Chennai, Jan 22: Claiming a four-for on the batsman-friendly Chepauk track, Rajasthan’s Rituraj Singh helped wrap up Tamil Nadu’s first innings for 295 in the ongoing Ranji Trophy final. The pacer, who made his Ranji Trophy debut against Saurashtra during the league phase of the tournament, is emerging as a key player for the soon to be two-time champions. In his interaction with the media at the end of Day 4, the bowler credited captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar for his success and appreciated the inputs from bowling partner Pankaj Singh.
Excerpts from the end of day press conference:
On the journey so far
It has been a pleasant journey. We have worked really hard. Off-season I have worked with MRF Pace Foundation so it has been a really pleasant journey for me.
On what he did differently from the Tamil Nadu bowlers
I was just focussing on my line and length. The wicket was on the slower side so I was trying to be accurate rather than pacy. I guess that was the main plus [that I can credit to] captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar. He told me to concentrate on just line and length and dot balls, that’s it.
On the decision to not enforce the follow on
We were tired, the wicket was not [conducive to] fast bowling and we were playing with three seamers and a spinner. We were a bit tired but looking forward to whatever happened in the game next.
On his bowling
I guess the strategy was to bowl full rather than a bit short and to get the batsman to cut or pull. We would rather have the batsman drive because then we have a definite chance. That’s what we did. That was the team strategy, bowling full on a track which did not support fast bowlers. The ball was holding a bit and it was doing something off the track so the only chance we had was bowling full.
On not playing the quarter-final match
My debut was against Saurashtra and I took a six wicket-haul against Orissa. Not playing the quarter-finals was not [surprising] because that track really needed two fast bowlers and two spinners. It is a team game and you cannot [expect to be picked just for] personal satisfaction. Whatever decision was taken by [coach] Amit Asava and [captain] Hrishida was really good. […]
On bowling with Pankaj Singh
It’s very necessary to hunt in pairs and bowl in tandem. [When] two batsman are batting, you need to form a partnership. In the same way you need to form a partnership in bowling. Pankaj Singh has been brilliant throughout the season […]. We really complement each other. He bowls quick [and] he is pacy and he supports me in the middle. He tells me what [I] am doing wrong and right. The best support I have in the middle is my skipper; he has faith in me. Rather than being in the slips, he [fields] at mid-off and tells me what to do and what not to. We are hunting in pairs so that’s good […].
On the importance of winning the toss
Battles are not won by tosses; battles are won by playing hard in the middle. Being non-favourites [and] playing against Tamil Nadu, [who are a] big opposition, […] we were looking forward to bat as much as we could. We were just batting to our potential [and] that’s what we did.
On the game plan
Cricket is a game which is as simple as you keep it […]. That’s what we feel. We were playing normal cricketing shots, nothing flashy. Normal cricket was the game plan, I would say. We had a target that we wanted to achieve so till the time we achieved the target, we would not have declared.
