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While growing up in the bylanes of Chhawla, a dusty South-West Delhi suburb adjoining Najafgarh, an impressionable young Dinesh Mor aspired to walk in the footsteps of MS Dhoni. He would binge-watch all his matches; Dhoni posters would adorn the walls of the small two-room apartment where he lived with his parents and elder brother; and later when he decided to pursue cricket, the first thing he would grab was the wicketkeeping gloves.
For Dinesh, the MS connect did not end there. Last year, his cricketing exploits on the junior circuit helped him secure the job of a ticket examiner with Indian Railways. He could not help but gush when asked about the parallels with the former India captain. “It’s just destiny I guess,” he says with a chuckle, before adding:”During my off-season this year, I was posted at Delhi Cantonment station.”
On Monday, the ticket examiner would give an impressive account of himself on his Ranji Trophy debut for Railways. Pitted against Uttar Pradesh in the idyllic setting of Meerut’s Victoria Park — a charming first-class venue replete with whitewashed seats and a structure called O’Donnell’s Pavilion — Railways got off to a disastrous start before the debutant wicketkeeper- batsman’s unbeaten 89 helped his team finish Day 1 at a somewhat respectable 244/8, a score that seemed well beyond them at 36/3 in the morning session, with Uttar Pradesh’s pace trio — Ankeet Rajpoot, Shivam Mavi and Yash Dayal — breathing fire on a lively pitch with substantial grass cover.
Dinesh’s batting partner was another debutant — Navneet Virk. The duo forged an 83-run stand for the fifth wicket that calmed frayed nerves in the dressing room. Virk was dismissed just before tea for a well-compiled 58, but Dinesh marched on. He brought up his half-century with a fierce upper cut through the third-man region. The UP team tried its best to unnerve the debutant — Rajpoot sledged him, and Mavi targeted him with a barrage of short-pitched deliveries. Dinesh also had to cop several blows on his stomach, and even received a deep gash on his right eyebrow.
But the assault didn’t affect his momentum. Dinesh’s dazzling stroke-play — especially his cover drives — lit up the afternoon session. “I looked to bat positively and backed myself to play my shots, because I realised that on such a green-tinged track, if you look to just survive, it’s only a matter of time before you would nick one to the ‘keeper or slips,” he explained.
That Dinesh performed so admirably in a difficult initiation to first-class cricket does not come as a surprise to those who have watched him from close quarters. Right from his U-16 days, Dinesh was known as his teams’ crisis manager. “He always delivers in crunch situations,” would be the common phrase used to describe him. A fitting example of his match-winning exploits was the U-23 CK Nayudu semifinal against Tamil Nadu two seasons ago. Playing for Delhi back then, Dinesh walked in at No.7 and scored an unbeaten 152 to take the team into the final against Mumbai.
In the summit clash, he would score 46 not out to help Delhi clinch the title. “If he would not have scored that century against Tamil Nadu in the semifinal, Delhi would not have won the U-23 title,” Sashikala, his childhood coach, tells The Indian Express.
Buoyed by that win, an entry into Delhi’s Ranji Trophy squad loomed on the horizon. But after being snubbed for two consecutive seasons, Sashikala advised his ward to try his luck elsewhere. “He was picked for Delhi’s U-16 squad, scored runs consistently and was also good behind the stumps. But he was not picked in U-19s. He kept performing well and got into the U-23 side, only to be ignored for the Ranji Trophy,” Sashikala remembers.
Dinesh was drafted into the Railways U-23 squad the following year (2018-19) after impressing selectors in the trials, and also bagged the job of a ticket examiner through the sports quota. He made most of this opportunity by topping the run-scorers’ chart at the U-23 level.
“I was 23 and we needed a steady source of income. So, yes, there were cricketing aspirations. But more than that, I just needed a stable job, which is why I decided to accept the offer from the Railways,” Dinesh adds.
“In days’ cricket, I had scored 692 runs with three centuries and in one-dayers, 258 runs with one century. All these runs handed me a first-class debut.”
Despite father Jagbir’s financial struggles — he once worked as a farm hand, before earning a living by transporting building materials on his truck — both his children were able to follow their childhood passion in cricket. Dinesh’s elder brother Sandeep is also trying to break into the Delhi senior team.
A doting son, younger brother, ardent Dhoni fan, ticket examiner, and his teams’ crisis manager, the 24-year-old has performed various roles with aplomb. But there’s little doubt that it’s his latest one — a first-class cricketer — which would fill him with the most pride.
Brief scores: Railways 244/8 (Dinesh Mor 89 not out, Navneet Virk 58; Yash Dayal 3-47) vs Uttar Pradesh
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Ranji Round-up
Pujara bowled, yet again
In his last 9 Test innings, Cheteshwar Pujara has been either bowled or nailed leg before the wicket two times apiece. Both bowleds were hatched by two of the finest seam-bowlers around, Kemar Roach and Vernon Philanders, the former with an inch-perfect nip-backer and the latter with a beastly nip-backer. The feet, on both instances, were crease-tied. In Dharamshala, an obscure 21-year-old medium-pacer, Vaibhav Arora burst through his defence, for a meagre two on an apparently fast-bowler friendly surface that saw 17 wickets fall on the first day. Alas, there’s no footage of the dismissal, but the nerdy Kiwi pacemen would jot that point in their notebook. Arora, meanwhile, pouched two more as Saurashtra are fighting to eke out first-innings lead, though the match in all likelihood would have a clear result.
Brief Scores (At Dharamshala): Himachal Pradesh 120 all out (Prashant Chopra 33, Sumeet Verma 22; Prerak Mankad 3/13, Chirag Jani 3/26) vs Saurashtra 93/7 (Snell Patel 42, Arpit Vasavada 16, Vaibhav Arora 3/20, Pankaj Jaiswal 3/29).
Vihari back in business
It attests to India’s batting depth and permutational priorities that Hanuma Vihari, two innings after he scored his maiden Test hundred, found himelf out of the eleven for the two Tests against South Africa and the Bangladesh series. But Vihari has quietly returned to the domestic circuit, doing stuff that he has been routinely doing for Andhra. Much of Andhra’s resurgence in the last few years has been down to the stability he has afforded them, and he did so yet again with a strokeful 83 in a total of 211 runs against champions Vidarbha, who began their quest to a hat-trick of Ranji titles on a clinical note.
Andhra (at Vijayawada) Innings 211 (Hanuma Vihari 83, Aditya Sarwate 4/50 in 18 overs) vs Vidarbha 26/0
Mayank wins Ashwin battle
Ravichandran Ashwin nearly burst his lungs, as he ran frantically after dismissing the in-form Mayank Agarwal in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final in Surat. In a week’s time, they encountered again in Dindigul, but this time Agarwal won the battle. Ashwin struck rhythm straight away, and almost had him caught at short-leg, only for the edge to elude him. But thereafter, Agarwal dead-batted and defused him. The characteristically aggressive batsman pulled the shutters down on his scoring, and at one stage he scored just three off 38 balls. But post-drinks, he was in a different mood, straightaway lofting Ashwin over long-on for a six. Swiftly, he moved to 43 off 76 balls, scoring 39 off his next 38 balls, before he gifted his wicket to debuting left-arm spinner Manimaran Siddharth. But with Ashwin, defanged, half the battle was won for Karnataka.
Brief scores (At Dindigul): Karnataka 259/6 (Devdutt Padikkal 78, Pavan Deshpande 65; M Siddharth 2-33, Baba Aparajith 1-24) vs Tamil Nadu.
Catch 22 for Uthappa
Just two tournaments into the domestic season, Robin Uthappa was already a man under immense pressure, after his lacklustre returns for new team Kerala. He was even stripped off captaincy, but Uthappa returned to form with a patient hundred, 102 coming off 221 deliveries, against Delhi’s resourceful pace quartet. Uthappa began slowly, if labouriously until he completed his half-century. He then raced to his first first-class hundred in nearly two years and 20 innings, his 22nd overall. As for Delhi, they will rue the bizarre four-seamer ploy on a slow surface.
Brief Scores (At Thumba): Kerala 276/3 (Robin Uthappa 102 off 221 balls, Ponnam Rahul 97) vs Delhi.
Rex picks 8
Left-arm seamer Rex Singh’s 10-wicket haul in the U-23 Cooch Behar Trophy went viral last year, though first-class outings weren’t quite as rewarding. Two games yielded just two wickets for the Manipur lad, but against Mizoram in Kolkata, he grabbed eight wickets for 22 runs. Five of them were lbw, two were bowleds, requiring a fielder’s assistance just once. He then returned to smack 58 off 66 balls. While his exploits have come against a callow side, he’s worth keeping an eye on.
Brief Scores (At Kolkata): Mizoram: 65 all out in 16 overs (Taruwar Kohli 34; Rex Singh 8/22) vs Manipur 255/7 in 71 overs (Chingangbam Singh 89, Rex Singh 58; Bobby Zothansanga 4/75).
Stuttering start for Unmukt
Unmukt Chand’s career-restoring bid began shakily, as he survived only seven balls in his maiden first-class excursion for Uttarakhand, who he also captains. His decision to bowl first seemed vindicated as Jammu and Kashmir were bundled out for 182, a score that looks unassailable as his Uttarakhand is tottering at 64/7.
Brief Scores (At Dehradun): Jammu and Kashmir 182 in 49.2 overs (SP Khajuria 47; RS Shah 3/18) vs Uttarakhand 64 for 7 in 25 overs (TM Srivastava 17; M Mudhasir 3/11).
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