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.