Chintan Gaja was the star with ball for Gujarat on Day 3. (Source: Twitter/BCCIdomestic)
If not for Gujarat’s Chintan Gaja, Saurashtra could well have ended Day 3 thinking they have reached the Ranji Trophy final. Such was his impact with both bat and ball. Gujarat were sinking at 155/8 in their first innings in response to Saurashtra’s 304 but Gaja, batting at No. 10, slammed 61, taking them to 252. Then, he ripped out Saurashtra’s batting order, reducing them to 66 by taking all their five wickets that fell.
Saurashtra now lead is slender at 118 and they were left ruing at if-only-there-was-no-Gaja scenario. Saurashtra could still have absorbed Gaja’s batting performance but they were knocked down by his bowling. His five wickets came in seven overs for just 15 runs, and Saurashtra were left licking their wounds by stumps.
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“Somewhere I felt that Saurashtra got a bit relaxed after first-innings lead,” is how Gaja assessed the damage wreaked by his bowling. Add to it, a dash of the level-headed philosophy of “it was just my day” and Gaja’s dreamy day at cricket was complete.
And a lot of hard work, obviously. He had ended the last season not all that happy about the drop in pace, especially in the second and third spells. He hit the gym to fix the endurance issue. There remained, though, the niggle of lifting his skill sets. Being Jasprit Bumrah’s friend helped.
The third day of the #GUJvSAU @paytm #RanjiTrophy semifinal comes to an end in Rajkot.
Scorecard 👉👉 https://t.co/bL3yaUUHOc pic.twitter.com/2H9WTSdoKE
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) March 2, 2020
Prior to this domestic season, he sought out Bumrah, who had come to train with the Gujarat team. The friendship dates back to the Under-19 teenager days.
“I asked him how to bowl according to different pitches; what kind of little changes I needed to make. He talked about my seam position and how the ball was landing. I worked on it. I try to land most deliveries on seam as it once lands on it, the ball skids and no batsman knows where it will head afterwards.”
Awareness of what the best bowlers in the country were doing does help. Like watching Mohammad Shami. “His seam position is perfect and that’s what I am trying these days,” Gaja said.
5⃣0⃣: Chintan Gaja brings up his fifty as Gujarat move past 230 against Saurashtra in the @paytm #RanjiTrophy semifinal. 👌👌
Follow it live 👉 https://t.co/bL3yaUUHOc#GUJvSAU pic.twitter.com/Wc83WbLg5D
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) March 2, 2020
The off-season hardwork paid off as Gaja managed to consistently hit the seam on the big day. He also kept pinging the fourth-stump line. Out of his five wickets, three were caught behind the stumps, one bowled and the other caught at short-leg. “It was about bowling in right areas, the fourth stump line. The first innings also I tried the same but things didn’t go as expected.”
No one in his team was surprised by his batting, though. He used to open in school cricket in Ahmedabad and has triple hundred under his belt in junior cricket. However, as his cricketing career progressed, he became the new ball bowler and batting took a backstage. “When I wasn’t finding the middle of the bat. My role was to give strike to Rujul but later on I was told (by team management) to play my natural game, so I then took my chances,” Gaja said.
His 61 had four sixes and six fours and he added 87 runs stand for the ninth wicket with Rujul Bhatt, who made a steady 71 off 212 balls. Considering how badly Gujarat top order fared in the first innings, this game isn’t over yet but without Gaja’s intervention, it would have been over a long time back.
Brief Scores:
Saurashtra 304 and 66/5 (Chetan Sakariya 32 batting, Chintan Gaja 5/15) v/s Gujarat 252 (Rujul Bhatt 71, Chintan Gaja 61; Jaydev Unadkat 3-86). Saurashtra lead by 118 runs.
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