MS Dhoni and the useless one shots I like to come up with

Snapdragons, Sunflowers and a Wild Mahi Bhai

Unlike the popular belief, MS Dhoni did not infact have ultra instinct. He had good instincts but they were human nonetheless. So him not magically sensing a ball coming his way from across the field when his back was turned to it was entirely understandable, even for the youngsters who tended to put him on a pedestal of some sort. He had the suspicion that he could probably make the most questionable decisions on earth and his team of complete idiots would still look at him with awe in their eyes, whisper about how cool he was. Which was why he had to make the conscious decision of not slipping up around the impressionable fools. He knew he had a strong self control, but nobody had a strong enough self control to fight off science.

In the dastardly rainy weather of England, finally one day sun had decided to grace all of them with its presence. It couldn't have been more welcome. Mahi had already been in a bit of a fowl mood after the test series loss, the constant rain and cold winds in what was supposed to be summer in this country had further dampened his mood- pun intended. So when the sun came out and the fields dried up just in time for them to organize a practice session before the ODI series began, he had pounced on the opportunity to leave the glum of the hotel rooms with his team. Unfortunately, Jammy Bhai's rather funny conclusion of years ago seemed to collect more proof of it's validity.

He had been talking to one of their coaches near the boundary ropes not even registering a clean crack of a ball well hit. It wasn't a big deal, clean hitting was rather expected of a cricketer after all. What did grab his attention was multiple voices laced with panic aimed at him.

"MAHI BHAI,"

He turned around startled, just in time to catch a peripheral glimpse of a white object, right before it hit his jaw. It took him a second to process what had happened. It was in this sequence- 1. Yuvi had been batting in the nets, 

2. Yuvi hits with considerable power,

3. Mahi had gotten in the way of a very flat six,

4. England fucking hated him.

Pain exploded in his cheek with a blinding flash just as he reached his conclusion. One moment he was standing, next he fell like a sack of potatoes, digging his nails into the ground trying to gain sense of his pain. He could faintly hear a bunch of panicked worried voices around him but he was too busy trying to gain control of himself to pay them much mind until they got too annoying. His head hurt and they were crowding him too much.

"Back off," he growled through the pain.

Virat instantly shut up sharing scared glances with the rest of the team, frankly terrified as Mahi Bhai growled at them to back off. Mahi Bhai never growled, not even when his rare temper was spotted. He had been standing not far off when the ball had come sailing as if in slow motion towards his captain's turned back. He had barely registered himself scream out a warning in sync with multiple others when the ball had hit his Bhai, right on the cheek as he turned startled by their screams. It had been horrifying, watching him stumble before keeling over in pain and now the one man who even in the worst of scoldings had a stringent control of his tone had growled savegely at them. He was as he had mentioned, terrified. Yuvi Pa, Sonu, both of his seniors who generally took control easily when things went awry were looking too pale to pay attention to the rest of the terrified team. To make matters worse, Jammy Bhai, mentor for this tour and perhaps the only senior he personally trusted right after Mahi Bhai, was not in the city having gotten an off day to visit some family. Shit, was he supposed to be in charge? Rohit clutched at his arm, partly to give him support but he was digging his nails in betraying his own terror.

Thankfully for him, that particular terror did not have time to set in as their coach, Fletcher took quick control and called the physios. They watched with bated breath as Mahi Bhai was looked over. His face was still screwed up in pain, there was a swelling on the right side of his jaw, but when their eyes met, he nearly collapsed with relief to see the familiar sharpness in them though they were clouded over. Bhai gave him a small thumbs up before hissing in pain as the physio touched the inflammed area. Much to their alarm, he turned around and spat out what was undeniably blood.