Basil Sylvester Pinto
PANAJI
The State Ranji team has often been accursed for conceding late order runs that turns the likelihood of thorns to a more than welcome blossom for the opposition. But for a rare change, the rub of the green was on the other side for the home team on Friday at the ongoing Rd V Elite Group C Ranji match between Goa and Services at GCA Academy Ground, Porvorim.
Resuming Day 2 at 27/1, Goa were hurtling towards ignominy at 53/6 quite within an hour of the day’s play with the new ball doing the talk and the home team batsmen doing the quite frequent back to the pavilion walk. This was when a solid Snehal Kauthankar was joined by all-rounder, Darshan Misal at the 22-yard strip to salvage the situation. “As a senior player, my mindset was to play with Snehal, to give him the strike and let him get runs. I decided that I will stay with him and be responsible,” Misal, who made a back-to-the wall fourth Ranji hundred, revealed.
As the partnership began to flourish, a calamitous flash outside the off stick by Kauthankar (26) had the State side precariously placed at 95/7 at the stroke of lunch. “At lunch, my captain (Sagun Kamat) told me to take every run and that Amulya Pandrekar (who came in) will bat. Prakash Mayenkar had even told me that he (Amulya) will bat, so I should keep taking runs. He also said that one partnership would change the game. I did that with Amulya and he batted really well in the crucial partnership I shared with him,” Misal added.
The lower-order batsman raised a valuable 25-run eighth-wicket stand with a determined handy lower-order bat Amulya, who made a delightful quick-fire 15 studded with three hits to the ropes, until his dismissal at 120 at the start of the 51st over to a gem of a Sachidanand Pandey delivery that was taken by the keeper, Devender Lohchab.
With the fall of Amulya’s wicket, Garg strode to the crease to gradually bring memories afresh of a match-defining partnership at the U-23 level he accomplished at the very venue two years ago. “When Lakshay Garg came in, he looked very good and he told me confidently that he would bat. So I reposed faith in his abilities and the ensuing 100-run partnership made a huge difference in the game,” Misal stated.
Misal revealed his thought process after the last other recognized batsman in Snehal Kauthankar had lost his stick. “When Snehal got out, my mindset was to get as many runs and stay positive. I was trying to look for singles and knew the odd boundaries will be of help. It was the same with Garg,” Misal said.
With Goa ending Day 2 at 259/9 in 100 overs, with a lead of 75, Misal acknowledged their side was in a healthy position to consolidate further. “We are now in a comfortable position. On Saturday, with another 20-30 runs to the lead, you never know. We will get a chance to bowl in the right areas and attack as well,” the senior State player assessed.
Rating this hundred, he stated that this one was very special. “This knock was crucial for the team, as my staying at the wicket for long periods mattered,” Misal asserted.
Meanwhile, for Lakshay Garg, batting for prolong periods as basically a bowler is uncommon. But being no mug with the bat, he gave an indication that he could be more than a useful batsman too. “When I had come in (to bat), Misal had told me that we should be thinking about the results. We should in lieu just keep playing ball by ball which was important at that moment in time. When I went in, we almost needed 60 odd runs (65 to be exact!) for a first innings lead,” the pacer recounted.
Garg furthermore said that it was their head coach that had called upon Amulya and himself during lunch break to offer his two cents. “ He (Mayenkar) told us just to believe in ourselves -- that we can take the lead and contribute as well -- as Misal was playing well at the other end,” revealed Garg on Goa’s game plan after plummeting to 95/7 at lunch.
On Friday, Darshan Misal in the company of Lakshay Garg, swung the initiative in Goa’s favour with their 121-run ninth wicket stand, which came in 276 balls, spanning 199 minutes with Misal contributing 62 of the runs and Garg, an exact 50 until his run-out.
Misal brought up his hundred in the last over of the extended second day’s play. Taking strike for the final over of the day, the 100th of the innings, Misal began to play his shots to reach to a well-deserved three-figure mark. He began with a six over long off, ran a quick two with the ball covering ground to the third man region and brought up an exact hundred off the next ball he faced, a shot over deep extra cover that brought him to a celebratory few moments with outstretched arms.
Not to let the occasion get the better of him, the next one was a dot ball and Misal ran a single off the penultimate delivery, with last man Vijesh Prabhudesai playing out a dot on the last ball.
