Baba Aparajith put South Zone in a commanding position with a determined century. He took the measure of the conditions and the situation and paced his innings to set-up the game for his team in the quarter-final against Central Zone with 113 off 105 balls.
Coming to the crease at 32/1 he held the innings together. He soon found an able ally in Karun Nair and the pair changed the momentum of the innings after a slow start. Speaking about the crucial 124-run partnership for the fourth wicket, Aparajith credited Nair for his guidance.
“When Karun came in he guided me well. He told me, even if you don’t get runs for one or two overs it is not a problem. We will stay on the wicket and play normal, good cricket and runs will take care of themselves.”
“He is a player, who once he gets set, will score runs easily and can easily clear the field. So for the first 20 -25 balls he was just batting and after that the pace of flow of runs changed and we started getting runs. In a ten-over period in between we got more than 60 runs I think,” he added.
Speaking about his own knock in the quarter-final game at Wankhede, the top-order batsman said, “It was a good knock. It was a challenging wicket to play on because in the morning it (the wicket) was doing a bit. (But) once the first spell got through (we did well). Everybody chipped in well. The first 15 overs was very important because both their fast bowlers were bowling well.”
“In Mumbai the first one hour is always difficult because it’s a bit damp, there is moisture in the wicket and after one hour once you get set it is very good to bat on actually. There is good bounce and you can always trust the bounce and bat,” he elaborated.
When, asked about the pressure he faced given the situation, he said, “I didn’t put myself under pressure. Whether it is one down or two down or whichever number, my job is to bat according to the situation and the wicket.”
Talking about pacing his innings the SZ batsman replied, “I was hitting a lot of boundaries at good intervals. Every two overs I think I was getting a boundary. Against the spinners I was finding it easier to get boundaries because for the fast bowlers it was doing a bit.”
Speaking about the confidence he had gained from playing a significant role in the victory, he said, “It is a very important knock not only from my side. The bowling department did really well. Everybody chipped in. As a fielding unit also we did really well, so we are gelling as a team.”
