3rd June 2025.
Ali sat in the old creaky sofa in his small studio apartment, clutching a bag of chips. It was the 2025 IPL final. Bangalore vs Punjab. One of the two franchises would get their first ever IPL trophy. Either the embodiment of franchise loyalty, Virat Kohli and his team, or the legendary captain of Punjab, Shreyas Iyer, who had left Kolkata after winning them last year's final would get the trophy.
Ali used to dream of playing in the IPL, winning it, scoring the winning knock, and playing for the Indian national team. He was talented, and had even got attention from the Karnataka U-19 cricket team, but fate had other plans for him. He was betrayed by his closest friend, Anirudh the day before state team selection, when he had mixed sleeping pills into his water due to which he missed the bus that would take him to the venue to the state team selection. After this, his fighting spirit completely fizzled out, leading to him giving up on his dream, failing the NEET and JEE entrance exams and then landing up in a third tier engineering college.
Not wanting to remember this, Ali returned his focus to the match. Bangalore were fielding and it was the 19th over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was bowling the 19th over. Rajat Patidar, the Bangalore captain, had placed an aggressive field in order to collect the last wickets of the batsmen before the tailenders would be forced to bat. The first ball of the over was bowled and Shawshank Singh hit it for a massive six over long on. Ali started fearing that the all rounder would win it for Punjab. However the next two balls came out to be dot balls. This however was not for long. Another four was struck. Ali's heart rate had increased, his fears overtaking him. After the over was finished, in order for Bangalore to win they had to defend 28 runs.
Ali was was still worried, clutching the bag of chips. After the ad sequence of various products ended, the final over began.
The first ball, a dot ball.
28 runs in 5 balls
If anything less than a boundary was scored, Bangalore would win their first ever IPL trophy in 18 years. Kohli would get his first ever IPL trophy and all Bangalore fans would be free of the 0 trophy jokes from Chennai and Mumbai fans.
Hazlewood bowled the second ball, a beautiful Yorker, another dot ball, ending Bangalore's trophy drought. Ali jumped up in the air screaming, but suddenly felt his vision blurring, and immediately started clutching his chest. The stress from Bangalore finally winning and years of junk food had come to show its effect: a nasty heart attack. Ali tried to reach the phone to call the ambulance, but it was too late. He closed his eyes, his last flame of life flickering. In his last thoughts, he regretted trusting Anirudh and his group, he regretted how he let his mothers unwavering support down, how he had destroyed his fathers trust and pride in him.
"If I ever get a second chance in life, I will not make all these mistakes again. If all those novels are real, I will make sure that I will never trust Anirudh and Dalal, they stole my future from me." Ali thought to himself, before he lost his life.
Ali suddenly opened his eyes, back in a small bedroom filled with anime and cricket posters. He felt like his body was smaller and that he was in his childhood room. He immediately checked the calendar. 3rd June 2015. Was this the afterlife? Was this some kind of reinc- suddenly his thoughts were interrupted. A giant transparent screen was in front of his eyes. On the screen, the following words flashed.
[WELCOME TO THE LEGENDS OF CRICKET GACHA SYSTEM, VERSION 1.0]