Dharmendrasinh Jadeja finally escapes Ravindra's shadows

"Jadeja" has made it to the headlines for Saurashtra many times. But if you don't read beyond the headline, you would assume it's Ravindra Jadeja. This has been the story of Dharmendrasinh Jadeja's career. Being a left-arm orthodox spinner, like Ravindra, didn't help his cause either.

But Dharmendrasinh hasn't let this affect his game. Last Ranji season, he was Saurashtra's leading wicket-taker with 34 - 15 clear of the next best - from six games.

He has been equally good this time as well. With Ravindra available for only one match, he shouldered the responsibility of being the team's lead spinner. Coming into the knockouts, he had 38 wickets from eight games - once again the most for Saurashtra. His match-haul of 11 for 147 helped Saurashtra beat Karnataka, while during his 7 for 55 in Maharashtra's second innings, he became only the third Saurashtra bowler after Shah Nyalchand and Siddharth Trivedi to take a hat-trick in Ranji Trophy.

In the last couple of years, he has worked on his batting too. In fact, this has been his best season with the bat with 234 runs from 12 innings at 23.40. Batting at No. 8 against Baroda in Rajkot, he scored 87, his highest first-class score, while his 72 from No. 9 against Vidarbha at the same venue helped Saurashtra grab a first-innings lead. Slowly but steadily the 28-year-old is coming out of his namesake's shadow.

One criticism against Dharmendrasinh has been he takes most of his wickets on the spinning tracks of Rajkot. But if one digs a little deeper, that argument doesn't hold. In fact, his away average and strike-rate are better than those at home - 25.57 and 46.3 respectively as compared to 28.24 and 53.6.

With such a strong performance in the season so far, especially with the ball, Saurashtra were depending a lot on him during their quarter-final clash against Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow. And he didn't disappoint.

As soon as he was introduced into the attack, he made an impact - in both innings. On the first day, UP's Madhav Kaushik and Akshdeep Nath had staged a recovery from 7 for 2 to take the side to 54. However, Dharmendrasinh dismissed both batsmen in the same over with brilliant use of flight.

Kaushik was batting in an aggressive manner until then and had hit medium-pacer Prerak Mankad over extra cover for a six. He tried to take the attack to Dharmendrasinh as well, skipping down the track. But the bowler beat him in flight to have him caught in the covers.

Three balls later, Nath also tried the same but ended up getting too close to the ball and was yorked. Dharmendrasinh would go on to take one more wicket but Rinku Singh's 150 steered the hosts to 385.

In response, Saurashtra were bundled out for 208 on the third morning, conceding a first-innings lead of 177.

In UP's second innings, their openers had given them a slow but a solid start of 35, taking the overall lead past 200. But Dharmendrasinh once again came to fore, trapping Kaushik lbw with an arm-ball this time. Rahul Rawat and Mohammad Saif took the side past 100.

But Dharmendrasinh had kept things quiet from one end, bowling a tight line and length. And soon he reaped the rewards as well. First, he bowled Rawat with a peach of a delivery. It was a length ball outside off, the left-handed batsman shouldered arms only to see it turn sharply and hit the off and middle stumps. Four overs later, Saif pushed at a length ball, only to bat-pad it to short leg.

With Nath off the field for most of the second day due to a hand injury, Rinku got an opportunity to bat at No. 5. In his young career, Rinku has formed a reputation of being UP's crisis man. In fact, it was his assault in the first innings that had derailed Dharmendrasinh off his length. But today he lasted just one ball. Dharmendrasinh pitched one fuller outside off, Rinku went for a reverse sweep but failed to middle it, with Harvik Desai taking a good, low catch at first slip. At first, it appeared the ball might have bounced after hitting the bat, and the decision was referred to the third umpire, with the soft signal being out. The on-decision was upheld.

And Dharmendrasinh was on a hat-trick. Upendra Yadav played it out safely but UP, who were 107 for 1 at one stage, slipped to 116 for 4. And suddenly the visitors had a ray of hope.

Priyam Garg and Yadav took the side to 162 before a three-wicket burst from left-arm seamer Chetan Sakariya reduced UP to 166 for 7. Shivam Mavi also fell four runs later as the hosts ended day three on 172 for 8.

UP are still leading by 349 but Dharmendrasinh's four wickets have ensured Saurashtra still have a chance, especially with two days of play left in the match.