A little over an hour after lunch on Day 4, as Anukul Roy trapped Sandeep Warrier in front, the celebrations in Jharkhand ranks spoke much. In three meetings against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, they have won all, including twice this year alone in successive seasons. But none had been as astounding as the one in Coimbatore on Saturday, where they won by an innings & 114 runs to take home seven points. When the last wicket (ninth) fell, with B Sachin absent hurt because of sickness, Jharkhand made it look like a routine or rather one that was inevitable.
It was in many ways inevitable from the moment Tamil Nadu let Jharkhand recover from 157/6 on Day 1 and eventually have 419 on board with Ishan Kishan playing a mature knock. The lone India cap holder, who is deemed not good enough for any format by the national selectors, is all it took for TN’s best laid plans to hit a wall. Thereafter, the batting crumbled at the first visibility of pressure, first getting shot out for 93 and in the second essay showing no signs of any corrective measures. C Andre Siddarth, among the bright batting prospects emerging out of the state, showed excellent resistance, binning his natural attacking instincts and lasting 180 deliveries to make 80. But his dismissal, bowled after attempting a slog-sweep of left-arm spinner Roy, summarised TN’s batting display in this fixture.
“My game plan was simple today, to be honest. I just wanted to bat the whole day, which sadly I couldn’t. Yes, I scored 80 odd, but my main aim was to just bat through innings and at least make them field for the whole day. That’s what I was looking to do because they made us stand for one-and-a-half days. Made our fat bowlers toil. They bowled well, but couldn’t get wickets, but as a batting unit we should have done better. At least I thought I should have played better for the bowlers,” Siddarth said.
For a batting unit that is full of stroke-makers TN’s struggles in the long format has been puzzling for years. Barring B Sai Sudharsan and Shahrukh Khan, they don’t have any of their batsmen in IPL ranks with the scouts often labelling them as technically sound players who still have the traditional, red-ball basics in place. All of it should hint at them having the necessary application to bat the distance in long-format, but as it has been evident in successive seasons, the consistency continues to elude.
Given such glitches in their ranks, all it needs for an opponent is to put a big total on board and let the bowlers do the basics right. For the second successive innings, Jharkhand’s attack showed plenty of discipline on a track that still had plenty of rewards for batsmen. After the pacers dictated the proceedings in the first innings, debutant off-spinner Rishav Raj dictated the second innings. Though there wasn’t much turn on offer, Rishav did have bounce to ride on. With an easy repeatable action, the 24-year-old kept attacking the stumps. On Day 3, he removed the two left-handers AS Ambrish and Pradosh Ranjan Paul and on Day 4, took the most important wicket of Baba Indrajith. Amongst the best players of spin, he had him pinned to crease with his turn and bounce. And mid-way through the first session, with a leg-slip, short-leg in place, as Indrajith tried to work around the leg, got one to climb and soar high, before Shikhar Mohan completed a one-handed diving catch out of thin air.
From there on, at 93/5, Siddarth combined with Shahrukh to stitch a 100-run stand that briefly entertained TN’s hopes of salvaging a draw. But soon after lunch, it once again unravelled all too quickly for TN as Jharkhand got off the mark.
