Rajni Trophy: And that’s a wrap
Pub quiz – who has got the most double tons in Ranji?
Guess who has the record for most double hundreds in Ranji Trophy history? The prolific 90’s batsman Ajay Sharma, who was implicated in matchfixing scandal and given a life ban in 2000 by the board, and who was cleared of the charges by a Delhi high court in 2014. Sharma had 7 double hundreds in Ranji, which this year has been equalled by Himachal Pradesh batsman Paras Dogra (in pic), who hit successive double tons against Tripura and Services. Incidentally, with 20 hundreds by this season, he has also eclipsed his HP team-mate Rajeev Nayyar’s record of 17 Ranji hundreds. Dogra’s first double ton came in 2011 and so, he has scored 7 in just five seasons.
Just clap for sledging
Saurashtra have found a new way to sledge their opponents. They don’t do verbals, they just clap instead. They tried the synchronised clapping successfully in a game against Assam. Even as the left-arm seamer Hardik Rathod neared the top of his run-up to bowl to Gopal Sharma, many fielders including a laughing Cheteshwar Pujara at slips, started to clap rather vociferously. The clapping subsided once Rathod got into his run-up, and to great comic relief to all the fielders, Sharma prodded at one that left him, and edged behind. Saurashtra tried it again in the Ranji final during the 103-run match-turning partnership for the last wicket by Sidesh Lad and Balwinder Singh Sandhu which effectively put Mumbai far ahead of them in the contest.
First to score 10,000 runs
To no one’s surprise, Wasim Jaffer became the first batsman to complete 10,000 Ranji runs. The man who moved from his beloved Mumbai to Vidarbha at the start of this season brought up the landmark in the game against Bengal in November. He finished with 10,143 runs by the end of the season.
Be afraid of sandwich
Abhinav Mukund, Tamil Nadu’s captain, is best placed among contemporaries to break Dogra’s double-hundred record. He has 6 of them, but this was a bit of a horror season as he tallied just 182 runs from seven games. A kind of season best captured by an episode with a sandwich in Mumbai. On the eve of the game, he returned to the dressing room after a pre-game meeting with match referee and spotted a lone sandwich on a plate on a table. Without thinking much, Mukund started devouring it and by the time his teammates warned him that it had gone stale, the damage was done. He woke up with an upset tummy, and started vomiting. So much so that not only did he miss the game but had to rush back to Chennai on the second day of the game.
Meet a reduplicant
Some journalists, and even the local scorers, were flummoxed when they covered Mumbai’s game against Tamil Nadu. They didn’t know what M stood for in M Mohammed. The curiosity grew as M Mohammed ripped through Mumbai middle order on third day by grabbing three wickets in space of seven deliveries. The player revealed that M stood for Mohammed and so the name reads ‘Mohammed Mohammed’ — a reduplicate as the term goes for such occurances. Incidentally, M&M hails from Dindigul, a place known for its biryani in the southern state.
Awww moment
Cricket can be a competitive affair with so much on stake these days but now and then, you hear a story that makes you go awww. Pragyan Ojha, who took 36 wickets from 9 games, shares this story. It was a season where Ojha was jolted out of his comfort zone after returning from correcting his action. Understandably a touch nervous in the initial games, he ran into Tamil Nadu’s Subramaniam Badrinath who took time out to tell Ojha that ‘Don’t worry, your bowling is the same, nothing has changed after the action, you are still bowling well’. Small words but it was important for Ojha who found validation from an opponent he trusted, and his self-confidence grew. Ojha also shared that Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane have been in constant touch with him, often texting after his good performances in Ranji games.
Sunny days
Ranji Trophy started in October, earlier than usual this season but the heat wasn’t factored in the scheduling. On a energy-sapping October day, Mumbai’s captain-cum-wicketkeeper Aditya Tare found the heat unbearable. As the tea break neared in the game against Punjab, he was in the process of shifting ends at the end of over when it hit him. He had just reached the stumps when he suddenly sat down on the ground before toppling over and collapsing. A few tense moments later, even as the physio charged in and his teammates crowded him, he managed to get up and carry on with the game. All that sweat and toil must have felt really satisfying when he ended up lifting the Ranji Trophy.
Walk into the sunset
On fourth of December, the most classical Indian offspinner of the modern era and the one who was perhaps the slowest through the air in world cricket, bid a quiet farewell to first-class cricket. Ramesh Powar, a Mumbai stalwart who played for Gujarat this season, didn’t even bowl on the final day, a sore feet preventing him from fielding, but he did hit a breezy 34, cutting and pulling his former teammates from Mumbai who peppered him with some bouncers. The man who had rolled his arms for 29158 legal deliveries, one who dared to lob across little temptations, the one with a big heart, finally called it a day. A small felicitation ceremony was organised by Mumbai Cricket Association, and Dilip Vengsarkar presented a memento. Powar posed for pics, hugged his daughter first, and then his wife and sister, the two women who played the most important role in his life, before walking away.
