'Fast cutters' bring Mundhe success

Shrikant Mundhe's match-winning six-wicket haul twisted Maharashtra's fate dramatically in their home game against Rajasthan, providing an early finish to a match that had looked even on the third morning. Rajasthan lost six wickets "unexpectedly", Mundhe said, giving Maharashtra the push to go for the win.

"We wanted to get at least three wickets before lunch, and not give more than 80 runs," Mundhe, the Man of the Match, said. "We were obviously not thinking about an early finish. There is always something in the pitch early morning, so we just wanted to bowl line and length. We ended up getting six wickets and we thought we have to go all out and finish the game early.

"You see in the afternoon, if one batsman plays, it gets difficult to find wickets. We did not want any partnerships to build like in the last innings. We gave it everything."

Mundhe is not your big-bucks fast bowler who is going to scare you with pace, neither is he an out-and-out hitter with the bat. Among the quartet of Maharashtra's seamers, he is the most inconspicuous. Samad Fallah is broad-shouldered and opens the bowling, Anupam Sanklecha has a long run-up, while Domnic Joseph is tall, dark and has a hairstyle from the 80s.

Mundhe has none of that. At 5 feet eight inches, he is much shorter than Joseph, Maharashtra's tallest seamer, bowls in the 120s, has a smooth unremarkable action, and a neat French beard that could vaguely disguise him as a young professional in Pune's IT world. But Mundhe does posses a strong frame, a useful asset to have if you want to bowl long spells in often unresponsive pitches around the country.

The pitch in Pune was not totally unresponsive. Maharashtra had played four seamers and chosen to bowl for a reason. But though Rajasthan had been reduced to 117 for 6 on the first day, it had been mostly because of the batsmen playing imprudent shots rather than the bowlers doing anything special. It wasn't the case when Rajasthan bowled: Pankaj Singh and Co beat the bat all day by doing something different.

"First innings, I did not bowl even a single cutter, but in the second, I bowled a lot of them," Mundhe said. "That is something we learnt from them. Pankaj bowls good incoming cutters, so we thought, why not try that ourselves? If these guys are getting help off the pitch, we also have bowlers who could exploit it.

"The pitch was aiding seam movement, but at the same time you had to bowl fast cutters to get the bounce from the pitch. If you just let the ball land on seam, it was moving, but it was manageable. You had to do something extra, so I bowled a lot of cutters."

Pace is not Mundhe's consort. He once clocked 138 kph but admits it was a one-off. So his plan A, plan B and the ones after are usually to stick to the "right areas". That is what he did in Pune. Throughout the match, Rajasthan's scoring remained slow as there was no release.

"I went for a few runs against Punjab when Yuvraj Singh played a splendid knock. But it was always in my mind that I need to bowl restrictive lines and not give more than 2.5 runs per over. In doing that, you always end up getting wickets."

Mundhe ran through the lower order and ensured there was no repeat of a late revival like in the first two innings of the game. One of those had been led by Mundhe himself, as he scored a cavalier half-century that was vital in Maharashtra taking a narrow lead. He always had the batting ability, but a season playing league cricket in England helped him.

"I had to play with responsibility there (in England) as I was the paid professional and it really helped with my batting."

With 21 wickets and 268 runs this season, Mundhe sits at number two and three in his team's bowling and batting charts respectively. As Maharashtra seek momentum for their Ranji Trophy campaign, Mundhe is a vital cog.