Gurbani's match-winning seven-wicket haul helped Vidarbha beat Karnataka and reach their maiden Ranji Trophy final.
Chandrakant Pandit in domestic circles is known to be the 'khadoos' Mumbaikar, who is not ready to bare his emotions but Rajneesh Gurbani's eyes welled up when he saw the ecstatic Vidarbha coach after they beat Karnataka to reach their maiden Ranji Trophy final.
Gurbani's match-winning seven-wicket haul helped Vidarbha beat Karnataka by five runs in a thrilling final. Personally for former India stumper Pandit, it was also a statement to Mumbai Cricket Association, which removed him from coach's post despite the team reaching finals last year.
"I got quite emotional after getting the final wicket and when I saw Chandu sir's (Pandit's nickname) reaction tears came into my eyes. We have been following the same routine from the first match we played in the league stage against Punjab till today," Gurbani, who had a match haul of 12 wickets said.
There was performance anxiety throughout the night before the final day as he could barely sleep. "I was quite nervous all throughout the night. I first woke up at 12:30 thought it was 6 am, I again woke up at 4:30 couldn't sleep any more got up at 5 am and got ready within 6. We were determined to reach the finals this year having lost in the quarter-finals twice," said Gurbani.
Gurbani is among the fresh crop of cricketers who are paying attention to the academics -- something that had become a thing of the past during the last decade. Gurbani is a qualified civil engineer, who passed with 68 percent marks in his BE exams. He only played his first List A game after completing his final semester where he scored 80 percent marks. Gurbani's father a railway engineer never allowed him to skip any semesters.
There were two specific phases when Karnataka had partnerships going and he admitted that he was getting restless.
"When I went to the ground, coach sir motivated me and calmed my nerves somewhat. On the field, when wickets were not coming, I was feeling a bit restless and then my captain, senior team-mates and Chandu sir told me to calm down."
When around 14 runs were left, Gurbani thought rather than worrying he will now wait for batsmen to make mistakes. "Since the wicket was not falling, I decided not to worry and left it to the batsmen to make a mistake."
He overshadowed his illustrious new ball partner Umesh Yadav and said that it was dream come true to open the bowling with the India international. "The presence of Umesh Yadav was a big help for me and it was my dream to open the bowling with Umesh bhaiya. From one end, he was bowling fast and watching him bowl, I was feeling very relaxed. Umesh Yadav is my idol and he is my favourite fast bowler," he said.
Gurbani also credited Subroto Banerjee for his success. "Subroto sir helped me a lot in improving my bowling and skills. They worked very hard to make me bowl well. I still need to improve a lot on my bowling action and fitness."
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