Tamil Nadu batter G Ajitesh in action. (FILE IMAGE: TNCA/Instagram)It was a day when two debutants came to the fore for Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. On a pitch where bowlers were not finding it easy to make inroads, 19-year-old left-arm spinner Kartik Yadav returned with a five-fer while 23-year-old batsman G Ajitesh showed he can adjust to the demands of long format, scoring 86 off 153 deliveries. With the pitch hardly taking any turn, Tamil Nadu’s total of 455 doesn’t look safe given the way Uttar Pradesh went about with their response which saw them end Day 2 at 87/1 as the hosts needed to pull back with some tight lines.
Resuming the day at 282/5 overnight, TN had their sights on a total in excess of 500, especially with Baba Indrajith batting on 128 and with Ajitesh, Sonu Yadav and R Sai Kishore to come. Though they ended up losing Indrajith around the hour mark into the day, Ajitesh’s 106 run stand with Sonu eased TN’s nerves. In what has been a nightmare outing with the bat so far for this season, TN hasn’t had two successive days where they have dominated the proceedings. Even here, the last session was owned by UP. But before that it was all about Ajitesh.
Born and raised in Bengaluru, he was coached by noted coach Irfan Sait at Karnataka Institute of Cricket. At every age-group levels, his six-hitting capabilities and his strike-rate had always stood out. With opportunities getting limited at U19 levels, he moved to Coimbatore to pursue the sport and soon had become a familiar face at the TNPL. During the 2023 TNPL season, which was his second, he was the top run getter with 385 runs at a strike rate of 163.13. But in 10 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s, he has seldom used the opportunity. So when a call-up was handed to the Ranji side, it raised eyebrows.
But walking out on his debut, he looked assured, choosing the right deliveries to show his attacking capabilities and hardly showcasing his aerial powers. Off the mid-wicket area, which is his area of strength in T20s, he barely scored. Not even one of his 9 boundaries came in the region as he picked fours in front off the square of both the seamers and spinners. With seamer Aaqib Khan not bowling because of injury, he didn’t have trouble in negotiating the pace of Shivam Mavi and Kunal Tyagi. Against spinners, he was measured with his approach before paying the price for hitting one in the air when on 86 off fellow debutant Kartik.
“Good things come to people who wait,” he said about the wait for the Ranji cap. “The debut has come at the right time. I am not going to complain. The attacking game is natural. But this is something I have worked on… to improve my red-ball game. It is not as easy to get runs in red-ball cricket as it is in white-ball cricket. That change was required, and I have been working on it for a very long time,” he said about his approach in the middle.
Having deemed Saurabh Kumar surplus to their needs and Shivam Sharma hardly testing the TN batsmen, UP had to thank debutant left-arm spinner Kartik for striking at regular intervals. On a pitch where wickets were never going to fall in a cluster, it was a hard two days for Kartik, who was summoned to join the team from the U23 side. With a quick arm action, Kartik was already schooled by Indrajith on the opening day where he was taken apart by the centurion. He won the battle on Monday, with one that came back in with the angle to trap Indrajith one shy of 150. It was a similar delivery that ended Sonu Yadav’s stay and in no time the tail was wrapped. As he dismissed Sandeep Warrier to bag a five-fer on debut he ran the distance before kissing the turf.
Born and raised in Prayagraj, he moved to Ghaziabad to pursue cricket even as his elder brother pursues MBBS. “My father asked me if I wanted to study, but I wasn’t keen. I wanted to play cricket and they didn’t stop me. This feels special because I had five-wicket hauls on my Under-19 debut and Under-23 as well. But to do it here is special,” the Kartik said.
In response, UP openers Abhishek Goswami and Madhav Kaushik came with a positive intent, not hesitating to free their arms against the new ball. Sai Kishore gave the opening by dismissing Kaushik, but both teams have a long day ahead on Tuesday.
Brief scores: TN 455 (Baba Indrajith 149, G Ajitesh 86; Kartik Yadav 5/103) vs UP 87/1.
Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.
5 min read
