“Hi, I’m Samad Fallah,” the Maharashtra fast bowler introduced himself as he arrived for the pre-match press conference. He must have heard the murmurs, pretty audible, that mistook him for his captain Rohit Motwani. Not that Fallah was perturbed with this virtual anonymity. He rather enjoyed it. A senior member, he put precedence to collective endeavour over stardom.

Make no mistake, Fallah is well-known and much respected in his familiar territory of Indian domestic cricket. He’s the cornerstone of Maharashtra seam attack that has Anupam Sanklecha, Domnic Joseph and Shrikant Mundhe as well. Together they form a very effective quartet.

Statisics back their supremacy. In nine matches this season, Fallah has taken 37 wickets at 20.35. Sanklecha has 29 in six, Joseph 21 in six and Mundhe 27 in nine. Collectively, they’ve accounted for 114 opposition scalps and carried their side to the Ranji Trophy semi-final.

Only Karnataka, among the other three semi-finalists, come close with Sreenath Aravind (35), Vinay Kumar (34), Abhimanyu Mithun (31) and Stuart Binny (eight wickets in four matches) having a combined tally of 108. Tamil Nadu seamers have taken 38 wickets, while Mumbai’s fast bowlers have shared 64 scalps between them.

Maharashtra quicks rule the roost and they’ve more than made up for the team’s batting frailties. The quarter-final against Andhra at Lahli was a case in point. Batting first, Maharashtra were all out for 91. Still they won the match by 75 runs. Sanklecha returned with a match haul of eight for 64. Fallah bagged five for 78 with Joseph and Mundhe complementing them well.

Batting concerns

“I’ve been doing this for the last seven-eight years now but it’s always heartening to get such fantastic support from the other end. As a group, we’ve been terrific this term. I’m really impressed with the way Mundhe has bowled. He has come up by leaps and bounds,” said Fallah, the left-arm seamer and the leader of the pack.

Maharashtra’s batting has had been a concern though. Without Vijay Zol, out with a shoulder injury, they’ve struggled to put runs on the board. Kedar Jadhav’s slump in form (467 runs in nine matches at 31.13) is not helping either. The middle-order batsman, however, showed signs of recovery during his match-winning 81 in the last game. Also, Maharashtra can take heart from the fact that Ankit Bawne has made some rapid progress this season with 541 runs from nine matches, including three hundreds. “He’s (Bawne) a top talent. An India prospect,” said the team’s Australian coach David Andrews.

But when the semi-final starts at Eden Gardens on Wednesday, focus will be on Murali Vijay. A total of 482 runs at 60.25 in four Tests in Australia wasn’t considered good enough to merit a World Cup place. But like a true professional, Vijay has moved on. He has played three Ranji Trophy matches on his arrival in India and scored 275 runs, including a century and a half-century.

The best opening batsman in the country at the moment up against a very consistent pace attack on a “sporting” Eden wicket — Tamil Nadu versus Maharashtra promises to be a fascinating contest.