Deshpande basked in the glory of another 5-5, revealing that captain Adinkharahane gave him freedom.
Over the past few seasons, Tushar his Deshpande has emerged as Mumbai’s pace spearhead. And this time, with Dawal Kurkarni absent, the youngster Ranji marked the class with his trophy and so far he has taken 14 wickets.
On Tuesday at his stadium in Brabourne, Deshpande scored Pfeiffer in his 5-wicket draw in his fourth in first-class cricket, beating Tamil his Nadu by 144 in the first innings. Deshpande made the most of the surface benefiting the fast bowlers, bowling in the right areas to put pressure on the visiting team. Deshpande basks in the glory of another 5-5, revealing that captain Ajinkharahane has given him freedom.
“Ajinkhya has given me all my freedom. He told me, ‘You are our speed attack leader. We will adjust our strategy accordingly.” Whether we win wickets or not, we always want to keep the process right. I didn’t compromise on my pace,” Deshpande said after today’s game. Mumbai came out after losing to Saurashtra in their previous match, winning a toss against Tamil Nadu and opting to bowl.
“If a team wins the toss (and decides to pitch first), the bowlers are responsible for keeping them in the correct area. I try to bowl on the offensive line, but pitches like this So now it’s important to stay in the moment and bowl in the right area. After taming Tamil Nadu’s top orders, Deshpande struck one last time, sacking in-form Pradsh Ranjan Paul and L. Vignesh, who scored 55 points. As he himself admitted, getting rid of the “sedentary” pole was a challenge.
“One was a set batsman (pole) and the other was a bottom batsman, so I challenged myself to take the wicket of the set batsman so I could take the next wicket as well. The plan is short. It was to pitch… I positioned my fielders accordingly and knew he (Pradosh) would play his shot anyway,” Deshpande revealed. After limiting Tamil Nadu to 144, Mumbai also lost 5 wickets for 113, but Sarfaraz Khan helped the team to finish the day with 6 for 183. Midway through Mumbai’s innings, Tamil Nadu’s Aswin Christo bowled short deliveries to miss captains Lahane and Hardik Tamore in quick succession.
“It was TN’s decision because they wanted to play to his strengths. If we could deny that, things could have been a little different,” said Deshpande, revealing that despite 16 wickets falling on the pitch on the first day, there were no demons. Mumbai’s goal is to extend their lead as far as possible at the game level, and Deshpande believes some “30+ partnerships” will help the home side control the game.