Saurashtra’s Jaydev Unadkat has changed a lot by way of a lean and mean appearance and as a serious practitioner of left-arm fast bowling. He not only sports an American crew hairstyle, which seems to be the trend among cricketers these days, but has also added a bit of venom to his bowling that made him lethal against Assam in their Ranji Trophy semifinal at the Reliance stadium here on Monday.
In the wilderness for five years after his Test debut away to South Africa, the 24-year-old gave another classic exhibition of fast and seam bowling. On a surface that was lively for a third day in-a-row, Unadkat dismissed half the Assam batsmen in the second innings and fashioned an emphatic 10-wicket victory for his side.
Saurashtra, which had lost the final three years ago to Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium, will await the outcome of the match between Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh at Cuttack.
Following his splendid six for 77 from 26 overs in the first innings, Unadkat bent his back, extracted lift off the surface, made the ball cut and added another clutch of five wickets for a match analysis of 11 for 122; his second 10-wicket haul in first class cricket after his 13 for 103 for India-A against West Indies-A at Grace Road, Leicester, in June 2010.
Assam may have lacked a high-quality batsmen, barring Amit Verma and K.B. Arun Karthick.
Nonetheless, Sandeep Patil, the chairman of the national selection committee, would have been impressed by the way the left-armer put his heart and soul in this game.
Unadkat made the most of the 121-run lead his team established after a terrific century by Cheteshwar Pujara. Once the stocky Avi Barot plucked a blinder at short-leg to send back opener Pallavkumar Das in the seventh over, Unadkat piled on the pressure with able assistance from another left-armer Hardik Rathod.
It was a virtual procession towards the dressing room and the moment Arun Karthick cut left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja to substiture Kamlesh Makvana at point the writing on the wall was clear for Assam.
Left-hander Syed Mohammad dug his heels in for two hours and seven minutes before Rathod breached his defence. The seventh-wicket stand of 42, after Unadkat had sent down a nine-over spell, prevented an innings defeat for the visitor from the North-East.
Unadkat returned to mop up the tail by beating Arup Das neck and crop for zero.
Earlier, Assam began the day taking the second new ball and Krishna Das managed to induced a mistake from Pujara; troubled by a nagging stiff neck, the batsman drove into the hands of Mohammad. Deepak Punia then lifted off-spinner Swarupam Purkayastha for three towering sixes.
Punia and Jadeja added 50 for the ninth wicket before the Saurashtra innings folded up with leg-spinner Verma dismissing the last two batsmen.
The scores: Assam — 1st innings: 234.
Saurashtra — 1st innings: Avi Barot lbw b Krishna Das 35, Sagar Jogiyani c Sharma b Arup Das 10, Cheteshwar Pujara c Mohammad b Krishna Das 126, Arpit Vasavada c Arun Karthick b Arup Das 10, Sheldon Jackson c Pallavkumar Das b Syed Mohammad 47, Jaydev Shah b Arup Das 3, Chirag Jani lbw b Goswami 43, Jaydev Unadkat c Mohamamd b Krishna Das 14, Deepak Punia (not out) 42, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja b Verma 14, Hardik Rathod c Sharma b Verma 0; Extras (b-1, lb-5, nb-1, w-2): 9; Total (in 113.5 overs): 353.
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-51, 3-85, 4-154, 5-161, 6-268, 7-288, 8-303, 9-353.
Assam bowling: Krishna Das 37-12-80-3, Arup Das 32-4-105-3, Dhiraj Goswami 21-7-63-1, Pallavkumar Das 9-1-40-0, Syed Mohammad 7-1-16-1, Amit Verma 3.5-0-11-2, Swarupam Purkayastha 4-0-32-0.
Assam — 2nd innings: Pallavkumar Das c Barot b Unadkat 10, Rahul Hazarika c Jogiyani b Unadkat 19, Tarjinder Singh c Vasavada b Rathod 0, Amit Verma c Jogiyani b Unadkat 16, K.B. Arun Karthick c (sub) b Jadeja 15, Gokul Sharma c Jogiyani b Rathod 1, Syed Mohammad b Rathod 39, Swarupam Purkayastha c Jogiyani b Punia 19, Dhiraj Goswami c Jackson b Unadkat 15, Arup Das b Unadkat 0, Krishna Das (not out) 0; Extras (b-4, nb-1): 5; Total (in 39.1 overs): 139.
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-29, 3-45, 4-45, 5-46, 6-67, 7-105, 8-135, 9-139.
Saurashtra bowling: Jaydev Unadkat 13-3-45-5, Hardik Rathod 9.1-4-26-3, Chirag Jani 5-2-14-0, Deepak Punia 9-1-42-1, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 3-0-8-1.
Saurashtra — 2nd innings: Avi Barot (not out) 1, Sagar Jogiyani (not out) 23; Total (for no loss in 3.1 overs): 24.
Assam bowling: Krishna Das 2-1-4-0, Amit Verma 1-0-16-0, Arup Das 0.1-0-4-0.
Saurashtra won by 10 wickets .
