It was a day where Yash Rathod walked the talk. On Day 2 as Vidarbha’s top-order went about building the base against Tamil Nadu, a padded-up Rathod was taking throwdowns at every possible break available. “We need to be in a position where we can take 7 points. Need to play a big innings tomorrow” he had said. And coming to the crease in the first hour of Day 3 on Monday, after Dhruv Shorey went back for 82, Rathod consolidated Vidarbha’s position and by the time he went back after making 133, they were in commanding position. Thanks to his second successive century, the defending champions took a first innings lead of 210 and smelt an innings win against a deflated Tamil Nadu team in their own backyards in Coimbatore.
For a batsman who scored five centuries last Ranji season, he had already started this season on a high note scoring 194 in the Duleep Trophy final and following it up with 91 in Irani Cup which Vidarbha won. In the last two Ranji fixtures, he has scores of 71 against Nagaland and an unbeaten 101 against Jharkhand. On Monday, he came with an aggressive intent, scoring four boundaries inside the first 25 deliveries, including three of Mohamed Ali’s off-break in a single over to go at a strike-rate in excess of 100.
Having already lost their way on Day 2, Rathod made Tamil Nadu wander further on Monday. Having seen the TN attack struggle to create opportunities with the new ball and completely lacking bite once the ball got soft, the situation didn’t demand Rathod to do anything extraordinary. Maybe, the only possible demon was to find ways to challenge himself against this TN attack that includes a pacer, Trilok Nag, who had taken 7 wickets from five matches since making his first-class debut in 2023. Out of those seven, six have come in two matches and while he did add three more to his tally here, it made little difference to the team. The other pacer is a 34-year-old workhorse Sandeep Warrier, who couldn’t inspire much. With left-arm spinner DT Chandrasekar, recalled to the team after 10 years on the back of taking a bucketful of wickets on spin-friendly conditions in the TNCA First Division, struggling to make inroads, it was left to captain R Sai Kishore to send down 52 overs for his five wickets.
Against such an attack, Rathod wasn’t going to miss out on a feast. “This is the way I play and I was getting balls in my range, so I capitalized on that,” Rathod said. “And after 40-45 runs they took the new ball and then after that I slowed down a little bit. The plan was pretty simple: we have to bat as long as possible and keep the good intent. I love to dominate spinners and this is what I did there and I am really happy for that,” the 25-year-old added.
Having struggled to convert fifties into hundreds, Rathod had been focussing on spending time in the middle last season. Having cracked that code, this season he has set his sights on getting the daddy hundreds. “I feel I should grow bigger now. I think I should go for 150, -200,” he said. But there is one roadblock in it. An opener in Vidarbha’s 50-over side, he started at No 3 in the Ranji Trophy before being pushed to No 5. The spot is a tricky one in the Indian scheme of things. The national selectors usually tend to give low weightage to the runs made in the position – as it is seen as runs made against tiring attacks and old ball when the conditions are batter-friendly. Then there is always the risk of running out of partners.
“Yes, correct,” he says about the issue of batting at No 5. “I think the top four batsmen get more opportunities to score big runs. Number 5, number 6, we don’t get enough time to score big runs. The value for the runs is also slightly the same. In our team, all top -order batsmen are doing really well for the team right now. The role, which has given me, is to set the tone for the team and that’s what I try to do. If they gave me the opportunity to play at number 3, I will. But I am okay at number 5,” he said.
With Rathod setting the tone, R Samarth (56 off 127) and captain Akshay Wadkar (43 off 109) provided solid support at the other end as TN were made to chase the leather. And even after Rathod departed after making 133 off 189 deliveries, Nachiket Bhute who took five wickets earlier in the game, scored an unbeaten 51 off 52 as the match slowly slipped out of TN’s hands as Vidarbha ended with 501.
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Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 291 & 6/0 vs Vidarbha 501 (Yash Rathod 133, Dhruv Shorey 82, R Samarth 56, Nachiket Bhute 52 n.o; R Sai Kishore 5/150).
