It took 23 years for Chandrakant Pandit to turn heart-wrenching tears into tears of joy at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Pandit, as captain of Madhya Pradesh, was on the verge of making history, dominating Karnataka for the best part of the 1998–99 final, before Vijay Bhardwaj won from the jaws of defeat, 6 for 24. For.
Pandit, as coach, felt similar nerves when Madhya Pradesh were 2/1 chasing a small target of 108 in the 2021-22 final. But none in the Mumbai ranks could Bharadwaj and Madhya Pradesh, under the leadership of Aditya Srivastava, could not be denied their maiden title.
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Little is known about Madhya Pradesh’s journey to its maiden victory, as Koch has ruled the unit with an iron fist. He made serious demands of his team, called for sacrifices, and ensured that no player took to social media to post their stories or talk to the media.
Such was the pandit’s grip on the team that when Srivastava decided to get married, he asked this pundit not to be the one to organize the wedding ceremony, what date he could set aside. And yet he was given only two days off from training.
There is a lot of focus on Pandit rather than the team, and this is because of his track record as a coach. He won titles with Mumbai, then back-to-back trophies with Vidarbha (his first and second victories) and now repeated the feat with Madhya Pradesh.
More about Pundit in a minute, but take a look at the players who have done the job. Of the team that played the final, only two featured prominently in the Indian Premier League – Kuldeep Sen and Rajat Patidar. Usually, when you look at a team that has won the Ranji Trophy, it is full of players who are India A regular, pushing for a place in the Indian team or has already played for India.
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In this arrangement of Madhya Pradesh, the sum of the parts is much greater than that of the whole. Kumar Karthikeya, a left-arm spinner who favors wrist spin, was told in no uncertain terms that he would have to go back to orthodox finger spin, and took up the challenge, made adjustments and with the new ball at will. operated. He ended up being the second-highest wicket-taker of the season, taking 32 wickets in just six matches.
Similarly, in the run-scoring bets, Patidar finished second, his 658 runs coming in at 82.25, with a century in the final that ensured Mumbai were pushed on the backfoot and conceded the first innings. But the game was lost as a competition. Leading, as early as halfway in the game. Patidar may have made waves for Royal Challengers Bangalore, but no Indian cricketer would believe that his CV was complete without Ranji Trophy success, and the box was ticked emphatically.
Himanshu Mantri was the definition of hard work this season behind the stumps and at the crease. Tight and skilful with big gloves, Mantri put as much premium on his wicket as possible, forcing the bowlers to grab his wicket every time he tried to bat. In the semi-final, against Bengal, Mantri batted for seven hours and eight minutes in two innings and then took wickets for 154.4 overs.
Yash Dubey and Shubham Sharma both scored 600 runs and Patidar may have been in the limelight, but the pair was the engine room of Madhya Pradesh’s batting. Shubham, with four centuries, provided the needed consistency in the top-order and Dubey ensured that the opposition new-ball bowlers didn’t just rock and take an early lead.
India’s fast bowling stocks are so good at the moment that neither Anubhav Agarwal nor Gaurav Yadav have a real chance of reaching the higher levels at the moment. But, like many cricketers before him, he was actually good enough to work in the Ranji Trophy. They were good enough to follow the plans that were assigned to them in the last letter.
And this brings us back to Pandit. His coaching method is not magic, it is not rocket science. Rather, it is following the tradition of those from the Bombay tradition, the school of hard knocks, from Ramakant Achrekar to Ashok Mankad to Polly Umrigar.
A feature of Madhya Pradesh’s playing throughout the season was the 12th man out in the middle to deliver a message to the captain or batsmen. So much so that the Mumbai team got irritated with the Madhya Pradesh player and words were exchanged.
Physically, he was the 12th man to run, but in many ways, Pandit was the 12th man on the team, running things through his nervous trepidation in the dressing room.
This was also evident from the way Pandit praised his captain. “I have worked with many captains and many associations but my relationship with Aditya is completely different. He is the only captain who has spent hours in my room. He is very worried about the team,” began Pandit. “Throughout the season, whenever we have strategised, he has implemented them perfectly. Of course he has a mind of his own, but when we send a message with a plan, he doesn’t hesitate to follow through.”
History will remember Srivastava for being the first Madhya Pradesh captain to win a Ranji Trophy, but you can bet Pandit’s name won’t be far behind when it comes to his scintillating summer 2022.
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