When Gandhe-Wasu triggered Rajasthan collapse

Hemant Wasu Pritam Gandhe Usman Ghani

By Anupam Soni :

ON THE last day of 1992, the right-left combination of offie Pritam Gandhe and orthodox Hemant Wasu, who turned the ball in opposite directions, hunted in pair as they made Rajasthan batsmen dance to their tunes helping Vidarbha secure a comfortable victory. At one stage, the visitors were going strong and in pursuit of 277 for a win were 172 for the loss of just one wicket. But as the ball got older, the tweakers weaved magic in tandem rushing through to take the last nine wickets for 59 runs. They bowled an immaculate line and length to suffocate the batsmen.

Among the last eight batters, only one could reach double digits as the duo prevented batsmen from settling down. Vidarbha were playing Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy Central Zone League match at VCA Civil Lines ground on last four days of December 1992. Chasing a tricky target, Rajasthan were cruising along. Openers Parminder Singh (108) and VS Yadav (31) gave the team the kind of start they were looking for.

The pair added 113 runs for the opening wicket. Next in AK Sinha (37) continued from where Yadav left and the two were looking fluent as they took the team to 172. It was one of those occasions when the spinning duo of Gandhe (5-74) and left-armer Wasu (4-72) hunted in pair. They gave Rajasthan telling blows at frequent intervals helping Vidarbha record a comfortable 45-run win. The last nine wickets fell for the addition of 59 runs. Gandhe gave the opening Vidarbha were looking for by cleaning up Yadav. Singh and Sinha continued to frustrate Vidarbha putting up 59 runs for the second wicket. But Manoj Gogte catching Sinha off Wasu triggered the collapse. Gandhe ran through the middle-order while Wasu picked three more including the scalp of only centurion of the match. When Singh was castled by Wasu it signalled beginning of the end. “Once the key wickets fell we were all charged up. I cleaned up centurion Parvinder and Pritam was excellent from the other end.

After Parvinder was out the match turned in our favour. Yogesh Ghare also batted well in the second innings,” Wasu recalled. Gandhe, who triggered the collapse, revealed the strategy. “Parvinder was playing well. I remember runs were coming from one end and I suggested we restrict Parvinder by not allowing him singles on last ball of the over. Our plan worked but Parvinder played some big shots and scored quickly. We planned not to get him out but attack from other end. We did not allow the later batsmen to settle down as we attacked from both ends,” said Gandhe.

Another star performer of the match Usman Ghani stressed that Vidarbha were a very balanced one but also lamented that the team could not play more knock-outs in those days. “They started (the chase) off well. Yadav would consume time as well as had a solid defence while Parminder was an attacking player. Yadav held one end while the latter played his dominating game. They had some other good players like Sinha, Joshi and Krishnakumar but that day only Sinha scored some runs while all others failed. They were not balanced like us. We were very unfortunate that we could not play more knock-out matches in those years. “We had very good all-rounders. In those days, Central Zone was the toughest to qualify from. All the other zones generally had only two good teams while we had Railways UP, MP and Rajasthan, all very competitive teams,” said Ghani.

Earlier, when Vidarbha skipper Praveen Hinganikar decided to bat first, Ghani (94) missed out on what would have been his second First-Class hundred. He and Wasu (79) stitched an important sixth wicket partnership that yielded 172 runs. With the help of 42 bonus runs, Vidarbha made 338. Seamer Shamsher Singh (5-72) was pick of the Rajasthan bowlers. “I have been out in 80s and 90s for about nine occasions but still I was happy that the team won. It was a good sporting pitch and had something for everybody. Seamers who were ready to bend their back got support, it helped the spinners later while it was good for strokeplay also,” said Ghani. “We had a collapse (in first innings) but Wasu was in prime form that season and we talked to each other and had good partnership. I got out when they took the second new ball to Shamsher Singh,” he added. “Usman did extremely well in that game.

I had a good partnership with him in the first innings when were in doldrums. That was a good wicket, both seamer and spinners got wickets,” said Wasu, who had an excellent match with both bat and ball. Rajasthan openers Yadav (62) and Singh (40) and number four Vilas Joshi (86) got some runs as the team replied with 266. Gandhe and Wasu snared three and two wickets respectively while Trevor Gonsalves, Rajesh Gawande and Hinganikar chipped in with one apiece. Vidarbha’s second innings score of 204 was built largely around middle-order batsman Yogesh Ghare’s composed 74 and opener Gogte’s crucial 45 as the hosts set a target of 277 runs for Rajasthan.

“We wanted to win this game to qualify for the knock-outs. But in those days there were some peculiar point systems in place that robbed us of one point and we could not move up. What I recollect today is that we needed to bundle them out inside 150 but as we could not we lost one crucial point. “We celebrated that we have made it to the knock-outs but at about eight in the night we were informed that we did not qualify. It was a golden chance and it felt very bad. In fact, it was December 31 but we did not enjoy the night. I still remember, I could not sleep the entire night. It was very unfortunate. We had a very good team and we were always trying to play the knock-outs. A sad part of my career is I have never played a knock-out match,” Wasu groaned.

Match: Vidarbha vs Rajasthan Ranji Trophy Central Zone League match played at VCA Civil Lines ground in December 1992.

Result: Vidarbha won by

45 runs.

Highlights

n Vidarbha all-rounder Hemant Wasu made 96 runs and took six wickets in the match. His highest First-Class score is 190 while the best bowling figure in an innings are 7-102. He collected seven five-wkt hauls in his 48-match career.

n Pritam Gandhe went on pick 340 First-Class wickets from exactly 100 games. He had 19 five-wkt hauls and four ten-wkt match hauls. He also picked two hat-tricks.

— Dilip Singh Upring

The Hitavada Scoreboard

VIDARBHA 1ST INNINGS: M Gogte c Asgar Baig b S Singh 18, P Hinganikar c S Singh b Rathore 7, S Kulkarni c A Sinha b Shamsher Singh 8, S Gujar lbw b Aslam 22, Y Ghare c Rathore b S Singh 13, U Ghani c Baig b S Singh 94, H Wasu b Rathore 79, R Gawande Not Out 10, H Huddar lbw b Rathore 4, P Gandhe b S Singh 6, T Gonsalves c Yadav b Rathore 7. Extras: (b 6, lb 12, w 4, nb 6) 28. Bonus Runs: 42. TOTAL: (All out; 92.4 overs) 338. FoW: 1-17, 2-40, 3-48, 4-73, 5-93, 6-265, 7-265, 8-272, 9-281. Bowling: Rathore 22.4-2-61-4, P Singh 6-0-23-0, S Singh 24-2-72-5, Krishnakumar 15-2-51-0, Aslam 21-6-51-1, Chaturvedi 4-0-20-0. RAJASTHAN 1ST INNINGS: V Yadav c Kulkarni b Gawande 62, P Singh lbw b Gandhe 40, A Sinha c Kulkarni b Wasu 9, V Joshi c Hinganikar b Gandhe 86, L Chaturvedi run out 2, R Kanwat b Gandhe 1, PK Krishnakumar c Gandhe b Gonsalves 27, M Aslam lbw b Wasu 19, R Rathore c Gandhe b Hinganikar 5, S Singh retired hurt 2, A Baig Not Out 0. Extras: (w 1, nb 1, b 1, lb 10) 13. TOTAL: (All out, 102.5 overs) 266. FoW: 1-70, 2-91, 3-145, 4-161, 5-162, 6-217, 7-238, 8-243, 9-266. Bowling: Gonsalves 7-1-34-1, Gawande 13-6-24-1, Hinganikar 17-7-41-1, Gandhe 34-11-100-3, Wasu 21.5-6-38-2, Huddar 8-4-14-0, Ghani 2-0-4-0. VIDARBHA 2ND INNINGS: M Gogte c Sinha b Aslam 45, P Hinganikar b P rvinder Singh 10, S Kulkarni c Sinha b Rathore 14, S Gujar c Yadav b Rathore 0, Y Ghare c Joshi b Chaturvedi 74, U Ghani c Joshi b Chaturvedi 6, P Gandhe c Kanwat b Chaturvedi 1, H Wasu c sub b Krishnakumar 17, T Gonsalves b Krishnakumar 19, R Gawande c sub b Krishnakumar 2, H Huddar Not Out 0. Extras: (w 2, nb 4, b 9, lb 1) 16. TOTAL (All out, 56.2 overs) 204. FoW: 1-26, 2-49, 3-51, 4-136, 5-147, 6-153, 7-180, 8-191, 9-203. Bowling: Rathore 16-2-59-2, P Singh 12-3-32-1, Krishnakumar 10-2-40-3, Aslam 9-1-28-1, Chaturvedi 9-0-35-3. RAJASTHAN 2ND INNINGS: V Yadav b Gandhe 31, P Singh b Wasu 108, A Sinha c Gogte b Wasu 37, V Joshi c sub b Gandhe 5, R Kanwat c Gawande b Gandhe 3, L Chaturvedi c Gogte b Gandhe 4, PK Krishnakumar c Ghani b Gandhe 4, M Aslam run out 8, R Rathore c&b Wasu 12, S Singh c Kulkarni b Wasu 2, A Baig Not Out 2. Extras: (nb 2, b 12, lb 1) 15. TOTAL (All out, 90.1 overs) 231. Fall of Wickets: 1-113, 2-172, 3-187, 4-191, 5-203, 6-203, 7-214, 8-215, 9-222. Bowling: Gonsalves 2-0-28-0, Gawande 2-0-6-0, Hinganikar 5-0-20-0, Gandhe 39-13-74-5, Wasu 35.1-11-72-4, Huddar 7-1-18-0. n