Ranji Trophy 2015: The Big Easy Ramesh Powar leaves field with smile on his face

On a placid track, the equation was beyond them. There were two hurdles on the way. In the 59 overs possible before the start of the mandatory overs they had to restrict Mumbai to 160 or less, and if they had done that, they would have had to restrict Mumbai to less than 219 in the 74 overs that include the 15 mandatory overs. As it panned out, Mumbai reached 227 for 6 in 65.1 overs before the captains decided to end it.

Life in the slow lane

Hamstrung by Harbhajan Singh, who was at his peak then, Powar didn’t get many chances to play for India and that as they say is that. He didn’t bowl any doosras, his arm didn’t interest the umpires and lab technicians but what he had was a braveheart and a crafty little mind that always went against prevailing fads. Whenever one looks at Amit Mishra bowling now or seen Narendra Hirwani before him, their slowness always seemed like a handicap. But Powar had somehow made it his calling card, and bedazzled us with his slow speeds. At times, incredibly, he has almost frozen it down to 42 kmphs.

There he was at Wankhede, engulfed by the shadows, receiving a memento from the hands of Dilip Vengsarkar, the former India captain, who represented Mumbai Cricket Association. The two teams stood opposite each other and Powar walked up, took the memento, posed for couple of photographs, hugged his daughter, his wife and sister, and it was all over. An aptly unfussy farewell to the most fascinating spinner of our times. There may have been better offspinners than him but not many showed such dare and skill.

He had bowled on the first day of the game but it was clear that there wasn’t much gas left in the tank. Without any assistance from the track, the tired arm that has rolled over for 29158 legal deliveries couldn’t produce any turn. And so he resorted to his favourite pastime — lobbing temptations.

Thankfully, the Indian cricket board was live streaming the game and one could take a close peek at his last few spells. Sometimes the ball came out from his palm, at times there were just two fingers on the ball or there was no work from the wrist at all. The young Mumbai batsmen took up the challenge and Suryakumar Yadav sent couple of sixes soaring over the long-on fielder. After sometime, he was taken off the attack. On Friday, after a sweet cameo where he pulled and cut the seamers, he was stumped for a breezy 34, and never came out to field, emerging only at the end of the day for that felicitation.

He thanked the coach Vasu Paranjpe, DilipVengsarkar’s ELF academy, his parents, his sister who took care of his family after their mother’s death and his wife who took over after his marriage. He said he wanted to contribute as a spin coach and help produce couple of good spinners for state teams and India. His mind wasn’t in the game after he was out of the Indian team circa 2007 but he said it was his sister and wife — who encouraged him to carry on bowling. Thankfully he listened to them and gave enough opportunities for anyone who wandered into a Ranji game to have a look at this modern cricketer who was from a different age.

Oversized red sunglasses, a colourful headband, and a paunch that only got bigger and bigger, Powar could have ended up as just an amusement. Instead, the slowest hand in the business captivated us with his bewitching art.

Brief scores: Mumbai 531 & 227/6 in 65 overs (A Herwadkar 41, N Patil 44 n.o.; R Bhatt 4/76) drew with Gujarat 421 (B Merei 166, A Patel 88, R Powar 34; S Thakur 6/107). Points: Mumbai 3; Gujarat 1.