Chance of a lifetime for four ordinary men

A spice trader, a cafe boy, a bullet maker and a former footballer. Chinmay Brahme, writing for the Indian Express, details the rise of Anupam Sanklecha, Samad Fallah, Dominic Muthuswamy and Sangram Atitkar through the ranks to the top of the domestic cricket circuit, where they have a chance of making history with Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy final.

Much has been written and said about Fallah's eccentric bowling where he does not mark his run-up, often putting to use his tennis ball cricket skills. Though he has 200 wickets, Fallah says that he has often heard snide comments about how he is not a very pleasing bowler to look at. "My head falls away from my body when I deliver the ball. I don't bowl at express pace and they say I can't field but at the end of the day I get wickets. Shouldn't that be enough? I guess, Maharashtra and my own performance in the quarters and the semis answered a lot of questions," he says.