The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
It takes just three to beat Karnataka
Yet again, Tamil Nadu pace trio makes optimum use of the conditions to beat bitter rivals in two days
In the build-up to this season's Ranji grind, Tamil Nadu coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar decided to take the probables to the picturesque hill station of Dehradun, some 3,000 kilometres from Chennai, the fulcrum of Tamil Nadu cricket. It was a perfect getaway, an escape as much from the notoriously muggy October weather as the chaotic buzz of the city, where also hangs over the heads an oppressive sceptre of underachievement each time a pre-season camp begins. It also gave Kanitkar, who wasn’t quite acquainted with the players, the opportunity to assess some of the youngsters in the squad.
He was instantly impressed by a skinny youngster, who had been raved about in the just-concluded Tamil Nadu Premier League. But apart from the hype he generated in the T20 league, the coach had little inkling of his craft, and he's prudent enough to realise that success in T20s wouldn't necessarily guarantee similar rewards in First-class cricket.
Ifany,itwaswithacloudofscepticismthat Kanitkar first watched K Vignesh in the nets. But the coach binned all doubts about the 22year-old, whose face still bears traces of adolescentinnocence,almostinstantly.heimmediately scrawled his name down in the imaginaryteamsheet."hisrhythm,hisaction, the ease with which he could generate certain amountofpace.that’swhatilikedabouthim," says Kanitkar.
It was not a mere hunch, but accumulated judgement shaped by nearly two decades of domestic cricket. Duly, Vignesh was in the team sheet for the season opener against Mumbai.theyoungsterfromambattur,anondescript suburb of Chennai, instantly justified Kanitkar'swisdom.itmusthavebeenthelushness of the Lahli surface that prompted his inclusion as the fourth seamer, but he displayed no nerves, skinning through the Mumbai batting line-up to snare a five-for on debut. He took four more in the second innings to herald his arrival in domestic cricket.
But still, doubts lingered about his ability to bargain wickets on surface less friendly than the Lahli-types. It took him just three more matches to prove he's not a green-track bully. On a placid surface in Raipur, he scythed through Baroda, picking up his second five-for. Followed four-wicket hauls in Rajkot and Nagpur, both traditionally slow turners with negligible swing and zip. The tour de force was perhaps his four-for in the second innings in Vizag, for the sheer context of the match and the quality of the opposition batsmen. He nailed Kaunian Abbas, who was stitching up a useful partnership of 61 with KL Rahul. His wicket triggered an implosion, from which Karnataka never recovered. The protagonist of the implosion was Vignesh himself, accounting for Manish Pandey (0), Shreyas Gopal and Karun Nair in a lengthy spell that read 12-1-43-4.
Apart from Pandey's dismissal, when the ball spat awkwardly from a good-length area, allhiswicketswereplannedandplottedtoperfection. "It was the usual length which I bowl, I bowl back of a length but the ball kicked in. It was rising from a length. It was unexpected that he edged it or gloved it. I had not planned on it," Vignesh reflects after the match.
He also seamlessly switched roles with left-arm seamer T Natarajan, depending on the batsman. Against a well-set KL Rahul, he deployedamoredefensiveline,whileleft-arm seamer Natarajan attacked him from the other end. It was a deliberate strategy, as he later explains: "Rahul came with a different plan of placing the ball to third man, it was really difficult to pick initially. The lengths we were bowling, this wicket was assisting back-oflength bowling, but he countered it really well and was playing to the third-man region. We had fields but still couldn't exploit it there. So l came up with a different plan, tried to bowl tight to him and then attack the batsmen at the other end."
However, there were also times when he laboured for wickets, but was always quick to make the adequate adjustments and realise that medium pacers, especially someone who relies on swing and seam rather than outright pace, don't always gets immediate dues. "You can never say it's easy. Every wicket is difficult for me to get," says Vignesh, who tops Tamil Nadu's bowling charts with 37 wickets, at 19.83 runs apiece.
He has been the perfect antithesis in Natarajan. Unlike Vignesh, Natarajan bowls yorkersatwhimandcanwhipupdecentpace. Hehasanuncanny,quick-armactionandsupple wrists that can snap through 90 degrees at thepointofrelease,reminiscentofbangladesh seamer Mustafizur Rahman. Natarajan couldn't stop giggling when someone brought up this comparison during a press conference inhis highly prolific TNPL stint. "I felt happy for it,butatthesametime,ididn'ttakeitseriously because Mustafizur is someone who has represented his country at a very young age and performedwellattheinternationallevel.ihave a long way to go before being compared with such a great bowler," was his shy reply.
TN’S own “Fizz”
Butwhatprobablyescapedhimwasthatit wasnotonlyanidenticalactionthatprompted this comparison, but a similar backstory. Like Mustafizur who hails from a dotty village in the remote Sathkira district, Natarajan is from Chinnappampatti,avillageinsalem,some300 kilometres from Chennai. His father Thangarasu is a daily-wage labourer in a saree factory, his mother runs a wayside-tea shop. He hadn't watched any cricket on TV, for his family couldn't afford one. He never wore shoes until he became a popular tennis-ball playerinthedistrict.andtill20,hehadn'teven touched a leather ball. Like Mustafizur, whose brother pillion-rode him for 40-odd kilometresfortraining,natarajanhadanunderstanding neighbour, Jayaprakash, who supported him through every phase of his career.
Worse still, finally when he got all the right breaks and made his Ranji debut, against West Bengal early last year, and shone with a three-wicket haul, he was reported for a suspect action, one among the 177 to be reported last year.
That was a time when he deliberated on quitting the sport altogether, only to be dissuaded by close friends. For nearly a year, he was almost invisible, not even playing regularly in the TNCA first division. But in this TNPL, he made a terrific comeback, like a blast from the past, with a realigned action and a retooled skillset. He impressed several of Tamil Nadu's senior players such as Abhinav Mukund, who he stupefied in a TNPL match. Abhinav's team, Albert Tuti Patriots, required 13 runs in the last over. At the other end was another promising batsmen, Washington Sundar. Natarajan fired in six searing yorkers. Abhinav and Sundar had to contend with just five singles. The Tamil Nadu selectors, too, were left impressed and he was summoned back to the team. He has made a massive difference, with 23 wickets at 29 each.
The fairytale doesn't end there, he believes. It has just begun, he says, and the climax shall be reached only if he breaks into the Indian team. "That's my dream," he says. There's a fire within him, feels Kanitkar, but for the while he is helping his domestic team keep the dream of winning a Ranji title after 18 years alive.
BRIEFSCORES:KARNATAKA88&150(KLRAHUL
77; Vignesh 4/53, Natarajan 3/40) lost to Tamil Nadu 152 & 87/3 (Dinesh Karthik 41 not out) by 7 wickets.