When Gandhe proved his point with a hat-trick
| Date :28-Apr-2020 |
Pritam Gandhe
By Anupam Soni :
CRICKET sometimes can be cruel. As a spin bowler one might be getting enough purchase from the wicket, but not the edges from the opponent’s bats; one might beat the batsmen umpteen number of times without any success, then there are a few dropped catches, some missed stumping chances and the bowler returns with not much to show in the fourth column of his statistics. And if some members from the team and the team management, instead of standing behind the “strike bowler”, try to rub a pinch of salt on those scars, one is bound to feel hurt. But it is this fire that refines gold. In a Vidarbha versus Rajasthan Central Zone Ranji Trophy match that was played at Indira Gandhi Stadium in Alwar in December 1993, the hosts, who had a strong batting line-up, decided to bat.
After seamer Rajesh Gawande removed both the openers, Rajasthan’s Rajesh Sanghi and skipper Pravin Amre were batting very well. “It was a hard and dry wicket. I was bowling very well and getting good turn from the wicket (on the first day itself). Soon, I got rid of the dangerman Amre but even after my sincere efforts, I could not get any other wicket in that innings. Some edges flew past the fielders, a couple of chances were floored and I think a stumping chance was also missed,” recalled offie Pritam Gandhe. Left-arm orthodox Manish Dosi took four wickets as Rajasthan were restricted to 264 in the first innings and Vidarbha were 23 without loss in reply by end of the opening day.
Vidarbha openers Umakant Phate (63) and Sadashiv Iyer (50) gave the team a solid start putting on 92 runs. But as the ball got older, Vidarbha lost wickets in a heap and were all out for 261. Conceding a slender three-run lead to the opponents made a member of the team management furious. Though it was fault of the batsmen, Gandhe was singled out for some unknown reasons. “Pritam was our strike bowler. In the last match against Uttar Pradesh (at the Ordnance Equipment Factory Ground) in Kanpur, he returned without a wicket. That might be the reason of outburst against him,” the then skipper Sameer Gujar remembered.
However, in the same match, the bowling all-rounder Gandhe, coming at number seven, had top-scored for the side with a well-compiled 78 from 170 balls hitting 12 fours. “I did not understand why I was being singled out as primarily it was the duty of the batsmen to get those runs. But the entire episode fired me up. I told my skipper that I will prove myself in the second innings,” said Gandhe. In their second effort, Rajasthan openers raced to 80. But once Gujar introduced Gandhe, the bowler soon scripted history. He became the first Vidarbha bowler to take a hat-trick in First-Class cricket. “I cleaned up Gagan Khoda on the fifth ball and on the next one bowled Amre.
On first ball of the next over I had Sanju Mudkavi lbw. It was a split hat-trick. And frankly speaking I did not know then that it was considered as a hat-trick,” said Gandhe. “All of the wickets were those of quality batsmen. Amre and Khoda were as good as Test players and Mudkavi was an experienced batsman. He was a known ‘khadoos’ and had the ability to play long on these types of wickets. With three wickets in a row, Gandhe brought us back into the match as all of us were dejected after conceding the lead,” added Gujar. Gandhe went on to pick five more in the innings to finish with remarkable figures of 41.5-12-61-8. But his contribution in the match was not over.
Chasing a target of 212 runs, Vidarbha were reeling at 5-152 on the fourth day pitch that was aiding the spinners. Gandhe (26 not out) added crucial runs first with Usman Ghani (27) and then with Dosi (2 not out) to help the team romp home with four wickets to spare. Six points from the game put Vidarbha in contention for a place in the knock-outs. Gandhe kept fire in the belly burning and took nine wickets (3-34 & 6-76) in the fourth and last league match that was played against Railways at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur. Vidarbha recorded another outright win (by six wickets) and for the first time since 17 years, qualified for the knock-outs. Gandhe, later in his career, picked one more hat-trick. He removed Services batsmen Amiya Mohanty, Shuvra Karmakar and Pankaj Kumar in three consecutive balls at Palam A Ground in Delhi in 2008-09 season.
Match: Vidarbha vs Rajasthan 1993-94.
Personal Best: First
hat-trick for Vidarbha by Pritam Gandhe. His best
bowling figure in an innings of Ranji Trophy
(8-61).
(Best figure for Vidarbha in an innings still stands in the name of Arun Ogiral (8-39) which he recorded in 1967-68 vs Madhya Pradesh.)
Result: Vid won the match by four wickets.
Highlights: Only four hat-tricks for Vidarbha till date— two by Gandhe and one each by Umesh Yadav and Rajneesh Gurbani.
Vidarbha entered knock-outs (PQF) and played against Maharashtra at Nagpur (lost by 8 wkts).
Stats:
Dilip Singh Upring
The Hitavada Scoreboard
RAJASTHAN 1ST INNINGS: V Yadav c Iyer b Gawande 16, G Khoda lbw b Gawande 39, R Sanghi c Phate b Dosi 68, P Amre c Iyer b Gandhe 34, S Mudkavi c Gujar b Dosi 28, A Sinha c Ghare b Dosi 21, Parminder Singh c Phate b Janghare 20, G Gopal run out 0, R Rathore c Gandhe b Janghare 19, Shamsher Singh c Boddalu b Dosi 10, R Sharma Not Out 0. Extras: (b 7, lb 2) 9. TOTAL: (All out, 88.3 overs) 264. FoW: 1-36, 2-71, 3-142, 4-184, 5-211, 6-218, 7-218, 8-239, 9-264. Bowling: Gawande 18-4-37-2, Hingnikar 9-1-27-0, Boddalu 7-0-46-0, Gandhe 25-6-66-1, Janghare 9-0-35-2, Dosi 20.3-5-44-4. VIDARBHA 1ST INNINGS: S Iyer c P Singh b Mudkavi 50, US Phate run out 63, P Hingnikar c Amre b Sanghi 17, S Gujar b Rathore 31, Y Ghare c Gopal b Rathore 19, U Ghani lbw b Rathore 30, P Gandhe lbw b Mudkavi 1, M Dosi lbw b Sharma 0, R Gawande c Amre b Sharma 17, N Janghare Not Out 8, V Boddalu b Rathore 6. Extras: (b 10, lb 8, w 1) 19. TOTAL: (All out, 95.2 overs) 261. FoW: 1-92, 2-119, 3-158, 4-183, 5-189, 6-194, 7-203, 8-240, 9-253. Bowling: Rathore 18.2-5-50-4, S Singh 9-2-27-0, Sharma 24-5-64-2, Mudkavi 37-11-79-2, Sanghi 5-0-20-1, P Singh 1-0-1-0, Khoda 1-0-2-0. RAJASTHAN 2ND INNINGS: V Yadav Not Out 80, G Khoda b Gandhe 35, R Sanghi c Ghare b Gandhe 20, P Amre b Gandhe 1, S Mudkavi lbw b Gandhe 0, A Sinha b Gandhe 10, P Singh c Ghare b Dosi 29, G Gopal lbw b Gujar 15, R Rathore c Ghare b Gandhe 9, S Singh b Gandhe 0, R Sharma lbw b Gandhe 2. Extras: (b 2, lb 2, w 3) 7. TOTAL: (All out, 107.5 overs) 208. FoW: 1-80,
2-82, 3-84, 4-84, 5-112, 6-162, 7-185, 8-200, 9-202. Bowling: Gawande 11-1-28-0, Hingnikar 6-3-13-0, Boddalu 12-2-28-0, Gandhe 41.5-12-61-8, Janghare 4-0-15-0, Dosi 32-6-56-1, Gujar 1-0-3-1. VIDARBHA 2ND INNINGS: (target: 212 runs) S Iyer c Sanghi b Rathore 32, U Phate lbw b P Singh 53, P Hingnikar c Amre b Sharma 22, S Gujar c S Singh b Mudkavi 25, Y Ghare c sub (S Sharma) b Mudkavi 9, U Ghani lbw b Mudkavi 27, P Gandhe Not Out 26, M Dosi Not Out 2. Extras: (b 1, lb 1, nb 6) 8. TOTAL: (6 wickets, 70.1 overs) 212. FoW: 1-53, 2-91, 3-137, 4-149, 5-152, 6-198. Bowling: Rathore 18-3-57-1, S Singh 2-1-4-0, Sharma 15-3-54-1, Mudkavi 24-4-54-3, Sanghi 1-0-5-0, P Singh 9-2-25-1, Amre 1-0-2-0, Sinha 0.1-0-1-0.
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