He first shot into the limelight in 2008 as someone who imitated Indian skipper MS Dhoni's hairstyle. And as is the case with stereotypes, this tag has refused to leave Saurabh Tiwary, the young Jharkhand batsman, even though he has been the mainstay of Jharkhand's batting for quite some time.
Saurabh Tiwary has enjoyed considerable success this season and he entered the Ranji Trophy clash against Mumbai having accumulated 485 runs in eight innings with six half centuries. Although he had managed to enter the 90s on a couple of occasions in the previous five games, he had somehow fumbled in pursuit of the three-figure mark.
Saurabh Tiwary en route his 175 yesterday. Pic/Prakash Parsekar.
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The 23-year-old rectified this anomaly magnificently, hitting an unbeaten 175 (18 fours and eight sixes) as the visitors ended Day One on 262-8. Tiwary’s knock was even more special for the fact that a majority of these runs were scored in the company of the lower order batsmen at a time when it seemed Jharkhand would find it difficult to bat out the requisite 90 overs for the day. He put on an undefeated 82 runs for the ninth wicket with SS Rao, and 76 of these runs came off his blade.
Subroto Banerjee
The pace trio of Javed Khan, Akbar Khan and Shardul Thakur, who had been running in hard and exploiting the conditions for a better part of the day, had absolutely no answers to Tiwary’s and Rao’s resistance. The duo batted for 30.3 overs and hardly looked intimidated.
“Saurabh has been is very good form throughout the season, but had somehow missed out on a century. He managed to achieve that today and as a result we are still in the game,” said a relieved Subroto Banerjee, the coach of Jharkhand. The left-arm batsman, who is more popular for his occasional cameos in the Indian Premier League, had come into the game having recorded the following sequence of scores: 91 and 50 not out against Gujarat, 67 and 57 against Odisha, 95 and 7 against Haryana and 71 and 41 against Karnataka.
“While Saurabh has been in top form, it’s the other batsmen who have struggled. Even in the previous games, he found himself batting with the tail and as a result got out in the 90s. I am happy Rao showed tremendous courage in giving him company,” added Banerjee.
Brief scores: Jharkhand 262-8 (S Tiwary 175*, B Thaker 28; Javed Khan 4-61) vs Mumbai
Viru falls for a duck
Virender Sehwag’s embarrassing form with the bat continued as he fell for a duck against Odisha yesterday. In Sambalpur, Sehwag lasted just three balls before being caught by Abhilash Mallick of Suryakant Pradhan. Delhi ended the day at 268-6. — IANS
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