Saritaben’s hard yards finally paying off
Sunrisers Hyderabad Rasid Khan
Andrew Tye Jofra Archer Imran Tahir Dwayne Bravo Ish Sodhi PATIALA: Seven years ago, only a few households in Ahawa village, about 250km from Surat, had access to electricity, and Saritaben Gayakwad’s family was not among the lucky few. Her father, a poor farmer, sent Saritaben and her siblings to a nearby hostel so that they could focus on academics. “We didn’t even have the resources to apply for an electricity connection,” said Saritaben,
On Saturday, after winning the women’s 400m hurdles gold in the Federation Cup, clocking 57.21 seconds - a meet record - and securing a berth in the Asian Championships-bound squad, Saritaben was happy she’d given her family something to cheer.
“I developed a liking for sports in the hostel. Initially, I became interested in kho-kho, which was played regularly during leisure t i me. I al s o pl ayed a bi t of kabaddi.” But in 2012, her focus shifted to athletics after she won a sprint event during a state meet. “I received a cash award of ~25,000, which motivated me to pursue the sport,” said Saritaben.
On Saturday, her gold-winning effort was better than the qualifying time of 57.50 sec. “I’ve worked hard for this medal and will continue to work towards my goal of a podium finish in Doha Asian Championships,” she added. Last year, Saritaben was a member of the quartet that won the 4x400m relay gold at the Asian Games, but the feat didn’t “satisfy” her. “That was a team effort. I like winning individual gold. That’ll be my goal in Doha.”
Saritaben might be enjoying a dream run, but two years back she wasn’t in contention for even a relay team berth. “I was a standby during the 2017 Asian Championship and it hurt. The coaches had no trust in me, but I never gave up.”
This year, Saritaben, who is employed with the Income Tax department, hopes to give something back to her parents. “A podium finish at the Asian Championships will be the perfect gift. They have sacrificed so much for me. We still live in the same old house. I have saved some prize money, which I will utilise for the construction of a new house.
“I have overcome so many hurdles in life that I find the track hurdles much easier to clear.” Last year, Sunrisers’ economy rate in the last five overs was 8.91rpo, easily the lowest for any team in the competition, and three runs-per-over better than the worst side in the league, Royal Challengers Bangalore. With the key performers still at the franchise (Bhuvneshwar, Kaul), they hope to build on that strong death overs record with yet more late-innings mastery this season. 11.86 RC B CS K KK R IP M I DD RR
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The make-up of their overseas list means they keep the bulk of their squad for the entireentie tournamenttonment. Williamson, Guptill, Mo ohammed Nabi and Rashid are all around, meaning the rest of the sid de will be essentially the same e throughout - strength of their r overseas roster, already considera ble, is amplified by this.
The variety of yoour attack is crucial in T20 with head-to--head records informing strategy more than ever. Sunrisers boast of one of almost every bowling type: right-arm seam, leeft-arm seam, leg-spin, off-spin, slow-left arm. The only kind they don’t have is left-arma wrist spin, the rarest technique but onee they can do without. The Sunrisers line--up is designed for ruthlessly chasing mid-range totals, and as a consequence is laacking in power hitters later in the order. Yusufy Pathan or Vijay Shankar is likely gooing to be tasked with playing this role, butb neither is as effective as similar players ata other franchises. Mohammad Nabi has had success in other leagues in this rolee but he is unlikely to get into the side aheadd of Shakib, given the Bangladeshi’s IPL experience.e For Sunrisers to really explode inn the last few overs, they’ll need to relyy on maintaining very high dismissal ratees in the middle overs, leaving plenty of wicketsw in hand at the death.
The absence of Shikhar Dhawan does make a difference to thee balance of the side. The fact they have repplaced a domestic world-class opener with an overseas one does skew their rooster in one direction. They now need to select Wriddhiman Saha or Manish Pandey as an opener in all likelihood, weakenning a strength - overperformance ffrom one of those two is fundamental for Sunrisers to balance the side. PATIALA: Setting the bar high, it seems, has become second nature of Tamil Nadu’s international 400m hurdler Ayyasamy Dharun. On Saturday, the Asian Games silver medallist improved his national record of 48.96 seconds, posting 48.80 sec, on the second day of the Federation Cup. His gold-winning time was better than the Asian Championships qualifying standard of 50 sec.
The 21-year-old said, “I had a target of 49 sec in mind but felt good after the 200m mark, so decided to push hard. When I glanced at the screen, I was surprised. I feel I am on the right track for World Championships in September.”
Besides Dharun, Kerala’s Jabir MP, who finished second with a time of 49.53 sec,
INDIAN OVERSEAS DEATH OVERS ECONOMY RATE - 2018 IPL
11 10.4 10.4 9.6 9.53 9.47 8.91 also made the cut for Asian Championships.
However, there was disappointment for Jinson Johnson who missed the Doha meet qualification time of 1:48.00 sec in men’s 800m. His winning time was 1:49.48 sec. Jakarta Asian Games 800m champion Manjit Singh of Haryana too had an off day as he missed the podium, finishing eighth and last. The women’s 800m race saw India’s top two runners — Gomathi Marimuthu (Tamil Nadu) and Twinkle Chaudhary (Punjab) finish the race in that order to earn a place in the Dohabound squad.
As expected, Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand clinched gold in women’s 200m, timing 23.35 sec.
In men’s triple jump, Praveen Chithravel (Tamil Nadu) won gold with a leap of 16.51 metres.