The stand-in skippers stand out

Jadeja had no illusions about his innings; statistics, he said later, have little meaning. But his knock, coming as it did after his top-order colleagues goofed it up, was worth its weight in gold.

Jadeja may have lost his old reflexes and the fitness levels that were the envy of his India teammates pre-Leipus. But his flamboyance is intact and, more than that, the sense of timing with the bat as well as the judgment of the situation.

Coming in at No. 6, Jadeja played second fiddle to young Rajat Bhatia till the latter departed. With only the long tail for company, Jadeja upped the ante, encouraging debutant Abhinav Bali and N S Negi. That the latter scored a quickfire 49 speaks of Jadeja’s leadership qualities.

Slow to start off the blocks, Jadeja showed his fascination for the square cut and pull. He used his nudges between gully and slips to equal effect and launched Shahabuddin over his head for a straight boundary. The faster he bowled, the faster the ball was despatched to the cover boundary. His first 50 contained just five hits to the ropes but the second one was embellished with eight of them, the last one enabling him to reach the magical figure — from 99 to 103.

Mumbai: … so does Vinod Kambli
MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 17

Driving through Mumbai’s traffic can be an ordeal, handled only by the most experienced. Vinod Kambli showed he had enough practice in steering through chaos as he led his side out of trouble today with a breezy, yet safe, knock.

At 87 for 5, chasing Madhya Pradesh’s stubborn 255, Mumbai were staring a huge defict, but Kambli and old hand Ajit Agarkar put together an unbeaten 84-run partnership to not only staved off defeat but, thanks to their fast scoring, put their team — 171-5 at close — back in the game.

The top order had disappeared playing a series of poor shots and Mumbai coach Chandrakant Pandit wanted stand-in skipper Kambli to ‘‘set an example’’.

He did just that.

In his 89-ball knock, Kambli took on the MP bowlers especially pace bowler Sanjay Pandey and finished the day with 11 hits to the boundaries. Pandey began a battle of sorts with the old pro, taunting him and trying to stare him down Oz-style.

By the end of the day, though, the stand-in Mumbai skipper had won that particular battle.

Describing his effort as ‘‘my natural game’’, the stylish left-hander said he was prepared to take a challenge. ‘‘The feet were moving well today and the timing just gave me enough confidence. I just didn’t bother about the fall of wickets and decided to attack.’’