Arpit Vasavada (45*) managed to forge crucial partnerships — 40 runs with Chirag Jani, followed by the match-winning 20-run stand with Shaurya Sanandia. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)
As Shaurya Sanandia swatted a low full toss from Atit Seth for a boundary, it drew a collective roar of excitement from the Saurashtra dressing room and dissipated all pent-up nervous energy. Saurashtra, in pursuit of Baroda’s 247, found the going tough on a slow Feroz Shah Kotla track. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals, and at one stage, when all-rounder Chirag Jani had departed in the 45th over, it looked like Cheteshwar Pujara’s team would implode.
In the end, it was this unorthodox shot from Sanandia that helped his team cross the finish line. Saurashtra huffed and puffed their way to clinch a 3-wicket win over Baroda in a back-and-forth quarterfinal to cement a spot in the semis. Moments after the win, Saurashtra coach Sitanshu Kotak was beaming. “On this wicket, a target of 248 was chaseable. But we kept losing wickets and the chase became slightly tricky for us,” he said.
Despite the tense finish, Saurashtra had begun in earnest and looked poised of acing the chase. After the first 10 overs, they lost two wickets, but had two well-set batsmen in opener Avi Barot and captain Cheteshwar Pujara. The duo looked unruffled and kept the scoreboard ticking.
Despite the odd stutter, they ran efficiently between the wickets and kept churning the odd boundary. Over the next 24 overs, the duo collected 102 runs and the third-wicket alliance had begun to swell. However, against the run of play, Baroda dismissed Pujara, courtesy a stunning one-handed catch at point by Vishnu Solanki.
The Saurashtra captain had scored a composed 66-ball 40. But his departure sent the dressing room into a frenzy. A combination of faulty shot selection, backed by some clever bowling by Baroda, saw Saurashtra slip from 3/147 to 7/231 in the space of 14 overs. At that stage, it looked as if Pujara’s men had lost the will to fight.
Luckily for them, help came in the form of Arpit Vasavada, their hard-hitting middle-order batsman. His ice-cool approach never let the situation go out of control. Despite the flurry of wickets in the middle overs, he saw to it that the asking run-rate never went beyond the 6-runs-per-over mark. Backed by his calculated hits, Vasavada managed to forge two crucial partnerships – 40 runs with Jani, followed by the unbeaten match-winning 20-run stand with Sanandia.
In the end, his unbeaten 43-ball 45, proved to be the cornerstone in his team’s chase on Thursday. “Frankly, the run-rate was never an issue. We were looking to get as close to the target as possible with the help of 40-run partnerships. Thankfully, those two boundaries in the penultimate over off Krunal Pandya helped our cause. But even before that, my plan was to just bat normally,” Vasavada summed up his efforts.
This win notwithstanding, it’s been a largely underwhelming season for Saurashtra, one in which they were plagued by injuries to Sheldon Jackon and Krushang Patel. And at crucial moments this season, they were without Jaydev Unadkat, Pujara and Jadeja, because of their international commitments. In their absence, Vasavada stepped up.
“Vasavada has been really consistent for us in the Syed Mushtaq Trophy as well as this tournament. He has been finishing matches for us. Overall, it’s been a team effort. Youngsters, such as Chirag Jani and Samarth Vyas, too have stepped up,” Kotak observed.
Interestingly, Vasavada was not part of Saurashtra’s Ranji Trophy campaign, but since his return to the fold in the Syed Mushtaq Trophy, the 28-year-old has assumed the role of the finisher.
Like Kotla, his temperament was put to test in one of the league games in this competition — against Jharkhand at Secunderabad where Saurashtra were chasing 330. Jadeja’s unbeaten century stole the show. But without Vasavada’s rapid 24-ball 36, that win would not have been possible. Saurashtra would be banking on his services once again when they take on a rampant Andhra, who have won seven games on the trot in their march to the semi-finals.
Brief scores: Saurashtra 251/7 in 48.4 overs (Avi Barot 82, Cheteshwar Pujara 40, Arpit Vasavada 45) beat Baroda 247/8 (Krunal Pandya 61, Soaeb Tai 72; Chirag Jani 4/25)
Pujara becomes a father
Saurashtra captain Cheteshwar Pujara left for Rajkot after the quarter-final win to be with his wife Puja, who gave birth to a baby girl on Thursday, the couple’s first child. He will be back for the semi-final game against Andhra on Sunday.
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