The next morning at breakfast, everyone was disappointed to see that Sofia wasn't present.

"Do you think she has left?" asked Bhuvi disappointedly.

"I don't think so," said Virat. "Remember her last threat? 'You can think again!'"

"Oh, yes," says Bhuvi, brightening. "We can still sneak in a few tricks then."

"Since when did you change like this, Bhuvi?" demanded Hardik, who just couldn't get used to an evil prankster Bhuvi as opposed to the sensible grown up Bhuvi he knew.

Bhuvi raised an eyebrow at Hardik, but before he could reply, the entire table heard the restaurant manager's voice, "Room service order from room number 203."

Their ears perked up at once.

"One black coffee, one ham and cheese sandwich, yes, anything else, ma'am? Ok, we'll get it within 30 minutes. Sure."

The Indian team glanced at each other, as the same idea struck all of them.

Virat took the captain's role at once.

"Bhuvi, go to the kitchen quickly, and bring some salt and chili flakes," he ordered.

"Why is it Bhuvi every time?" sighed Hardik. "Can I go, Virat?"

"Most definitely not," said Rohit, taking up his vice captain's role too. "Bhuvi looks so innocent that no one would suspect him."

Everyone laughed at that, even Bhuvi, as he was hurrying towards the kitchen.

"Now few of us need to lie in wait on the stairs as the waiter goes up," said Rohit.

"And one of us would distract the waiter by--by--" Virat paused.

"Oh, we'll manage that. And Bhuvi or someone can make slight changes to her food," said Jaddu solemnly.

When Bhuvi came back with a salt shaker and a packet of chili flakes in his pocket, he saw each of his teammates wearing an evil grin.

After around twenty minutes, Virat said, "We'd better go--who'll come with me to ambush the waiter?"

"Me!" shouted every single voice.

Virat slapped his forehead.

"You're not going to choose!" said Rahul. "Unless you were thinking of choosing me," he added in an undertone.

"He won't choose you!" said Hardik.

"Nor you," put in Yuzi.

"I'm your best friend, Virat," appealed Rohit.

"I'm--" began quite a few voices, and the argument was going out of control when Jassi interrupted.

"I've got a solution. We'll take one batsman, one spinner, one pacer, one--"

"All right, all right, we get the point," said Virat.

"I'll be the pacer, of course," said Bhuvi, winking at Hardik.

"Don't you dare, Bhuvi," growled Hardik. "I'll go as pacer."

"It was my idea," protested Jassi. "So I should be the pacer!"

After one look at Hardik's death glare, however, he conceded with an unhappy, "All right."

"I'll go as keeper," said Rishabh gleefully, since he was the only keeper present.

Kuldeep and Yuzi glanced at each other, because they didn't go against each other, ever, and maybe they'd have started, "You go, Yuzi"..."No, no, you can go, Kuldeep..." but thankfully Jaddu said he'll be the spinner.

"And I'll be the batsman, of course," said Virat in an obvious tone.

All the other batsmen rebelled at once, but Virat ignored them and said, "Let's go."

And they let him.

Because at some level, each one of them respected their captain--but most importantly, they loved him, too, because hadn't it been Virat himself who had started this wonderful challenge only because Sofia Hayat had bothered Rohit?

_____________

The food tweaking was very easily carried out in the next half hour and when the squad was walking down the stairs, they meet Kuldeep and Yuzi going up, or rather, running up gleefully.

"Now what are you two up to?" asked Jaddu suspiciously.

"We just bought a carton of maha strong glue," said Yuzi, his wicked grin threatening to stretch out of his face. The rest of their faces broke into evil grins too, at his words.

"And we'll spill it all in front of her room!" said Kuldeep enthusiastically.

"We guessed that, Kuliya," said Virat, reaching over and messing up Kuldeep's curly hair; he had always been deeply fond of Kuldeep.

"I'll come with you," said Hardik, who had loved the idea too. "Better still," he added suddenly. "I'll wait there till she comes out and take a video!"

Of course, that proposal appealed to everyone enormously, and wishing Hardik and KulCha luck, Virat, Jaddu and Rishabh returned to the dining room.

Kuldeep and Yuzi wasted no time in emptying their carton in front of room 203, and Hardik watched them from his hidey hole. As Kuldeep was shaking down the last drops, the sound of hurried footsteps came from inside Sofia's room. Yuzi grabbed Kuldeep's hand and pulled him towards the stairs and they tore upwards to their floor, looking back for just a moment to flash Hardik a thumbs up each.

______________

Hardik's video went viral as soon as they uploaded it on Instagram.

Sofia Hayat banged open her door, no doubt seething with rage over the ridiculously salty coffee and excruciatingly spicy sandwich. The moment her shoes made contact with the floor, they stuck to it firmly.

At that point, Hardik zoomed his camera towards the floor and shoes, so that the viewers could clearly understand what was happening.

"Touch of a genius!" was the general opinion in the Indian team while they were watching the video in Rohit's room (as usual).

Sofia tried to take a step forward, but her foot wouldn't lift up, and she overbalanced and fell down clumsily, grappling for support.

Then followed her moment of realisation that now not only her shoes, but her dress and arms were stuck to the floor as well by maha-strong glue.

It was like a mouse caught in a trap--there's absolutely no way to move...and the choice of words coming from her would put even Hardik and Jaddu to shame, they claimed.

Hardik actually sat there and took the video for a whole hour, with Sofia screaming herself hoarse, but finding no one to blame.

When finally a sweeper spotted her and rushed to her, concerned, Hardik slipped up the stairs, but not before he had turned and waved at Sofia cheerfully, thus ensuring that she knew who was responsible for her plight.

The video lead to the longest stretch of time the team laughed without being able to speak a word in between, quite literally.

"D'you know they say laughing is good for health?" said Jinks weakly, after they had laughed for nearly twenty minutes without break, and that set them off again.

Even the most hard hearted team would probably stop harassing a woman after all this, and the Indian team might have done that as well, if Jaddu hadn't happened to spot a dead crow on the streets that afternoon.