But this was one day when he did not feel like stopping. He looked the other way and was about to cross the road when Mr. Kumar’s voice stopped him. “Hello, Ranji! Why are you looking so sad? Lost the game today?”

Ranji felt better as soon as he was inside the shop. “Yes, we lost the match.”

“Never mind,” said Mr. Kumar. “What would we do without losers? Anyway, how many runs did you make?”

“None. A big round egg. I haven’t made a good score in my last three matches,” said Ranji. “I’ll be dropped from the team if I don’t do something in the next game.”

“Well, we can’t have that happening,” said Mr. Kumar. “Something will have to be done about it.”

“I’m just unlucky,” said Ranji.

“May be. But in that case, it’s time your luck changed.”

Mr. Kumar began looking closely at a number of old cricket bats, and after a few minutes he said, “Ah!” And he picked up one of the bats and held it out to Ranji. “This is it!” he said. “This is the luckiest of all my old bats. This is the bat I made a century with!”

He held it out to Ranji. “Here, take it! I’ll lend it to you for the rest of the cricket season. You won’t fail with it.”

Ranji took the bat and gazed at it with awe and delight. “Is it really the bat you made a century with?” he asked. “It is,” said Mr. Kumar. “It may get you a hundred runs too!”

Ranji spent a nervous week waiting for Saturday’s match. He asked Koki, the girl next door, to bowl to him in the garden. Koki bowled quite well.

At last Saturday arrived, bright and sunny. Just right for cricket. Suraj won the toss for the school and decided to bat first.

The opening batsmen put on thirty runs without being separated. The visiting fast bowlers couldn’t do much. Then the spin bowlers came on, and immediately there was a change in the game. Two wickets fell in one over, and the score was thirty-three for two. Suraj made a few quick runs, and then he too was out to one of the spinners, caught behind the wicket. And it was Ranji’s turn.