Sarthak Ranjan's panoramic batting takes Madras CC to final

While Collage Club were performing the last rites, sealing their win over Delhi Challengers Cricket Club in the first semi-final, the Madras Cricket Club skipper Vaibhav Kandpal sat in the scorers' tent with the thumb on his left hand padded at the bottom due to the hairline fracture he had suffered in the previous match on Wednesday while trying to stop three successive shots on his bowling follow-through.

Kandpal, who has been in great form and scored runs briskly this season, showed a big heart to turn up for the semifinal against Dwarka Warriors in the 50th Goswami Ganesh Dutt Memorial Cricket Tournament on Friday.

Usually standing in slips, the 24-year-old had planned to stay either at fine leg or third man to avoid any further impact on his hand.

But as his team decided to bowl first soon after, he thought of standing in first slip for some reason and confided his fear of getting hit to wicketkeeper Keshav R Singh (formerly Keshav Dalal).

The next ball, a catch off Karan Garg's bat came flying and in trying to avoid the ball from hitting his thumb he let his left-hand's index finger suffer the blow while holding the catch. The finger got dislocated and after some emergency treatment from Keshav's father, Raj Singh, he left for hospital.

But before leaving, he handed the mantle of captaincy to 28-year-old experienced batsman Sarthak Ranjan and kept offering suggestions from the boundary. It was clear that he desperately wanted Madras to win even though he was not going to play the final.

On the field, Madras bowlers were impressive. After the first two wickets had fallen early, Arpit Rana (41 off 19 balls, 6x4s, 2x6s) and Dev Lakra (13 off 4; 2x6s) were hitting back, going past 50 in the fourth over itself.

It was then that right-arm pace bowler Shubham Dubey struck two quick blows. He bowled Lakra off a yorker and then hit Rana on his abdomen before scaring him with another delivery of similar length that the left-hander scooped to deep square leg fieldsman Prikshit.

The experienced Tejas Baroka (leg-spinner) and Pawan Negi (left-arm spinner) then ran through the batting with Negi removing Mayank Rawat (28 off 22 balls; 3x4s, 1x6). Rawat's wicket was key as the right-hander, standing in for regular skipper Yash Dhull who didn't play on Friday, can turn the game in one or two overs. He is easily among the best, if not the best T20 batsman, in Delhi circuit.

Dwarka Warriors were all out for 142 in 15.3 overs, after being 58/2 in the fourth over.

The chase was expected to be easy for the experienced Madras Cricket Club line-up.

But then the impressive Dev Lakra stepped up to the plate. Just before the start of second innings, a visibly worried Lakra was fixing a shoe-bite by taping his left foot. It took him a while, but when he took the new ball, there seemed to be no worry. He made the ball talk. He would make the ball bounce a couple of times pushing the batsmen on to the backfoot before slipping in a fuller length ball to deceive the batsmen.

Dev Lakra gets Fighter of the Match Award from Vikas Katyal (left), former India team manager and Tournament Manager, and Ved Sareen; (Top pic) Sarthak Ranjan gets Man of the Match Award  

He had Rahul Chaudhary caught at mid-wicket off a short ball, and then beat the defences of Anmol Sharma and Pranshu Vijayran. Both Sharma and Vijayran were beaten on the length and were left confused by the tall pacer, who had picked four wickets in the quarterfinal a day before. Lakra returned with 3/11 in 3 overs. Lakra's three and Mayank Dagar's scalp of Keshav R Singh (formerly Keshav Dalal) pegged Madras to 18/4 in three overs.

But then Sarthak Ranjan (72 not out off 48 balls; 5x4s, 5x6s) played an innings that befits a class batsmen.

He buckled down against an array of spinners that Dwarka Warriors threw at him, playing percentage cricket. It was a masterclass for a few youngsters watching. "Dev was bowling well. I wanted to shorten the chase and not leave it too far. I thought the shorter I make, the better it would be. The target was also not that big. I knew that we would finish the game in one over," said Ranjan.

Ranjan manoeuvred the ball around for singles and Pawan Negi (36 off 37 balls; 2x4s, 2x6s) gave him great company. Negi would every now and then take on left-arm spinners Dagar and Vansaj Sharma.

An incredible feature of Ranjan's knock was that none of his five sixes came prior to the 10-over mark.

"I soaked in pressure and decided not to charge Lakra, he was bowling well. That wouldn't have been percentage cricket. Attacking him would have been rash cricket," added Ranjan.

"Since we had many left-handers, they included plenty of off-spinners like Mayank Rawat and Hrithik Shokeen. The onus was on me [to play with the spin]. I thought if I take the game deep, we will finish it early," he added.

Mayank Rawat did not give any respite to Ranjan & Co as he pressed his spin bowlers. After drinks, Pawan Negi went for a few shots before holing out to deep. One expected Rawat to bring in Lakra for his fourth and final over. But he thought otherwise.

"Pace would have been easy for them," Rawat reasoned.

Ranjan thought the same. He kept batting after Negi's fall and kept inching towards the target.

Once they closed in on the target, he unleashed his big shots -- at least two of his five sixes went out of the St Stephen's College Ground.

Ranjan's knock showed two sides of his batting -- of accumulator in the first part and of aggressor in the second.

Tags : Sarthak Ranjan, Delhi cricket, Mayank Rawat, Dev Lakra, Pawan Negi,