Rana Dutta put Tripura in a commanding position against Himachal with a six-wicket haul in the ongoing third round of Ranji Trophy 2016-17. The pacer’s efforts helped the MB Murasingh-led team enforce a follow on, on the opposition. His hat-trick to leave HP on 281 for seven tipped the balance completely in Tripura’s favour, who have posted 549 in their first innings.
The pacer ended the blossoming fifth-wicket stand between Robin Bist and Rishi Dhawan by claiming the latter and following up with the wickets of S Verma and M Dagar. Describing his maiden hat-trick, Dutta said, “Actually when we took the second new ball the captain told me to keep pitching it at the same spot and not give away runs; at the same time they (Himachal) too were hurrying to score runs. The ball swung and Rishi Dhawan went to hit it and was caught in the slips. Then Sumeet Verma was trapped lbw and Dagar was bowled.” His hat-trick is also the first in the ongoing season.
“My plan was to bowl stump to stump and make the batsmen play,” he added while talking about his plan with the new ball.
Speaking about his six-wicket haul ( 6 for 58 in the ongoing match. His previous best was 6 for 64) in the innings that helped bowl Himachal out for 311 and enforce a follow on , he said, “Only the new ball was swinging a bit. After becoming a little older the ball was coming on to the bat easily. So our aim was to concede as few runs as possible (curb the flow of runs) and bowl and stick to a line and length with old ball.”
Asked about the efforts that the bowlers had to put in on a track that was aiding the batsmen, he said, “The ball is coming on to the bat easily. The new ball was swinging a bit but the old ball is coming on to the bat easily,” he reiterated.
Discussing his bowling, the pacer said, “I get the ball to cut off the pitch. That's my strength.”
After enforcing the follow on, Tripura are in a commanding position with HP trailing by 219 runs with nine wickets in hand and a day to go in the match. They come into the game on the back of a win against services. Speaking about their campaign, Dutta said, “We play every year but it (our performances) doesn’t happen so effectively. (We don’t leave a noticeable mark). This year the performance is better. We are trying to do better and make a mark so that someone from our team too plays at the next level and in the IPL.”
Speaking about the team’s preparation ahead of the season, he said, “We prepared very well. The Tripura Cricket Association shifted us to Bangalore for couple of months before the season for practice because it rains heavily in our state. We had a good camp. We practiced and trained there which was very good. They backed us up really well and we also look forward to give Tripura a gift.”
