Ranji Trophy 2015, Round 4: Newcomers and pretenders
Don’t eat that sandwich
Abhinav Mukund, Tamil Nadu’s captain, walked back to the dressing room after a pre-game meeting with the match referee, a day before Tamil Nadu’s last game against Mumbai. A sandwich lay on a table, and even as Mukund started devouring it, his teammates warned him that it had gone stale. But the damage was done. Next morning, Mukund woke up with an upset tummy, and started vomiting. And he was not only out of the game, but left for Chennai on the second day, and missed a thriller.
Mehdi Hassan sang a dirge
The Rajkot track has been almost customised this season to revive Ravindra Jadeja’s career, a move that has been successful as Jadeja finds himself in the Test squad. In their last game, though, they had to survive a real scare against Hyderabad. A 25-year old left-arm spinner Syed Mehdi Hassan, who was playing just his 11th first-class game, opened the bowling for Hyderabad and took a five-for to bowl out Saurashtra for 102 in the first innings. Jadeja bagged a six-for as Hyderabad were shot down for 148 and it was time for Hassan to kick in with another five-wicket haul and leave his batsmen with 170 to get for a win. But Hassan was again out-shone by Jadeja who took 7/60, and took out Hassan for a duck enroute another win.
Rajpoot pulled off a heist
Ankit Rajpoot, a 21-year old pacer who impressed Glenn McGrath at MRF Pace Foundation, pulled off a special performance against Andhra to help Uttar Pradesh register their first win. Andhra had shot out UP for 170 in the first innings needed just 183 to win the game when they were ambushed by Rajpoot. He ran through the top order to finish with figures of 5/35.
Jaffer to the rescue
He had tears in his eyes when he shifted his loyalties from Mumbai to play for Vidarbha but unsurprisingly, the professional that he is, Jaffer is proving his worth. Vidarbha were bowled out for 154 in the first innings but bounced back and needed 213 for a victory. Jaffer hit 71 on an iffy track, and shared a 124-run opening stand with Faiz Fazal (63). He had laid the platform that helped Vidarbha clinch their first win.
Match schedule: At Rohtak: Haryana v Bengal; At Bhubaneswar: Odisha v Delhi; At Jaipur: Rajasthan v Karnataka; At Nagpur: Vidarbha v Maharashtra; At Vadodara: Baroda v MP; At Valsad: Gujarat v UP; At Patiala: Punjab v Andhra; At Delhi: Railways v TN; At Dharamsala: HP v Tripura; At Hyderabad: Hyderabad v J&K; At Jamshedpur: Jharkhand v Goa; At Delhi- Services v Saurashtra.
