Mumbai, Dec 2: With a four-for, Mumbai left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan was instrumental in bundling out Bengal for 201 in the first innings on the second day of their Ranji Trophy encounter.
While recalling the long conversation with captain Rohit Sharma ahead of the game, he said, “It was a pep talk. On my part, in the previous games by bowling wasn’t that good as such so I had to do well getting this game. Fortunately, the wicket favoured me and it happened. Rohit is a good, supportive captain, you can easily approach him, just tell him what you want.”
Having played in two batsmen dominated matches before this game, the bowler said, “Obviously the wickets were different. This is a fair wicket you can say. Everybody is getting help, medium pacers, you can bat well, spinners are getting help.”
“The wicket was helping the spinners actually, we were getting some good turn.”
“Any person will like getting benefits on his side, the wicket was helping here. On that wicket, we needed patience and just keep bowling and if the batsman makes a mistake, you can get him out. Here, you had chances of getting him out,” he said
Chavan was hit by Manoj Tiwary for a six and a four after getting chances off his bowling but came back to claim the Bengal captain. Discussing the situation and the dismissal, he said, “Looking at Tiwary, he is more of an attacking batsman. I wasn’t really thinking of what he’s going to do. I was trying to bowl my line and the wicket was helping. Fortunately, it happened.”
When asked if he was trying to use the rough while bowling from the pavilion end, Chavan replied, “Yes, there were quite a few spots on the other side, so I was bowling from one end.”
“The wicket definitely was helping the pace bowlers, initially, and the bowlers as a whole, but we felt the total was decent enough to defend, so we tried our best to do that,” he mentioned while talking about bowling Bengal out and taking a lead.
Although there were missed chances of his bowling, the spinner said, “It doesn’t matter, I don’t really think about that because nobody does it on purpose. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and the results will come.”
Chavan who led the attack helping to give Mumbai an edge in the match lauded the effort of Bengal opener Arindam Das who remained unbeaten on 98 and carried his bat through. Chavan commended the effort saying, “Superb innings! He was patient enough, waiting for the loose balls. He was quite responsible because wickets were going from the other end.”
Das, playing in his comeback match, played a valiant knock even as the rest of the line-up fell like nine-pins around him. Speaking about anchoring the innings, he said, “Someone has to carry through the innings. The one who is set should try to carry through the innings, so I tried to play through the innings.”
“It is unfortunate that I couldn’t get to my 100 but that’s how it is,” he added.
When asked what it was like to bat and hold one end, he said, “It was difficult, because after every little while the pressure was back on the set batsman because he could not score freely. But I am happy that I carried through it.”
So what was he telling the lower-order batsmen when they joined him at the crease? “We just tried to maintain that I play the maximum number of deliveries and get maximum runs for the team,” he explained.
Speaking about the wicket, Das echoed Chavan’s observation. He said, “It is a good sporting wicket. There is something in it for everyone.”
