Nagpur: The battle between India stars Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav will make for an intriguing sub-plot when Saurashtra make one more attempt to win their elusive Ranji Trophy title against the defending champions Vidarbha in the final starting Sunday. The battle lines are drawn and the summit clash will not just be about Pujara and Umesh only but also about Wasim Jaffer, who is a domestic doyen in every sense of the term. At the age of 40, the reflexes may have gone down but sheer class and improved fitness has ensured that Jaffer remains a force to reckon with in domestic cricket with 1003 runs to his name before the final. Statistically, he is the only second to Milind Kumar (1331), who freelanced for Sikkim but if things are put in perspective, in spirit he has again been the premier performer in the national championship. Saurashtra do have an edge with Pujara in their line-up but Jaffer’s flair has the power to negate it. He has been Vidarbha’s batting mainstay this season with four hundreds, including a double ton. India’s hero during the Australia Test series, however downplayed his presence.
“It’s not that Saurashtra will have edge because of my presence. This team has got some exciting youngsters like Harvik (Desai) and Arpit (Vasavada). This team has done well fir some time as a unit,” said Pujara after a net session. “If we play like the way we did in the quarterfinals and the semifinal, we have a good chance,” said Pujara, who has anchored two tough chases against Uttar Pradesh in the quarter-finals and Karnataka in the semi-finals. The final will be a test of batting depths as both sides have capable willow wielders till No 9. Saurashtra coach Sitanshu Kotak and captain Jaydev Unadkat echoed the same sentiment, underlining that someone or the other has raised his hand in different situations. Sheldon Jackson (838 runs) and former India U-19 Desai (763 runs) have been the batting mainstays for Saurashtra when Pujara was on national duty.
“It’s about those 11 guys. It has been a dream season for us. We won some great games in the knockouts and even before that Saurashtra played one of the best games ever. It’s one more game and we are looking for a fairytale end,” said Unadkat. Ditto for defending champions Vidarbha. The run-chart led by Jaffer, has at least eight such batsmen, who have 30-plus average and five of them figuring in 10 matches. Their ever-dependable skipper Faiz Fazal (786 runs) and young Akshay Wadkar (680 runs) have made a telling contributions in team’s superb run with three hundreds each.
