Lucknow brought luck,feels Tanmay

UP’s star cricketer Tanmay Srivastava simply loves to bat against Delhi. And he has reason to feel so. He scripted his maiden Ranji century against Delhi in January,2008. The occasion was the Ranji final against Delhi at the Wankhede Stadium,Mumbai. He had to fly back for the match from the India Under-19 tour of South Africa where he was doing a good job for the national team. Though UP could not win the match but the youngster justified his recall with a knock of 105 runs — his first First-class century.

On Tuesday,once again UP was pitted against Delhi in a Ranji match,this time at Lucknow and Tanmay played a responsible knock of 109 which featured as many as 14 boundaries. Even after a 303 minute stay at the crease,Tanmay did not show even the slightest signs of fatigue and could be seen playing football with great enthusiasm after the first day’s play. Tanmay’s confidence against Delhi can be gauged from the fact that he did not seem satisfied with himself at the end of the day. Talking to The Indian Express,the 20-year-old opener confided,“I got out early. I intended to play a longer innings for the team.”

Tanmay,however,said that though his start used to be good in the Ranji matches this season but they were not being converted into big innings. “Today I decided to play the new ball with patience and it clicked. I thing this century has set in the tone for me now.”

Regarding the Lucknow wicket here in contrast to the Mumbai wicket where also he had faced Delhi,Tanmay said,“Here the ball was coming well on to the bat. However,the Mumbai wicket was excellent. There the bounce was just perfect there.”

Tanmay said that though he was satisfied with the UP team’s 300 for four total at stumps on the first day but hoped that a lot more runs get added in the first innings to put the visitors on a backfoot.

He said scoring a Ranji century in your hometown is a different experience altogether. “I have a great admiration for Lucknow. I had played here against Baroda in 2007 and had performed decently. Though this is my fourth Ranji century but a century at Lucknow actually means heaps of praises from my dad Manoj Srivasatva and mom Rosy Srivastava.”