We have seen fans booing when players did not score or their team lost the match. But Bengal Cricket Academy witnessed a rare instance when two players scored centuries and won the match for their teams and still the crowd chanted ‘Saurabh Tiwary hai hai’ in unison. The crowd longed for MS Dhoni to come to the crease and strike a few meaty blows, the reason they had come to watch the game, standing on rooftops, waiting outside the stadium and doing everything to get a glimpse of their India’s ex-skipper.
Jharkhand were asked to chase 277 by Services. They were struggling at 3 for 65 as top openers failed to convert starts into a big score. Instead of coming out to bat himself, Dhoni sent youngsters Saurabh Tiwary followed by Ishank Jaggi to take control of the situation.
Jaggi who was recently bought in IPL Auction 2017 for his base price 10 lakhs, told a leading news publishing website, “Mahi bhai advised us to play in a calm and composed manner. He told us, ‘If you play with patience runs will come. It’s about staying there and finishing the game.”
Jaggi went on to score 116 from 92 balls which included 10 fours and 4 sixes. Whereas, Tiwary reached his ton at the last moment scoring 102 from 103 balls including 3 fours and 6 sixes.
Even though Tiwary was entertained by the crowd with ‘hai hai’ chants showing their disappointment over Dhoni not gracing them with his quickfire innings, the youngster took it sportingly. He said, “We played without any pressure well aware of the fact that MS comes next. We must understand that they’re emotional as Mahi bhai never played here. Being a professional I did not mind. We were subjected to much more sledging on the field.”
After being sacked as captain of Rising Pune Supergiants, Dhoni has been leading Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He recently rescued his team after they lost 6 wickets early on in the innings and went on to score his first ton for Jharkhand in this format.
Brief Scores:
Services 276 for 9 in 50 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 54, Gaurav Kochar 50; Shahbaz Nadeem 3 for 52, Rahul Shukla 2 for 58) lost to Jharkhand 279 for 3 in 46.2 overs (Ishank Jaggi 116, Saurabh Tiwary 102; Diwesh Pathania 1 for 32, Suraj Yadav 1 for 48)
