He scored 139 to help the team recover from 15 for 5 against Gujarat and set a challenging target
Hemant Brar in Rajkot03-Mar-2020Arpit Vasavada was born in 1988, three years after Clive Lloyd played his last international match. Still, Lloyd and his great West Indies side of the 1970s and 1980s played an instrumental role in Vasavada becoming a cricketer.The story goes like this: Vyomeshbhai Vasavada, Arpit’s father, used to follow cricket commentary on radio in his younger days, and was inspired by the feats of Lloyd’s side. “At that time only, I decided I would make my [future] child a cricketer,” Vyomeshbhai says. Coincidentally, just like Lloyd, Vasavada is also a left-hand batsman and used to wear specs, before undergoing a vision-correction surgery not very long ago.Vyomeshbhai was passionate for cricket but had little talent himself. “When Arpit was three, I used to take him on my bicycle to Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground,” he says. “But since I never held a cricket bat in my life, I had to look out for a coach when he grew a little older.”He was working for Indian Railways at that time and one of his colleagues there was Arvind Pujara, Cheteshwar Pujara’s father. So he decided to send his son to him, and it’s there Vasavada learnt his first cricketing lessons.Cut to the present and Vasavada needed to draw from all those lessons to rescue Saurashtra from a perilous position against Gujarat in the ongoing Ranji Trophy semi-final. Coming in at 15 for 5 on Monday, Vasavada had not only denied Chintan Gaja a hat-trick but, in Chetan Sakariya’s company, also took the side to stumps without further damage.If Gaja ruled the third day with a whirlwind 61 and a five-for, Vasavada gave the early signs on Tuesday morning to whom day four would belong. Resuming from his overnight 23, he drove Gaja through the covers for a boundary. Arzan Nagwaswalla too pitched one up in the next over and was given the same treatment. Next ball he shortened his length only to be punched in front of the point.Along with Sakariya, who proved more than a handy ally, Vasavada took the side past 100. The breakthrough for Gujarat eventually came in the form of a run-out when Vasavada called for a risky single but an Axar Patel direct hit found Sakariya short.The run-out left Vasavada on his haunches even though Sakariya was being applauded by his team-mates for his 45. “He was playing so well that it didn’t look like any bowler could get him out, so I was very disappointed,” Vasavada said at the end of the day.At 105 for 6, there was a big task ahead and Vasavada knew it. That was the reason he didn’t even raise his bat after reaching his fifty and acknowledged the standing ovation from his team-mates with nothing more than a reluctant thumbs-up.”At that time, my job hadn’t even started,” he said later. “And anyway personal benchmarks don’t matter much when the team is in such a position. What matters is if you can take the side to a strong position.”With Chirag Jani at the other end, he started the rebuilding process once again. The two were cautious initially but once the ball got soft, they started imposing themselves. Vasavada, who had consumed 108 balls for his fifty, took only 73 more to bring up his seventh first-class hundred, and the third of this season. In fact, he has converted all three of his 50-plus scores this season into a hundred.Soon after Gaja sent back Jani and Prerak Mankad with the second new ball but Vasavada carried on. Along with Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, he added 41 for the ninth wicket. But when Jadeja was dismissed, he went for quick runs, hooking Nagwaswalla for a six and a four before being caught at deep-backward square leg for 139. By then the lead had swelled to 326.All this time, his father was watching him from his fixed spot in the stands. “Now that I am retired, I come here for every game,” he says. When asked why he doesn’t sit in the invitees’ box, he reasons, “It’s much calmer here.”When Vasavada was on 93, there was a huge appeal for caught-behind as he tried to cut Axar. Gujarat went for the review after the on-field umpire deemed it not-out. The third umpire took a long time but there was no conclusive evidence to overturn the decision. Vyomeshbhai, though, was convinced his son hadn’t hit it.As soon as Vasavada reached his hundred, Vyomeshbhai started getting congratulatory calls. Those who were not following the game, Vyomeshbhai called them himself. After all, his son’s knock had made Saurashtra the favourites to face Bengal in the final.