CHENNAI: Imagine you are under the lid with your team requiring 12 runs off the last over on your debut. Two batters in the middle currently batting for your team have heaps of experience. You are not expecting to go out in the middle. The first ball of the over, one of them gets out, but your captain is still out there. The penultimate ball of the match, even the captain is dismissed with five runs required. The opposition is pumped and they can smell the win. This is what the situation was when Mumbai Indian's Sajeevan Sajana sprinted out to bat at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru after Shah Rukh Khan lit up the opening ceremony of the second season of the Women's Premier League.
However, there was still one ball to make the unthinkable happen. That is exactly what Sajana did as Mumbai won by four wickets. The 29-year-old from Mananthavady, a village in Kerala's Wayanad district, took the tournament by storm with one of the best finishes the competition has seen. However, this was the reward for the blood, sweat, and tears the Kerala player had put in over the years.
"I didn't have money to travel (for cricket). When I got selected for the district, I started earning money, Rs 150 per day. It was a big amount for me," she said in the video posted by WPL after the match. The daughter of an autorickshaw driver father and panchayat councillor and accountant mother in Mananthavady village developed a love for the game despite her humble economic background, but she never used it as an excuse.
"She always had family support and no one ever stopped her from playing cricket. But to travel for cricket every day with a lack of money from the area she comes from is in itself a challenge. But I have never seen her make any excuse for that. Knowing you are going through all the challenges and still staying motivated is a tough task," Suman Sharma, the head coach of the Kerala women's team, told this daily.
The economic adversity, the devastating floods that destroyed the state in 2018, or even the pandemic, nothing could halt her pursuit. "The 2018 floods were particularly hard for her family. The water covered all of the first floor where she was staying. I cannot even imagine how she and her family survived those difficult times," Sharma got emotional speaking about it.
Despite not getting picked in the first season, where her fellow state teammate Minnu Mani got the opportunity to play for Delhi Capitals, Sajana never lost hope and kept working hard in the domestic circuit and Sharma knew her determination would come through. "Her willpower is stronger. She comes from a place where nothing was handed to her. She had to work hard for everything she has achieved. To come from such humble beginnings and reach the level where nobody imagined she could is a phenomenal story in itself."
Sharma was one proud coach riding the emotions of the opening match, knowing fully well her ward could smash a six at will. "I think Sajana and me were going through the same emotions (laughs). I have been watching her play cricket for 10 years now. She always had that ability to hit hard. I remember when we were playing one of the Under-23 fixtures at the BKC Ground in Mumbai. Even at that point, her sixes were going beyond the trees. We always knew that she could hit it out of the park."
The coach revealed her pre-match pep-talk with Sajana, which had nothing to do with cricket but just a reminder of all put till that point. "I spoke with her before the match. (In Mumbai) she is playing under different coaches, and my job is just to motivate her. I told Sajju to play confidently and reminded her how good she had been in domestic cricket over the last few years. Now is the time to show what you can do on the bigger platform."
Sajana didn't choose the moment to have an impact. She didn't have that luxury with only one ball in hand. She just made the impossible happen. Even after the electric performance of Bollywood's Baazigar at the Chinnaswamy to start the proceedings, at the end of the day, she stole the show with the first and only chance she got.