The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Rahane, Mukund, Pujara and Thaker steal the thunder

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Rahane, Mukund, Pujara and Thaker steal the thunder

G. Viswanath

— Photo: S. Subramanium

IN TERRIFIC FORM: Ajinkya Rahane has been the batting mainstay in Mumbai’s campaign this season.

Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane has come up with right answers for the several time winner of the National championship. Not since Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli and Wasim Jaffer, has another batsman raised on the true turf wickets of Mumbai illuminated a first class season and grabbed attention.

Rahane has demonstrated ability and yearning to carry the flame lit by his famous predecessors, though Rohit Sharma, yet to produce runs in a consistent manner for Mumbai, has advanced in his career with a handful of noteworthy performances for India.

Mumbai suffered from want of quality batsmen; first Vinayak Mane and thereafter Vinit Indulkar promised much after playing against two visiting Australian sides, but both the right-handers have come a cropper. Rahane has emerged as a whiff of fresh air, taking heavy responsibility and accumulating 924 runs this season to top the averages before the start of the quarterfinal match against Himachal Pradesh.

Has the capacity

By compiling a little over 1,400 runs in two Ranji Trophy seasons, Rahane has straightaway proved that he has the capacity to score runs, facing the new ball and thereafter spending many hours in the middle. He is a top class fielder in the cordon and also at point.

He will be challenged in the knock-out to start with by Himachal Pradesh’s successful seamers Ashok Thakur and Vikramjeet Malik in the quarterfinal match at the Motera, Ahmedabad from Friday. The discerning will dissect him in the knock-out and draw conclusions, but Mumbai is mightily pleased with his showing so far.

Mumbai skipper Jaffer is second behind Rahane and he is followed by Saurashtra’s Cheteshwar Pujara, Tamil Nadu left-hander Abhinav Mukund and Gujarat’s Bhavik Thaker. Others to impress include Maharashtra’s Kedav Jadhav, Saurashtra’s Ravindra Jadeja, Uttar Pradesh’s Tanmany Srivastava, Maharashtra’s Ajay Shrikande, Punjab’s Sunny Sohal, Hyderabad’s Anoop Pai and Punjab’s Uday Kaul.

Vital cogs

Gujarat’s Parthiv Patel and Tamil Nadu’s Dinesh Karthik have turned out to be a vital cog in the batting wheel of their sides and a valuable asset by aggregating 500 and more runs. Putting runs on the board was the top priority for all the teams and on a number of occasions the 600 mark was crossed.

Mukund who made a memorable debut last year, began this season with a solid undefeated 302 against Maharashtra at Nashik. Batting with Murali Vijay in that splendid 400 plus run stand for the first wicket, reflected his powers of concentration and the range of shots.

Pujara faded away in the last matches of the super league, dismissed twice run out (once each against Delhi and Hyderabad), but the middle order batsman who scored 807 runs last year, began the season with two triple centuries in the West Zone under-22 competition and another triple against Orissa in the Ranji Trophy. He also scored heavily against Mumbai and Punjab.

Top performer

Bhavik Thaker turned out to be a heavyweight performer for his State led by Parthiv Patel. His 600 plus runs provided the leeway for Siddharth Trivedi and Mohnish Parmar to show aggressive intent with the ball.

With the Indian middle order likely to bear a new look not too long from now, the selectors will have the basket full to pick replacements, but apart from this season’s knock-out, the Duleep Trophy and other one-day tournaments, the next season (2009-10) will be crucial for the likes of Rahane, Mukund, Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja among others.

Pujara has been awarded a Group ‘D’ contract (Rs. 15 lakh), but Rahane, Mukund and Jadeja have not been as lucky. For the first time in four years, followers of the game, including BCCI members, players and the media have rightly questioned the yardstick applied for awarding contracts. Questions are likely to be raised at the BCCI’s Working Committee meeting in Mumbai in the first week of the New Year.

Ranji Super League Top 5 batsmen

Ajinkya Rahane (Mum) 7 matches, 924 runs at 84.00

Wasim Jaffer (Mum) 7 matches, 765 runs at 69.54

Cheteshwar Pujara (Sau) 7 matches 754 runs at 83.77

Abhinav Mukund (TN) 6 matches, 678 runs at 96.85

Bhavik Thaker (Guj) 7 matches, 662 runs at 94.57

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