Former Test star Sandeep Patil says England paid the price for being too negative on the abrasive Motera strip; compares the Test to Mumbai’s 1984-85 Ranji Trophy final quarter-final against Haryana
Former Test batsman Sandeep Patil
The 22-yard strip rolled out for the just-concluded two-day, Test match will be a topic of discussion long after the dust settles in the India v England series.
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The team that adjusted best to the abrasive Ahmedabad surface came out trumps so India’s win can be termed as somewhat well-deserved.
Former Test batsman Sandeep Patil felt that England were too defensive in their approach and would have been better off had their batsmen showed more intent to score runs rather than scratch around. “I feel they were very defensive in their approach and thought about the pitch too much. You have to attempt to score runs because that is going to make a difference especially in a low-scoring game,” Patil told mid-day.com.
Patil was also part of such a scenario before leading Mumbai to victory over Haryana in the 1984-85 Ranji Trophy quarter-final at Faridabad.
“At least, there was a pitch in Ahmedabad. At Faridabad, there was no such thing,” he said in tongue in cheek fashion.
“This Test match reminded me of that game. It was Sanjay Manjrekar’s Ranji debut and Haryana had two spinners to exploit the conditions – off-spinner Sarkar Talwar and left-arm spinner Rajinder Goel,” recalled Patil, who was leading a Mumbai side without Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri, all of whom on India duty in Australia, featuring in the World Championship of Cricket.
Haryana, led by Ravinder Chadha did not have the services of India players Kapil Dev and Ashok Malhotra.
Patil lost the toss and Haryana put up a competitive 223 thanks to half-centuries from opener Ashwini Kumar and Satya Dev. Mumbai’s off-spinner Kiran Mokashi claimed 6-66.
Mumbai managed only 195 and would have been deeper in the trenches had debutant Manjrekar (top score of 57) and Chandrakant Pandit (39) not put on 66 for the fifth wicket
Talwar returned figures of 7-107 while Goel, who opened the bowling with Rakesh Jolly, claimed 3-59.
When Mokashi injured his ankle, Patil took on the bowling responsibilities with his medium pace along with left-arm spinner Ravi Thakkar. Their four-wicket hauls helped dismiss Haryana for 148 and Mumbai were set a victory target of 177.
Openers Lalchand Rajput and Ghulam Parkar provided a fine start but both fell to Goel and Talwar respectively when the total reached 94. Patil used his punitive blade to slam 59. In that one-hour stint at the crease, he clubbed Talwar for a six in addition to his six fours. One-drop Shishir Hattangadi (who had scored 27 in the first innings), kept him company in an unbroken 83-run partnership for Mumbai to win by eight wickets.
“Sandeep took Haryana by storm. He felt attacking them was the only way to win the game. He just didn’t allow the ball to land. He decided to take on Talwar while I was told to take care of Goel. It was a bizarre game,” said Hattangadi.
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