da pixbet： When Punjab look back at their loss in the Ranji Trophy final, thepunk-like figure of Jai Prakash Yadav will haut them many times over
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Mohali03-Apr-2005
JP: season to remember© Getty Images
When Punjab look back at their defeat against Railways in the Ranji Trophy final, the punk-like figure of Jai Prakash Yadav will haunt them many times over. He regularly thwarted all their attempts to fight back withballistic hammerings and unpredictable medium pace. Punjab, though,were just one of the several teams to feel the force of theYadav-effect right through the season.By Indian domestic benchmarks, Yadav’s performances this season havebeen nothing short of colossal. Match after match, crisis aftercrisis, crunch time after crunch time – he has almost single-handedlylifted the sides he has played for. When Railways were fast slipping downa steep relegation slope with two must-win away games to go – one on acorpse-like pitch at Anantpur, where the Andhra batsmen usuallyanesthetize opponents with attrition, and the other in Bangalore,where Karnataka were bolstered by Rahul Dravid – along came Yadav with bat,ball and inspiration. When Central Zone played the Duleep Trophy finalagainst North, a team that had swaggered to zonal titles in recentyears, he delivered a knock-out punch on the first day with seam,swing and sudden changes of pace. He played a crucial part in thelow-scoring semi-final against Hyderabad and dazzled on the four daysthat mattered in the final. And we haven’t even spoken about histalismanic influence in the one-dayers.Rarely has a player made an entire season his own. Sunil Joshi, AshishKapoor and Sairaj Bahutule have had outstanding seasons in the recentpast, where they shone in an allround capacity, but theirs was mostlysupporting roles with the bat. Also, their bowling was at its mostvenomous only after the second day and unlike Yadav, they rarelyturned games on the first morning. “It’s not something that willhappen too often,” said Yadav when asked about his outstanding year,”and I don’t think too many other players have performed soconsistently with both bat and ball in any season. If somebody hadtold me last year that I would end with more than 500 runs and 50wickets, I would have laughed at the joke.”Yes, many pitches suited his style of bowling – pitching around thegood-length area, cutting it either way, swinging it a shade,reverse-swinging it at a wide range of speeds, bouncing and yorkingwhen least expected – but an actor’s magnificent performance can’t beattributed solely to cinematography. Yes, he made no hundreds, butcrisis management at the top of the order can be more valuable thanmeaningless wealth accumulation. Yes, most of the international starsdidn’t play this season and quality of opposition could have beenbetter, but a student can only answer the exams set, he can’t worry about thetoughness of questions. Forget matches and tournaments, this willprobably be remembered as JP’s season. That in itself is a staggeringthought.So, a glittering CV has been submitted to the selectors whose decisions over the next few months could decide the applicant’s future. Yadav knows how one opportunity could open up a whole new universe. “If I don’t get a chance by the end of this year,” he says, “I don’t think can ever make it to the national side. If this season’s performances can’t get me a place, nothing can. But even if I just get one or two chances I need to make the most of them. One over or one shot can change a player’s life.”Just as Yadav spoke these words, Pankaj Dharmani was signing a fewautographs in the background. He probably felt the same way five yearsback when he amassed 1194 runs at an average of nearly 80 and wasperilously close to reclaiming the wicketkeeper’s slot in the Indianteam. Whether Yadav will take a similar course or get one more shot ata comeback remains to be seen.Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is on the staff of Cricinfo.