Rahul Tripathi is leading Maharshtra in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018. (Source: File photo)
Rahul Tripathi recounts with glee his stunning 78-ball 106 in Maharashtra’s ill-fated Ranji Trophy encounter against Delhi at the Palam Ground in November 2017. After conceding a massive first-innings lead, it was Tripathi’s counter-attacking blitz that gave his side a glimmer of hope. “I decided to play my shots, and as we build a couple of partnerships, we came close to getting a lead. We eventually lost that game, but one could sense that Delhi were rattled by our approach,” he says.
This fighting spirit shown by the captain seems to have rubbed off on his team-mates, and this clinical approach has helped Maharashtra march into the semis of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy. The string of consistent performances in the 50-over event has come after an underwhelming show in the Ranji Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq T20 – where they failed to qualify for the knockouts.
“The Ranji season was disappointing for us. We finished third in the group that had teams like Karnataka and Delhi. In the Syed Mushtaq Trophy, we came close to winning on a number of occasions. But we lost by 2 runs to Saurashtra and our campaign got derailed,” Tripathi observes.
After the T20 debacle, the onus fell on their captain to galvanize his side. The 26-year-old did precisely that. Tripathi’s unbeaten 125 in the opening game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy against Bengal, set the tone. Maharashtra would go on to win four of their remaining five games and to top their group. Apart from their loss to Delhi, Maharashtra have steamrolled their oppositions. They defeated Bengal in the tournament opener by seven wickets, trounced Uttar Pradesh by 105 runs, then clinched the game against Tripura by four wickets, and finally rounded off the league phase with another commanding 98-run win over Kerala. Even against Mumbai in the quarter-final, most expected them to roll over. But they held the fort to register a 7-wicket win.
A team effort
Tripathi believes this dominance came about through a combined effort. “It’s extremely pleasing as a captain (to see) that it has been a combined effort, complete team effort. Every single player has contributed in some or the other way and everybody have stepped up to the occasion at crucial junctures. That’s one reason why I think we have done so well in the tournament so far. We had a good group and stiff competition. Every match was crucial for us (to qualify for knockouts) and the biggest plus point for our team was ours have been a collective effort throughout.”
While other teams have often relied on their top-order or a couple of specialist bowlers, Maharashtra have banked on the collective might of the core middle-order comprising their captain Tripathi, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ankit Bawne and Naushad Shaikh. In the bowling department, the spoils were shared by their medium pacers and spinners. It’s interesting to note that not a single Maharashtra batsman features in the list of the top-10 run-scorers in this tournament. It’s a similar story when you look at their bowling.
Maharashtra have also managed to surprise oppositions with their out-of-the-box approach. For instance, asking all-rounder Srikanth Munde to open the batting against Mumbai in the quarterfinal at Palam was a masterstroke. Munde’s match-winning half-century helped his team sail through.
They will now face a rampant Karnataka in the semis, a team oozing with batting talent and replete with a host of fringe India players. In many ways, they are the antithesis of Maharashtra. On paper, Karnataka look like the obvious favourites. But like several times this season, they have shown the propensity to falter at crunch moments. This is precisely what Tripathi would be looking to exploit on Saturday.
“We have been playing good cricket at the moment and that’s because we decided we’ll take one match at a time,” he says. “Then again, we don’t stress too much about the opposition’s strengths. We’re more focused on getting our processes and execution right. We are focusing on what we are doing well in the tournament and that we should keep at it.”
Karnataka vs Maharashtra, Vijay Hazare SF: Live on Star Sports 3 — 9 am
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