CHENNAI: For a few minutes at the Pachaiyappa’s College ground on Friday afternoon, a wave of déja vu would have washed over everyone present in Hyderabad’s dugout. It was the eighth over of their final T20 Zonal League clash against Andhra Pradesh. Tanmay Agarwal and skipper Subramaniam Badrinath were in the middle, exchanging yet another assured glove-five as the scorecard read 69/2: the halfway mark of their chase of a far-from-intimidating target of 140.
That’s when it happened. Eight wickets fell for just 60 runs, courtesy the third fifer of the tournament from leg-spinner Dasari Swaroop Kumar. Just as it did in Raipur against Mumbai during the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal last December, fate had again delivered a stinging rap on Hyderabad’s hand; one that till that moment had been holding on firmly to the South Zone crown.
A few journalists even murmured ‘(Abhishek) Nayar’, as the Mumbai all-rounder had turned the tables on Hyderabad in the Ranji quarterfinal. Sure enough, they capitulated to a 11-run loss.
A few hours later and a few kilometers away at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Karnataka players were all smiles as they posed for a group photo as the champions. Hyderabad, on the other hand, finished third.
Title or not, they were rewarded for the spunk they’d shown throughout this event. Riding on their solid performances, speedsters Chama Milind and Mohammed Siraj will turn out for India A against Bangladesh (on Sunday) and Australia (on February 17), respectively. That, and a place for Tanmay and the former in the South Zone’s 16-member contingent.
It isn’t only for the past week that Hyderabad have shown pluck on the field. A simple season-on-season comparison of their Ranji standings concisely sums up how far they’ve come over the past few months: second-last in Group C against this year’s quarterfinals. That, along with a bright-red cherry on their cake: a promotion to Group B for the next iteration of the event.
Like all fairytale runs, Hyderabad’s finds its origin in the unlikeliest of places: simplicity. “What we’ve done so far as a team is work specifically in the ambit of the processes that we have in place.
All of those focus on one primary aspect: getting the small things right. Those are the one-per-cent things that distinguish you from other teams. Things like bowling in the right areas and rotating the strike regularly,” explains coach Bharathi Arun, who was roped in for the role only last year.
“We sat down together, and the boys charted those processes out. I was just instrumental in helping putting them together. Since self-belief and understading of one’s strengths play a role, it was better for them to lay those processes down. I told them, ‘Let’s not think about the outcomes. Let’s rather focus on the goals that we’ve set, instead’. The results are there for you to see.”
rahulravi@newindianexpress.com