Watching Aakash Chopra and Vineet Saxena stonewall their way to a 100-plus stand, one wondered whether this was a re-run of last year’s Ranji semifinal.
Back then, Rajasthan dished out a medium-pace-friendly wicket, aware that Tamil Nadu’s pace stocks were nothing to rave about. Openers Chopra and Saxena were unseparated till 181 runs which eventually hurt the visitors.
On Thursday, the two bettered that by 40 runs, with Saxena batting on 120. Their strike rates this day — 30s, 40s and thereabout — were eerily similar to that match. What’s more, the pair is undefeated, taking Rajasthan to 221 at close on the first day of the Ranji Trophy final at MA Chidambaram Stadium here.
Saxena has been Rajasthan’s ‘man for the situation’. His 58 against Haryana in the semis was as significant as the 127 against Saurashtra that gave Rajasthan a desperately needed outright win to stay in the competition.
The batting wasn’t pretty, alright. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be that way. It was perhaps their brief to bat Tamil Nadu into oblivion. Menacing backlift and fluency may not guarantee you titles. Chopra (86 not out) could write a thesis on it.
Tamil Nadu tried as many as seven bowlers. They could never coax life out of an inert surface. Winter, January, Chennai, but no nip. “The wicket was a bit on the slower side. The odd ball was stopping but batting was not difficult. It was all about battling the heat and being patient,” Saxena said, agreeing that Tamil Nadu may have dearly missed R Ashwin.
This is the kind of turf that the visitors too may have desired. They were supposed to possess a sharper pace attack, which may have heightened the belief that they could keep Rajasthan in check. Had Tamil Nadu batted first, their batsmen were expected to rake up tall scores. Would skipper L Balaji have ever thought that his frontline bowlers would return with barren wicket columns on Day One?
One moment early in the first session gave a misleading picture of what would follow. Chopra was hit on the visor as he misjudged a Jagannathan Kaushik bouncer. Thereafter, the Tamil Nadu bowlers had no presence.
The scoring rate stagnated between lunch and tea, but Tamil Nadu could never create an opening. “This wasn’t a surface where we could play on the rise,” said Saxena, who was slightly more fluent of the two. “Strokeplay wasn’t easy, so we had decided to get the runs in the next session.”
On his chemistry with Chopra, he said, “There is so much to learn from him, his technique and determination. Whenever I made a mistake, he would have an advice.”
To compound matters for the hosts, Abhinav Mukund had a nasty fall at the fence while trying to save a boundary. He has a contusion on his right hip and will not take the field on Friday. Middle-order batsmen Kuthethurshri Vasudevadas too is down with an acute back spasm.
Balaji can only hope that a new day brings better tidings.
SCORECARD
Rajasthan 1st innings
A Chopra batting 86, V Saxena batting 120; Extras: (B5, LB5, W2, NB3) 15; Total: (no loss; 90 overs) 221
Bowling: L Balaji 13-6-33-0 (NB2), J Kaushik 18-6-30-0, Y Mahesh 13-2-42-0 (W2), A Srinivas 30-11-55-0, S Gupta 13-1-40-0, A Mukund 2-0-6-0, K Vasudevadas 1-0-5-0
Comments