Sai Kishore revealed that a tip from M.S. Dhoni over five years ago helped him become a better bowler, even though he didn’t understand it then.

The 29-year-old scalped six for 34, including a hat-trick against Uttarakhand in the second innings, to bowl Tamil Nadu to an innings victory over Uttarakhand in their Ranji Trophy fixture here on Tuesday.

One impressive aspect was how he used the crease and varied his angles, including going wider.

“That was something I picked up during my stint with CSK. Dhoni emphasised it heavily, but back then, I didn’t quite grasp how much he meant. Over the last two years — starting from IPL 2025 — I’ve really begun embracing it. When you bowl from varied crease angles, the ball behaves differently off the deck. I leaned into that, and it’s paying rich dividends,” said Sai Kishore.

From being at the cusp of breaking into the national team, Sai Kishore has fallen off the radar after being ignored for both the Duleep Trophy and the Irani Cup.

When asked whether this performance would help him get back into the limelight, he replied: “Maybe (it might). I didn’t bowl to take a hat-trick. I was just doing my job. When I am very honest to myself and when I am working hard, I think God is giving me all these things.”

“Indian cricket is packed with talent, and to be fair, by my own benchmark, last year wasn’t my best season — even though I still averaged around three to three-and-a-half wickets a game. I take it in my stride, keep my head down, and focus entirely on performing consistently,” said Sai Kishore.

Saurabh Tiwary was one of the hardest hitters of his time, but he reckons he could not have competed with today’s batters.

“I won’t even be in the top 100 when it comes to hitting ability,” Saurabh tells The Hindu with a smile on a hot afternoon at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur.

“Every second batter is hitting so well. Even a 15-year-old boy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, is dominating the IPL today.”

He says cricket has become almost a game of power-hitting. “Not just T20s, but One-Dayers as well,” he said.

“People are getting double hundreds in 43 or 44 overs.”

Saurabh — whose M.S. Dhoni-like long mane also caught the eye as much as big sixes — played three ODIs for India and made a mark at the IPL in its early days, also has an excellent record in First Class cricket, in which he scored more than 8,000 runs (22 hundreds and 34 fifties) at an average of more than 47.

After his career ended a couple of years ago, he moved to administration, taking over as the secretary of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association last year.

“When you have played cricket for 24 years, you know what a cricketer needs, and I have been trying to help the players from Jharkhand,” he said.

“I believe a cricket association comes up from cricketers; it is not a case of cricketers coming up from associations. So I ensure our players are given all the opportunities; since we don’t have facilities, our players, male or female, are free to use the Ranchi stadium whenever they want.”

He wants to achieve as an administrator what he could not as a player. “I have won the Vijay Hazare Trophy, but never the Ranji Trophy or the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy,” he said. “I want Jharkhand to win those tournaments.”

Saurabh has won a bigger trophy, though. He was part of the Indian team that won the under-19 World Cup in 2008 in Malaysia. Among his teammates were Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhinav Mukund and Manish Pandey.

“It was a dream come true, of course, but I was run out in the final (against South Africa),” he said.

“I remember Kohli used to play with the same hunger. If he bats tomorrow, he will play with the same passion. He plays his cricket with so much passion and honesty. Even then he had so much focus and dedication”.

Abhishek P. Nair played his first Ranji Trophy match in circumstances most unusual. He came in as a concussion substitute in the second innings of the match against Saurashtra last year, for opener A.K. Akarsh, who was making his debut.

Abhishek walked in at a difficult time. Kerala needed to bat out time to ensure a draw at Thiruvananthapuram, his hometown. He batted for 87 balls, and Kerala managed to get the draw.

Almost a year later, Abhishek got to play a Ranji match in the conventional way. And he made it count, scoring a magnificent hundred, but Kerala ended day three against Jharkhand in not a very comfortable position.

In reply to the host’s 587, Kerala reached 269 for six. Overtaking that score doesn’t look very likely: not much batting is left. Avoiding the follow-on should be a priority, but that target (436) isn’t easy.

The Jharkhand men indeed have every reason to step on to the field at the Keenan Stadium on Wednesday morning with spring in their steps. They took control after the Kerala top-order looked in command in the first half of the day.

The visitors were 204 for one at one stage, but lost five wickets for an addition of another 45 runs. That, actually, mirrored the Jharkhand innings. The home side, however, staged a splendid fightback through a sixth-wicket stand by captain Virat Singh and Aditya Singh, who both hit hundreds.

Kerala had begun very well though, with Abhishek and Rohan Kunnummal batting with confidence and flair. But Rohan’s unwise and unsure loft towards long-off against Utkarsh Singh proved costly, as he was caught well by Sushant Mishra, running in from the boundary and timing his dive perfectly.

Abhishek, however, continued to bat sensibly even as playing some delectable shots, before he was caught and bowled by left-arm spinner Manishi Singh. Spinners indeed could have a big role to play on the final day.

The scores: Jharkhand — 1st innings: 587.

Kerala — 1st innings: Abhishek P. Nair c & b Manishi 126, Rohan Kunnummal c Sushant b Uktarsh 44, Sachin Baby c Minz b Utkarsh 35, Vishnu Vinod lbw b Quraishi 15, Salman Nizar (batting) 17, Mohammed Azharuddeen c sub (Sagar) b Quraishi 0, Jalaj Saxena lbw b Utkarsh 7, Aditya Sarwate (batting) 13; Extras (b-4, lb-1, w-2, pen-5) 12; Total (for six wkts. in 90 overs): 269.

Fall of wickets: 1-83, 2-204, 3-224, 4-232, 5-232, 6-249.

Jharkhand bowling: Sahil 5-1-11-0, Sushant 7-0-39-0, Manishi 18-3-62-1, Uktarsh 24-5-54-3, Shekhar 6-0-27-0, Quraishi 19-7-38-2, Aditya 11-2-28-0.

Punjab’s Vihaan Malhotra (103, 208b, 11×4) struck a century on First Class debut but it was not enough to dispel Assam’s stake at a first-innings lead on day three of their Ranji Trophy round one match at the New PCA Stadium here.

Evidently a first-innings shoot-off after rain washed out the first day, the contest was turning one-sided when Vihaan took the wheel in a 137-run opening partnership with Harnoor Pannu (54, 132b, 7×4). But Punjab lost five wickets for 100 runs on either side of tea.

Salil Arora and Emanjot Singh Chahal arrested the collapse with a 50-run sixth-wicket partnership, but Punjab was at 287 for five at stumps, still 86 behind.

Both Vihaan and Harnoor were true to their kind — languid, left-handed batters — and plundered the off-side in the morning session.

Harnoor had just slogged Amlanjyoti Das through the on-side, shortly after his 121-ball half-century, when he was caught in two minds on a delivery outside off against Sarupam Purkayastha and edged to the ’keeper.

Vihaan blundered on 95, poking a delivery outside off from Mukhtar Hussain but was dropped by the wicketkeeper. Mukhtar made him play with the angle and got the ball to change line and crash into the off-stump but a no ball check got Vihaan another life on 101.

Sandwiched in between was Uday Saharan’s attacking intent, which was cut short by a lapse in concentration. Shortly after a verbal skirmish with Sibsankar Roy, he was trapped in front off Purkayastha.

There was no let-off a third time as Mukhtar pinned Vihaan with a delivery that came in after pitching. Assam gave away just 42 runs in the time it got Ramandeep Singh run out and Jashanpreet Sidhu leg-before off Amlanjyoti.

With the second new ball just two overs old, Assam will walk out on the fourth morning with its tails up, hoping to find a crack in the nagging sixth-wicket partnership and running through the tail that will follow.

The scores: Assam — 1st innings: 373.

Punjab — 1st innings: Vihaan Malhotra lbw b Mukhtar 103, Harnoor Pannu c Ghadigaonkar b Purkayastha 54, Uday Saharan lbw b Purkayastha 30, Jashanpreet Sidhu lbw b Amlanjyoti 22, Ramandeep Singh (run out) Denish 17, Salil Arora (batting) 25, Emanjot Chahal (batting) 28; Extras (b-1, nb-7): 8; Total (for five wkts. in 96 overs): 287.

Fall of wickets: 1-137, 2-195, 3-195, 4-226, 5-237.

Assam bowling: Mukhtar 23-5-79-1, Dipjyoti 9-2-40-0, Amlanjyoti 25-2-54-1, Purkayastha 18-3-52-2, Mohit 21-2-61-0.

For much of the last two days, the wicket at the Keenan Stadium was a lot flatter than the road from the Ranchi airport to this city of steel. Virat Singh and Aditya Singh showed steely resolve to make use of that batting paradise.

They both scored hundreds, put on a mammoth partnership for the sixth wicket for Jharkhand, and almost batted Kerala out of the Ranji Trophy match. The host’s first innings ended only off the second-last ball of the second day, for 587.

It was indeed a long day in the field for Kerala. That one of its bowlers, seamer Edhen Apple Tom, could not even take the field after getting injured, didn’t help either. It meant more workload for the other bowlers, who were tormented by the sheer grit and patience of Virat (108, 264b, 9×4) and Aditya (147, 278b, 17×4). The duo resumed at the overnight score of 289 for five and remained unseparated at lunch. As they were at tea.

Aditya was the first to reach three figures. And it was his maiden hundred in senior cricket.

“I had scored hundreds in age-group cricket, but scoring a First Class hundred is indeed a different thing,” the spinning all-rounder said. “And I am glad that I could build that big partnership with the captain.”

The partnership was worth 227. “After losing four wickets quickly on the first day, our aim was to bat at least till the drinks break, and then we wanted to stay there till lunch,” the skipper said.

The partnership ended when Vaisakh Chandran induced an edge with a ball that turned and had Virat caught at slip. The off-spinner went on to pick up his second five-wicket haul in Ranji Trophy.

The final session saw the dead track responding a bit to spin.

That isn’t good news for Kerala, of course.

The scores: Jharkhand — 1st Innings: Shikhar Mohan b Vaisakh 143, Sharandeep Singh b Jalaj 33, Utkarsh Singh c Baby b Jalaj 71, Virat Singh c Baby b Vaisakh 108, Robin Minz b Vaisakh 10, Kounain Quraishi c Baby b Vaisakh 10, Aditya Singh b Sarwate 147, Sahil Raj b Sarwate 19, Manishi Singh c Azharuddeen b Jalaj 20, Sushant Mishra lbw b Vaisakh 18, Saurabh Shekhar (not out) 0; Extras (b-4, lb-3, w-1): 8; Total (in 179.5 overs): 587.

Fall of wickets: 1-87, 2-250, 3-252, 4-269, 5-279, 6-506, 7-534, 8-549, 9-570.

Kerala bowling: Nidheesh 26-3-93-0, Edhen 10-1-45-0, Jalaj 51.5-12-126-3, Sarwate 36-6-116-2, Vaisakh 49-6-166-5, Abhishek 1-0-11-0, Vishnu 4-1-10-0, Baby 2-0-13-0.

As the rain clouds dissipated, so did the batters’ hesitation, and Assam turned the tables on the second day of its Ranji Trophy round one match against Punjab at the New PCA Stadium here on Monday.

Denish Das (103, 186b, 15×4) and Sibsankar Roy (143 n.o., 295b, 20×4, 1×6) made the most of easing conditions and their 168-run partnership, which began at 23 for three on the opening day, catapulted Assam to 373.

After not adding a run for the opening 34 minutes, Sibsankar lapped up two overpitched deliveries from Umesh Yadav for straight- and square-driven boundaries. Though a flick off Gurnoor Brar was the only early boundary for Denish, he pocketed plenty by running between the wickets.

Stroke-filled: Denish’s 103 included 15 fours.
| Photo Credit:
FILE PHOTO: RITU RAJ KONWAR

It was the onset of spinners that really allowed them to assert control. Sibsankar pranced down to Emanjot Singh Chahal twice to hoist down the ground for 10 runs.

Denish was examined by Gurnoor’s short-ball ploy, with the traps set at deep fine-leg, deep square-leg, short-leg, short mid-wicket and short mid-on. Denish refrained from any extravagant shot and navigated the period.

However, shortly after his 181-ball century, he took a slightly longer stride on a defence, got an inside edge onto his pad and was caught at silly point.

Sibsankar lofted Harpreet down the ground to reach three figures in 204 balls. He was mindful not to let it slip away like Denish and allowed Sarupam Purkayastha (66, 87b, 7×4, 3×6) to take charge in their 92-run sixth-wicket partnership that prolonged Punjab’s toil.

Umesh picked three of the last five wickets, for which Assam could add only 42 runs, to complete his five-wicket haul (five for 70) and ensure Punjab did not have to field the entire day.

Openers Vihaan Malhotra and Harnoor Pannu safely played out two overs before stumps, and three no balls from Dipjyoti Saikia made sure Punjab had something on the board.

The scores: Assam — 1st innings: Nibir Deka c Salil b Gurnoor 0, Rishav Das b Umesh 0, Rajveer Singh c Salil b Umesh 11, Denish Das c Sidhu b Emanjot 103, Sibsankar Roy (not out) 143, Sumit Ghadigoankar lbw b Harpreet 28, Sarupam Purkayastha c Salil b Gurnoor 66, Amlanjyoti Das b Umesh 0, Mukhtar Hussain c Harjas b Umesh 11, Dipjyoti Saikia b Emanjot 4, Mohit Thakur b Umesh 1; Extras (lb-2, nb-1, w-3): 6; Total (117 overs): 373.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-23, 4-191, 5-239, 6-331, 7-332, 8-348, 9-367.

Punjab bowling: Gurnoor 23-3-85-2, Umesh 24-7-70-5, Harpreet 24-4-88-1, Ramandeep 2-0-8-0, Emanjot 27-7-68-2, Harjas 13-1-43-0, Uday 4-1-9-0.

Punjab — 1st innings: Vihaan Malhotra (batting) 0, Harnoor Pannu (batting) 0; Extras (nb-3): 3; Total (for no loss in two overs): 3.

Assam bowling: Mukhtar 1-1-0-0, Dipjyoti 1-0-3-0.

East Zone pacer Mukesh Kumar felt that there was enough on the surface for the quicks to keep the batters honest, provided they had the right tactics.

Despite bowling on a fresh MAC Stadium pitch on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy final, the South Zone fast bowlers were inconsistent and resorted to short-pitched stuff without much success.

In contrast, Mukesh and Mohammed Shami attacked the stumps and scalped four of the six wickets to fall on day three.

“I didn’t pitch it too full here. If I had bowled full, it would have invited cover drives and similar shots. So, pulling the length back slightly to back-of-a-length on this red soil [was important]. If you hit the deck hard and put effort into it, the ball kicks. We worked on that,” said Mukesh.

The Bengal speedster also stressed the need to maintain the ball, especially on red-soil pitches where it could get scuffed easily.

“Speaking for myself, the harder I pound the deck and hit the seam, the more the ball will kick, regardless of the wicket. The other part is working on the ball — applying sweat repeatedly, polishing it, and preparing it for reverse swing. We worked on that, and it gave us movement,” he added.

On his plans for Devdutt Padikkal, Mukesh explained: “It was to bowl stump-to-stump because we knew he was coming after scoring two centuries in Sri Lanka. On wickets like this, if you offer width to batters, runs will leak. Our plan as fast bowlers was to stay as consistent as possible and bowl dot balls, letting them take the risks. They would try to force the pace and get out because they need to score runs.”