Paul-vault at Mohali

As the sun dipped behind the floodlights of PCA Stadium on Thursday evening and the flashbulbs focused on Zaheer Khan outside the Rest of In...

As the sun dipped behind the floodlights of PCA Stadium on Thursday evening and the flashbulbs focused on Zaheer Khan outside the Rest of India dressing room, one man 8212; who returned with even better bowling figures 8212; made a quiet exit.

As he started a long, lonely walk back to his room in the clubhouse, Shib Sankar Paul would have been wondering why the crowd wasn8217;t folllowing him. He was better than Zaheer today. His 3/43 in 14 overs included the wickets of Jaffar, Thakkar and Bahutule while among Zaheer8217;s three, two were tailenders. Quite surprised to be approached for an interview, the 24-year-old Bengal medium pacer makes it all sound so simple. 8216;8216;I just maintained my line and length and was rewarded. Baaki sab upar wale ne kiya the rest was done by God,8217;8217; the toofani bowler from Tufanganj, a non-descript sub-division of Cooch Behar district, said humbly. A genuine swing bowler, it is not Paul8217;s first brush with success this season.

The strongly-built quickie took as many as 30 wickets from 10 matches while on tour with India 8216;A8217; team to Zimbabwe and Kenya recently.

8216;8216;It was a really good outing for me. I wanted to perform well on this tour. I am glad I did,8217;8217; says Paul who, with 50 wickets in 8 matches, was also the highest wicket-taking bowler in Ranji Trophy last year.

Almost five years back, when he left his village for Kolkata, Paul had no idea he will be in the reckoning for an India cap one day.

8216;8216;Nobody in our family played cricket before. I took the risk, came to Kolkata and didn8217;t look back after a friend took me to an academy there.8217;8217;

Paul was a revelation and, with over 90 wickets in 20-odd first-class matches, holds a lot of promise.

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8216;8216;Kapil Dev and Wasim Akram remain my all-time heroes. Also, I cherish the time spent with dada Sourav Ganguly at Eden Gardens over the last two years. We trained together and I have learnt a lot from him. He told me that if I continue to work hard, nothing8217;s impossible.8217;8217;