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(From left) Gujarat’s Jaymeet Patel and Kerala’s Jalaj Saxena in action in the Ranji Trophy semifinal. (Express Photos by Lalith Kalidas)The twisted power of recollection and hindsight can be cruel when things progressively fizzle from your grasp, leaving everything on edge with your watchfully built momentum squeezing towards the opposition. On a see-sawing day 4 of the Ranji Trophy semi-final, Jalaj Saxena’s resilience brought the game back to level terms before Gujarat’s lower-order artillery offered Kerala a taste of their own resurgent spirit.
With attrition and doggedness slicing the game down to a one-innings shootout, 29 runs/three wickets now separate Gujarat/Kerala from completing a momentous final-day triumph at the Narendra Modi Stadium. But the minds will keep ticking in the Kerala camp after a slew of hits and misses on a decisive Thursday afternoon.
‘What if the team got to 500? Did they misread the pitch on the opening day expecting bountiful assistance from the strip? Was the four-man bowling attack a huge risk in the knockouts? Did they concede runs too quickly to Gujarat’s opening pair the previous evening?’
Putting Kerala just within another shot at scripting a miraculous comeback, Saxena does not want to rewind past the Tea session.
“I don’t have any regrets that we couldn’t achieve 25 runs more [or reach 500]. But I think fielding and catching… It was something which we could have done better. We missed 2-3 chances,” rues the veteran off-spinner.
Into the third session of play, the setting was delicately poised after Gujarat slipped from their overnight perch of 221 for one to 383 for seven in pursuit of Kerala’s 457. But when Akshay Chandran let slip the situational senses in the first over, a regulation outside edge off No. 9 Siddharth Desai went down in the slips. A handy bat, Desai would block out nearly 100 deliveries more through the evening when the roughs were opening up and an over-worked Jalaj could not force his way through the defences. In the meantime, Jaymeet Patel expertly frustrated Sachin Baby’s men with a particularly frustrating medium to shrink the dicey deficit – working the gaps and maps for singles.
Featuring in his maiden Ranji season, the in-form Patel built his 161-ball 71* on the back of 66 shuttles between the stumps. For Gujarat’s promising left-handed seam all-rounder whose formative routines were warped juggling between his school, home and renowned local coach Tarak Trivedi’s academy within an hour every afternoon, the stifling feeling offered some familiarity.
Having struck two centuries and as many half-centuries in his last four innings, there was form to back up a phenomenal second wave to his first senior season. A simple target from Trivedi put Jaymeet back on track, perhaps just in the nick of time. “After the first phase of the season, I went back with about 250 runs. My coach Trivedi sir told me that I’d have four more innings to leave an impression and that I must score four centuries. He said those scores would take me someplace else,” Jaymeet, 22, said with Gujarat visualising a second final in eight years.
Starting on day three, Kerala’s lower order had added 39 runs before Gujarat snapped up the last three wickets to curtail the ‘500’ plan. Having made the journey to Ahmedabad from Pune with a momentous one-run first-innings lead, the irrepressible Saxena has not given up either.
“That’s the story of Kerala, the whole season. Every match has been played like this. The quarterfinal was also like this and the game against MP was also very close. We are now accustomed to these crunch moments. As a professional team, you have to be hopeful. And we’ll try our best,” Saxena remarked.
If not for the 38-year-old’s herculean marathon (61-12-137-4) that tugged the match back to level pegging, the curtains would have closed down on Kerala’s campaign with a day to spare.
With the roughs pronounced at the far end, Saxena operated through the entire morning from the opposite side, bowling 16 overs on the trot where he reposed hope in the Kerala camp. The clampdown began when a snappy arm ball was a trifle quicker to Manan Hingrajia’s front pad before his bat, leaving one split-screen frame for the TV umpire to adjudge the batter out lbw.
Trouble began to brew once again for the hosts when Saxena regained his lengths after going wicket-less across 25 overs the previous day. Saxena gunned down overnight centurion Priyank Panchal’s impregnable defence with a corkscrewing off-break that swooshed into the middle-stump from the rough outside off, leaving Panchal bamboozled shortly after he became the first Gujarat batter to reach 7000 Ranji runs.
Even the menacing Urvil Patel was undone by a peach, deceiving the wicket-keeper in flight before the sighted off-break held its line, rushing past the outside edge and offering a clean stumping. Replenished after lunch, Saxena stabbed the middle-order further down when he trapped Chintan Gaja. Vaguely supported from the other end later on, an energy-sapped Saxena and Kerala’s tepidness would set course for a 220-ball unbroke stand. The Jaymeet-Desai rearguard has established a predictable quick Friday finish without an unpredictable upshot.
Brief Scores: Gujarat 429/7 in 154 overs (Priyank Panchal 148, Jaymeet Patel not out 72, Jalaj Saxena 4/137) vs Kerala 457.
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