's aggression with a flick of Indian wrist-work.
Over 88.
The field was pushed back to the fences.
Ashwin had six n on the boundary. It didn't matter.
Ball 88.4: Ashwin tossed up a desperate delivery, hoping for a tired mistake.
Rocky danced down the track. He didn't slog.
He used a high-elbow, inside-out lofted drive over extra cover.
The ball sailed over the boundary, landing in the empty stands.
200*. A double century on debut for the Mumbai representative side.
The entire Mumbai dugout, including the usually stoic Pravin Amre, was on its feet.
The TNCA players, exhausted and sun-beaten, couldn't help but applaud.
They had witnessed a clinic.
Rocky didn't even take his helt off this ti.
He just raised his bat toward the sun, a silent tribute to the fire within.
___
Mumbai finished their innings at 385, with Rocky remaining unbeaten on 214*.
In the second innings, the Mumbai bowlers, led by a fiery Shardul Thakur and the spin of Dabholkar, tore through the TNCA lineup.
The pressure Rocky had built with the bat translated into a frantic, panicked chase by the Chennai boys.
Mumbai won by a massive 120 runs.
___
The Post match Presentation
The tournant official stepped up to the microphone.
"For a masterclass in temperant, for carrying his bat through the heat, and for a stunning 214 not out on debut... the Player of the Match is Rocky Rudra."
Rocky walked up to collect the trophy and the cheque.
Then went for the interview.
"How did you handle Ashwin on this track?" the presenter asked.
He looked at the trophy, then at his teammates.
"I didn't play the bowler. I played the ball. My coaches told to stay in the mont, and I just... I didn't want to leave. The crease felt like ho."
___
Back in the sheds, the mood was electric.
Abhishek Nayar, the veteran captain, dumped a bucket of ice water over Rocky's head.
"Welco to Mumbai cricket, kid," Nayar laughed.
"You've just made a lot of people in the National Selection Committee very, very uncomfortable."
Pravin Amre caught Rocky's eye from across the room.
He didn't say a word, but he held up his phone, a notification showed a ssage from the Mumbai Indians' managent.
The 200 hadn't just won a trophy in Chennai.
It had signaled that the "Shadow" was ready for the global stage.
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