Why Mumbai will fear Love Ablish now

Born into a family with no cricketing background whatsoever, Love Ablish still decided to pass up the traditional family footwear-manufacturing business in Ludhiana for cricket.

Why Mumbai will fear Love Ablish now

Born into a family with no cricketing background whatsoever, Love Ablish still decided to pass up the traditional family footwear-manufacturing business in Ludhiana for cricket.

And when he did well at his best-loved game, the Punjab medium pacer decided to take another gamble: Defecting to the rebel Indian Cricket League while still doing very well for his state team (Punjab Cricket Association).

"It was a wave and I simply followed it," he says of his move in 2007. But now, two years later and back in the Punjab fold, the 26-year-old doesn't regret his move. "I am a firm believer that whatever happens, happens for the best. So, I don't regret having taken that chance. All that matters to me is performance."

And performances he is certainly piling up. For, it was only because of a sterling performance from Ablish that Punjab were able to restrict Mumbai to a modest 244 for seven in defence of their 259 on Day Two of their five-day Elite Division Ranji Trophy Group A encounter at the Sector 16 Stadium yesterday.

Ablish picked up the wickets of openers Wasim Jaffer (4) and Sahil Kukreja (90) and also those of Ajinkya Rahane (6) and Rohit Sharma (25). All four batsmen have a reputation of scoring big hundreds and Ablish knows these scalps will be crucial.

"The four wickets that I have taken are the most dangerous names on the domestic circuit. Once they get in, they ensure they play a big knock," he observes after a spell of 15-2-45-4. And that is the reason Mumbai are struggling after doing a fantastic job of restricting the hosts on the first day. With four big wickets in the season-opener, Ablish has now trained his guns for the rest of the season. His success mantra is performance and performance alone.u00a0 "The good thing is that I have managed to be consistent. Even when I had defected to the ICL, I single-handedly sealed matches for Chandigarh Lions on many occasions. I am certain my performances, even if they were for an ICL team, did not go unnoticed."

He loves to make his performances count and defending champions Mumbai have surely been hurt.

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