When Yash Rathod was an upcoming cricketer in his early days his uncle ensured he was penalised if dismissed early. The paternal uncle had enough of his nephew getting out cheaply, rather frequently, as he was intent on making someone in the family a cricketer, and not just sit in the family grocery shop. Luckily, by the time Rathod turned 10, he fell in love with the game.
This year has been a dreamy season for Rathod who scored his career best 151 against Mumbai in the semi-finals; his marathon innings has pushed him to third spot in the list of highest run getters this season (933 runs). On Thursday, Mumbai witnessed some khadoos-ness from Vidarbha as two of their lower-order batsmen Rathod and Akshay Wadkar refused to budge from the crease. They batted 367 balls, handled bowlers for more than two sessions and never gave any chance to Mumbai bowlers.
While the 25-year-old Rathod scored his back-to-back hundred in Ranji Trophy games, he was supported by his club-mate Wadkar with a gritty 252-ball 52.
Madhav Bakre, founder of Nagpur Cricket Academy where Rathod and Wadkar train, recalls his students’ discipline and passion.
“Rathod would bat for more than five hours. He never gets satisfied, there are days when I had to tell him ke ab bus kar, bowlers are tired. Wadkar is one who never misses his practice; even before this game, he came for an early morning practice session,” Bakre says.
They added 158 runs for the fifth wicket which brought them back in the game especially as they had lost 4 for 56 on day three.
Rathod went on to score his fifth Ranji Trophy century, a 151 off 252 balls with 11 fours. With wickets falling at regular intervals after Wadkar fell to Mumbai’s left-arm spinner Shams Mulani, Rathod looked to accelerate a bit. The last four wickets of Vidarbha accumulated 78 runs before Rathod became the last man to get out at the team score of 292. With the 113 runs first innings lead, Mumbai had to chase mammoth 406 runs on a pitch that surprised them by keeping low on a few instances.
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Bakre recalls how before the season had started Rathod had kept his target clear to score 1000 runs in Ranji Trophy and at least nine hundreds in this domestic season. With this century he is close to his target, he has now scored 933 runs this Ranji Trophy season and stands at number three in highest run scorer this season list.
Rathod explained how prior to the season he had a long discussion with coach Usman Gani and video analyst where he was shown all his videos. Last season he had got out to bouncers a couple of occasions and so, he made up his mind to curb his instinct and cut out the shot. He made up his mind to convert 50’s into big scores this season.
Early debacle
Mumbai’s chase was dented by Vidarbha spinners who called the shots. Left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey continued this season’s steady performance, getting the opener Ayush Mhate bowled for 17. A short while later, he had Siddhesh Lad stumped. Just as the defending champions were hoping their captain Ajinkya Rahane will bail them out, they were jolted. He was dismissed for 12 after left-arm spinner Parth Rekhade’s delivery kept low post pitching that the Mumbai captain couldn’t do much and was trapped LBW.
At stumps, Mumbai were 83 for 3 with opener Akash Anand and Shivam Dube batting on 27 and 12 respectively. Vidarbha are seven wickets away while Mumbai needs 323 runs. They have Suryakumar Yadav in the hut, and need couple of batsmen to come up with big runs to ensure they reach the finals for the succession.