Chapter 111: Off-Side Precision Training
The sun had barely risen above the Dhauladhar mountains when Sahil stepped onto the practice square.
A cold breeze swept across the academy, carrying the scent of freshly cut grass and damp red soil. Groundsmen were still watering the outer field while a roller moved slowly across one of the centre wickets.
The academy wasn’t fully awake yet.
Only one practice net was occupied.
Sahil smiled.
He wasn’t surprised.
Coach Devendra Kapoor was already there.
---
The veteran batting coach stood alone inside Net One, placing bright orange cones across the off side with almost obsessive precision.
One cone stood at extra cover.
Another at cover.
Three more stretched toward point.
The gaps between them looked almost identical.
He walked backward several steps, frowned, then moved one cone barely six inches to the left.
Only then did he seem satisfied.
Sahil watched quietly.
Even setting up practice carried purpose.
"Good morning, sir."
Coach Kapoor didn’t turn immediately.
Instead, he adjusted one final cone before looking over his shoulder.
"You’re early."
"I couldn’t sleep."
"I know."
Sahil blinked.
"You’ve been thinking about yesterday."
Coach’s voice remained calm.
"The balls outside off stump."
Sahil laughed awkwardly.
"They’re still replaying in my head."
Coach nodded.
"They should."
---
Within the next twenty minutes, the remaining players gradually filled the indoor facility.
The familiar sounds returned.
Kit bags dropping onto benches.
Pads being strapped on.
Gloves tightening.
Fast bowlers laughing while competing to see who could throw the ball harder during warm-ups.
Danish yawned loudly as he walked past Sahil.
"I dreamed I got bowled by Rohan."
Kabir smirked.
"You weren’t dreaming."
The entire group laughed.
Even Rohan joined in.
---
Coach Rana walked into the middle of the hall exactly at eight o’clock.
Beside him stood Coach Kapoor.
Today’s session looked different.
No bowling machines had been switched on.
No fast bowlers were warming up.
Instead...
Every batting net contained rows of orange cones spread neatly across the off side.
The players looked at one another curiously.
"What are those for?"
"No idea."
"Target practice?"
Coach Kapoor clapped once.
The conversations stopped immediately.
---
"Today..."
He looked around the room slowly.
"...nobody hits a six."
Complete silence.
Several batsmen exchanged confused glances.
Danish even looked toward the ceiling as though checking if he’d heard correctly.
Coach Kapoor continued.
"If I see one player trying to clear the ropes..."
He pointed toward the pavilion exit.
"...he leaves the session."
Nobody smiled.
It wasn’t a joke.
---
Aryan folded his arms thoughtfully.
"No lofted shots at all?"
Coach nodded.
"None."
A batsman from Solan raised his hand.
"What about straight drives if they’re in the air?"
"No."
"What about inside-out shots?"
"No."
"What about—"
Coach smiled.
"No."
Laughter finally broke the tension.
---
Coach Kapoor picked up a bat lying beside the stumps.
"Tell me."
He looked around the group.
"Where do young batsmen score most of their boundaries?"
"Leg side."
"Midwicket."
"Long-on."
"Square leg."
Answers came quickly.
Coach nodded.
"Exactly."
Then he pointed toward the empty off side.
"And why?"
Silence.
Nobody answered.
Coach rested the bat against his shoulder.
"Because power forgives mistakes."
Another pause.
"The off side doesn’t."
---
He walked toward one of the cones.
"The cover drive..."
His fingers brushed the orange marker.
"...is the most honest shot in cricket."
Several players looked puzzled.
Coach smiled faintly.
"You can’t muscle it."
"You can’t improvise it."
"You can’t cheat it."
He tapped the middle of the bat gently.
"You either play it correctly..."
Another pause.
"...or you don’t play it at all."
---
The words settled deeply inside Sahil.
Yesterday...
He had been beaten repeatedly outside off stump.
Perhaps...
This was why.
---
Coach Kapoor called Sahil forward.
"Pads."
Within moments, Sahil stood inside the net.
No fast bowlers.
No swing.
Only an assistant coach carrying a side-arm thrower.
Coach Kapoor pointed toward the cones.
"Every ball goes through there."
He gestured toward extra cover and cover.
"No point."
"No midwicket."
"No leg glance."
"Only the off side."
Sahil nodded.
---
The first delivery arrived gently.
Half-volley.
Outside off.
Instinctively, Sahil leaned forward and drove firmly.
The ball raced between two cones.
It looked beautiful.
Coach Kapoor shook his head.
"No."
Sahil frowned.
"It went through the gate."
"It did."
Coach stepped forward.
"But you hit it."
The answer confused him.
"I was supposed to."
"No."
Coach smiled.
"You were supposed to guide it."
---
The second delivery came.
This time Sahil consciously reduced his power.
The ball still travelled quickly.
Still stayed on the ground.
Again...
Coach shook his head.
"Bottom hand."
He gently adjusted Sahil’s grip.
"Too strong."
---
Third ball.
Better.
Fourth.
Closer.
Fifth.
Almost.
Every shot looked good.
Yet none satisfied the coach.
The frustration began creeping into Sahil’s thoughts.
What else does he want?
---
Coach Kapoor seemed to notice.
He walked beside the crease.
"Look at your shoes."
Sahil glanced downward.
"Now look where your head finished."
Only then did he realise.
His head had fallen outside the line of the ball.
His balance had disappeared after contact.
Coach tapped his front shoulder.
"Stay inside the shot."
---
The drill restarted.
Another basket of balls.
Then another.
Then another.
The assistant coach barely paused between deliveries.
One after another.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Every drive travelled toward cover.
Every drive remained along the ground.
Every drive demanded complete concentration.
---
Nearby, Aryan worked through the exact same drill.
Watching him felt almost hypnotic.
His front foot landed softly.
His head barely moved.
The bat followed a perfect arc.
Every ball threaded cleanly between the cones.
No unnecessary flourish.
No violence.
Only timing.
Coach Kapoor pointed toward Aryan.
"Watch."
Sahil did.
"Notice something?"
"He isn’t trying to hit hard."
Coach smiled.
"Good."
Another pause.
"What else?"
Sahil looked more carefully.
Then he noticed it.
Aryan’s follow-through always ended in exactly the same place.
Every time.
No matter where the ball pitched.
Coach nodded approvingly.
"Repeatable."
He looked toward the rest of the batsmen.
"Technique isn’t judged by your best shot."
"It’s judged by the shot you can repeat a thousand times."
---
Hours seemed to pass.
The pile of practice balls disappeared.
Then another basket arrived.
Sweat soaked through Sahil’s shirt.
His forearms burned.
Not because the drill was physically demanding.
Because maintaining perfect technique required relentless concentration.
One lazy movement...
One rushed swing...
And Coach immediately stopped him.
"Again."
---
Late in the session...
Something changed.
Another half-volley arrived outside off.
Front foot.
Head still.
Soft hands.
The bat flowed naturally.
Tok.
The ball glided through extra cover.
Still on the ground.
No force.
Only timing.
Coach didn’t speak.
The next ball came.
Another perfect drive.
Then another.
Then another.
Five in a row.
Silence filled the practice lane.
Coach Kapoor finally smiled.
"Good."
The single word carried genuine approval.
Sahil exhaled slowly.
He had finally done it.
A familiar blue glow appeared before his eyes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NEW SKILL MISSION
OFF-SIDE PRECISION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Objective
Play 500 Controlled Cover Drives
Current Progress
5 / 500
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Reward
OFF-SIDE PRECISION Lv.1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The screen faded.
Sahil looked toward the cones.
Five.
He smiled to himself.
Only...
Four hundred and ninety-five more to go.
The glowing blue screen slowly disappeared.
5 / 500.
The number lingered in Sahil’s mind long after the system faded.
Five perfect cover drives.
Nearly two hours of work.
And the mission had barely begun.
For a brief second, the task felt impossible.
Coach Kapoor seemed to notice the expression on his face.
"You look disappointed."
Sahil smiled weakly.
"I thought I’d made good progress."
"You did."
Coach folded his arms.
"So why are you disappointed?"
Sahil glanced toward the empty progress bar still lingering in his memory.
"Five out of five hundred."
Coach chuckled softly.
"You know why I chose that number?"
Sahil shook his head.
"Because consistency isn’t learned."
His eyes drifted toward the practice wickets.
"It’s earned."
---
The afternoon session began without a break.
Fresh baskets of cricket balls arrived beside every net.
The assistant coaches rotated after every fifteen minutes, but Coach Kapoor never moved.
He stood behind the batting crease, watching every front foot, every head position and every follow-through.
Nothing escaped his attention.
---
The side-arm specialist loaded another ball.
"Ready?"
Sahil nodded.
The first delivery pitched on a full length outside off stump.
He leaned forward.
The bat flowed naturally.
Tok.
The ball rolled sweetly through cover.
Coach didn’t react.
Second delivery.
Slightly wider.
Sahil reached.
The bat face opened just a fraction too much.
The ball travelled in the air.
Not high.
Barely knee height.
Still...
Coach raised one hand.
"Reset."
The assistant coach stopped immediately.
Sahil frowned.
"What happened?"
Coach walked toward him.
"What did I say this morning?"
"No aerial shots."
Coach nodded.
"So?"
"It would’ve landed safely."
Coach smiled.
"Against who?"
Silence.
"There are no fielders."
Coach continued.
"But your habits don’t know that."
He tapped the bat gently.
"Train correctly."
"So you play correctly."
---
The drill resumed.
Every mistake reset the count.
Every successful shot built rhythm.
Every failed shot demanded another correction.
Hours passed.
The pile of used balls beside the net grew steadily larger.
---
Across the hall, similar scenes unfolded.
Aryan remained almost machine-like.
One perfect drive after another.
His breathing barely changed.
His movements never varied.
Watching him almost looked boring.
Until Sahil realized...
That was exactly the point.
Elite technique wasn’t dramatic.
It was repeatable.
---
Danish, however...
Provided the entertainment.
Another overpitched delivery tempted him.
He couldn’t resist.
His cover drive soared beautifully over the cones before crashing into the practice net.
Coach Kapoor stared at him.
"What was today’s first instruction?"
Danish removed his helmet sheepishly.
"No sixes."
"And?"
"I forgot."
Coach looked toward the assistant.
"Zero."
Danish blinked.
"My count?"
"Starts again."
The entire group laughed.
Even Danish couldn’t help smiling.
"I deserved that."
---
Coach Kapoor gathered the batsmen around one of the practice pitches.
Without saying a word, he picked up a marker and drew two straight lines on the surface.
One represented the line of the ball.
The other represented the path of the bat.
"Most young batsmen..."
He pointed toward the second line.
"...swing across."
Then he traced a straighter path.
"Good batsmen swing through."
He looked directly at Sahil.
"Your bat should travel where the ball wants to go."
He paused.
"Not where your ego wants it to go."
The sentence hit harder than expected.
---
The next phase became even more demanding.
Coach Kapoor reduced the width between the cones.
"What was a boundary earlier..."
He smiled.
"...is now a dot ball."
Several players groaned.
He ignored them.
"If your margin for error is large..."
He looked around calmly.
"...you never become precise."
---
Sahil took guard again.
The assistant coach deliberately varied the lengths now.
Some balls deserved a drive.
Others deserved defence.
A few had to be left completely.
The challenge was no longer simply executing a cover drive.
The challenge was deciding whether the cover drive should be played at all.
The first temptation arrived almost immediately.
Wide half-volley.
Beautiful invitation.
Sahil stepped.
Then stopped.
He let it go.
Coach nodded.
"Excellent."
The next delivery landed fuller.
This time...
The drive came naturally.
Perfect balance.
Soft hands.
Middle of the bat.
The ball rolled neatly between the two narrowed cones.
Coach smiled.
"Now you’re thinking."
---
As the afternoon wore on, something subtle changed.
Sahil stopped trying to produce beautiful shots.
Instead...
He began producing correct shots.
The difference felt small.
Yet every repetition made his movements cleaner.
His front foot landed earlier.
His head remained quieter.
His wrists stopped forcing the bat through the ball.
The cover drive no longer felt manufactured.
It simply...
Happened.
---
Late in the evening, Coach Kapoor walked beside him again.
"Close your eyes."
Sahil obeyed.
"What do you hear?"
He listened carefully.
Leather.
Willow.
Footsteps.
Bowling machines.
Nothing unusual.
Coach continued.
"Every sound tells a story."
He picked up a cricket ball.
"The middle of the bat..."
He gently struck it against Sahil’s blade.
Tok.
"Remember that."
Then he tapped the edge.
Tak.
"And remember this."
Another strike near the toe.
Thud.
"You shouldn’t need me to tell you where you hit the ball."
He smiled.
"Your ears already know."
---
The final basket of balls arrived.
Everyone in the hall looked exhausted.
Shirts clung to their backs.
Gloves were soaked with sweat.
Even the bowlers looked tired despite barely bowling.
Coach Kapoor raised one finger.
"Last twenty."
No one complained.
They simply picked up their bats again.
---
The first five deliveries were perfect.
The next four...
Even better.
Then came another wide half-volley.
Months ago...
Sahil would’ve chased it instinctively.
Today...
He watched it pass.
The assistant coach smiled.
"Good leave."
Coach Kapoor nodded.
"You’ve learned something."
---
The final delivery of the day landed exactly where every batsman dreams.
Full.
Outside off.
Perfect for the cover drive.
Sahil moved instinctively.
His front foot glided toward the pitch.
His head stayed still.
His hands remained relaxed.
The bat descended.
TOK.
The sound echoed beautifully across the indoor hall.
The ball split the narrow cones without touching either.
It never left the ground.
It never lost balance.
It simply raced away.
Nobody spoke.
Coach Kapoor walked toward the cones, picked one up, and placed it back in line.
Then he turned.
"That’s the shot."
Just four words.
Yet Sahil knew exactly what they meant.
Not the fastest.
Not the strongest.
The correct one.
---
The familiar blue screen appeared once again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
MISSION UPDATE
OFF-SIDE PRECISION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Controlled Cover Drives
127 / 500
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Evaluation
Consistency: Improving
Balance: Improving
Shot Selection: Improving
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Reward
OFF-SIDE PRECISION Lv.1
Progress:
25%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The screen slowly disappeared.
Sahil rested his bat across his shoulder as the players began leaving the practice hall.
Outside, the evening sky glowed orange above the snow-covered mountains.
His shoulders ached.
His legs felt heavy.
His palms were blistered.
Yet somehow...
He felt lighter than he had that morning.
Yesterday he had believed the cover drive was simply another scoring shot.
Today...
He understood it was a measure of discipline.
Power could send a ball to the boundary.
Precision decided whether it reached there under control.
As he stepped out of the indoor centre, Coach Kapoor’s voice echoed behind him.
"Tomorrow."
Sahil turned.
"We begin against moving balls."
A faint smile appeared on the coach’s face.
"Let’s see if your off-side has really improved."
Sahil smiled back.
For the first time...
He was looking forward to finding out.
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