The setting was the parking lot at the Cricket Club of India (CCI), and three heroes were on their way out after a hard day’s work. But even hours after orchestrating an amazing run-chase, which led Saurashtra to the Ranji Trophy semi-finals, cricket was still on their minds. Ravindra Jadeja dropped his kit-bag and animatedly started describing his dismissal to Shitanshu Kotak, while centurion Cheteshwar Pujara was simply relieved that he hung around till the difficult target of 325 was crossed. While Kotak and Jadeja played the lead roles in the first two sessions respectively, Pujara, who walked out after the early dismissal of Bhushan Chauhan, proved to be the constant, remaining unbeaten on 112, as his team reached the summit with an incredible 14 overs still left.Nightmare startAt 13/3, two overs into the day, and with R Vinay Kumar bowling with his tail up, it looked like Karnataka would have to play poor cricket, or be outplayed by a special performance, in order to lose. What followed was a combination of both. One of the most experienced journeymen in Indian cricket, Kotak is renowned for his love for spending long periods at the crease, and most of his innings are considered a drag. But the 36-year-old left-hander chose to play in unnatural fashion on the day, taking the attack to the Karnataka bowlers. Kotak, at one point, scored two boundaries in one over, leading to a few sniggers — that’s something he hadn’t done too often in his long career. As he revealed after the match, Kotak himself was surprised by the fact that he outscored Pujara throughout their 163-run partnership. The young, middle-order batsman started off on an aggressive note, with his first four scoring shots being boundaries, but fell behind his veteran partner soon after. The score at lunch was 111/3, and for Saurashtra, things were back on track. “We had decided that if we managed to add 100 runs by lunch, we would be in perfect position to attack in the following sessions and achieve our target. And it went perfectly to plan,” he said. The scoring rate did fall all of a sudden post lunch, as Pujara started scratching around for his runs, and Kotak couldn’t quite find the middle of the bat. C Raghu was then involved in two incidents, which could have turned the game Karnataka’s way. He first dropped a difficult chance at slip off Pujara’s bat, before Kotak was put down at short-leg off his bowling in the very next over. The duo took the Saurashtra innings forward in a steady fashion, and with around 50 overs to go, looked set for the final charge. It is at this point, Kotak said later, that the Karnataka wicket-keeper Thilak Naidu took a jibe at him. “He told me it is like a one-day game now. I only said, ‘you decide whether it is a good thing or not’,” said Kotak. He looked well on his way to a deserved century, but then hit a Raghu delivery straight back to the bowler on 87, leaving Saurashtra at 176-4, still 149 runs adrift. Final flourishJadeja’s arrival at the crease sparked the chase, as he pulled and swept his way to 55 off just 41 balls, providing some much-needed momentum to the Saurashtra innings. His dismissal to a poor shot off Raghu opened the door for Karnataka again, only to be slammed shut by captain Jaydev Shah. Shah walked to the crease, with his collars up as usual and looking full of purpose, and started attacking Sunil Joshi and Raghu with disdain. Meanwhile, Pujara reached his 100 with a pull off Joshi. Shah kept going over the top, even clearing the fence on one occasion, and led his team to victory with an unbeaten 43-ball 55. Saurashtra’s remarkable triumph may have heralded a number of heroes, including the likes of Sandeep Jobanputra. Last year’s semi-finalists will need this and more as they head to Chennai to face the might of a Mumbai unit, which is likely to include the names of Zaheer Khan and Sachin Tendulkar.
