‘Now, Hanumant and Raj Singh’s souls can rest in peace’

Rajasthan has done it, finally. After 14 unsuccessful attempts (10 outright defeats, 4 first innings losses), the Central Zone team finally got the better of defending champions Mumbai in their 15th contest to make the Ranji Trophy 2010/11 semifinals on Monday.

And when the news reached the ears of former Rajasthan and India all-rounder Salim Durrani, who has played in four finals and a semifinal against the champions, was stunned. “Are you sure? I am so happy. Finally we did it!” was how the all-rounder reacted to the news.

“Who all were there from Mumbai?” he asked. When told the Mumbai team consisted of Wasim Jaffer, Ajit Agarkar, Rohit Sharma, Ramesh Powar and Co, he said: “Wasim and Co. Then it must be a strong team. This means our boys have done a really great job.”

The Afghanistan-born Durrani also went nostalgic. “This win will certainly give peace to the souls of some of my colleagues like Hanumant Singh, Rajbhai (Raj Singh Dungarpur) and whosoever have played against Bombay (now Mumbai) before,” he said.

“We had some good players in Vinoo Mankad, Hanumant Singh, Raj Singh, Maharana of Mewar, Rusi Surti, Suryaveer Singh and a few others. Mumbai, although a strong team, used to be wary of us as we had some of the best players. But we used to lose to them due to our weak fielding. There were around 4-5 senior players who were unable to field well. We would come really close but then we would lose,” he said.

“I have scored a few tons and half centuries, and taken a lot of wickets (including 8/99 in 1960/61 final in Udaipur) for Rajasthan vs Mumbai. We (Central Zone) would defeat the zonal teams including West in the Duleep Trophy. But when it would come to Ranji Trophy we could not beat them,” said Durrani, who played with both generation of Mankads. He played alongside father Vinoo Mankad in the 1960 final while Ashok was in the opposition for Bombay in 63-64 finals.

“Every time Mumbai batted, they would put up a huge score. They had some of the best players in Ajit Wadekar who was very consistent, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Sardesai, Baloo Gupte and others,” he said.

The stylish southpaw, who played for Rajasthan from 1956 to 78, felt that this win will change the face of cricket in Rajasthan. “I am not keeping well these days but I have been following their progress. They have some good players and I think this win is significant for the progress of Rajasthan cricket,” he signed off.