Now or Never

Suhrid Barua, Pune Mirror, December 23, 2008

There are occasions when a team goes into a match with 'outside' hope of qualifying for the next stage. But when the team doesn't even have that luxury of 'hoping', staying 'motivated' becomes quite a 'challenge'. So much so that the team is literally to press the motivation button, ditto for the Maharashtra Ranji side as they gird their lions for the bigger responsibility of skirting the ignominy of being relegated from the Elite Group when they lock horns in a Super League game against Railways commencing at Ratnagiri on Friday.

Having seen their quarterfinal qualifying hopes go up in smoke after two successive defeats to Uttar Pradesh and Baroda in away games, it's a make-or-break situation for Maharashtra as they look to pull off a win in their own backyard. Even the permutations and combinations aren't too 'complicated' to comprehend as the target is plain and simple: Maharashtra must pull off wins in their last two games against Railways and Karnataka and again 'hope' that the results of some other teams go in their favour. Let's put this in simple terms: Maharashtra have a real 'mountain' to climb even if they have to stay in the Elite Group.
There has been strident criticism of the State team in their inability to play as a team and deliver in the crunch situations. So that does mean 'strategising' has gone for a 'toss' in the first place? "When we played the opener against Tamil Nadu, we had formulated a strategy to achieve success. Winning for losing doesn't mean we alter our strategy. It's just that we had plans in place but we couldn't put it into practice," explains State coach Shaun Williams.

Maharashtra goes into the match with a captain (Nikhil Paradkar), who is going through the horrors with the willow. Ever since he got a superb 92 against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji opener, his batting form has dipped 'alarmingly' so much so that he managed just 28 runs in his last five innings.When your captain is not showing the right signs of leading from the front, it doesn't augur well for the side ahead of any match, let alone a Ranji Trophy game. "We know Nikhil has gone off the boil with the bat. But we are backing him to the hilt and he will come good sooner than later," Williams springs to his defense.But one gets the feeling that there is too much talk of 'building a team for the future'.

Does that puts the larger goal of winning on the backburner? Williams sounds disturbed. "I really don't know what you want me to say. Tell me which team doesn't want to win? We've a young team at our disposal, so I would expect everyone to be patient with the boys. We also have to realise where we stand."

Williams reckons the team hasn't got the credit for the way they have played in the four games so far. We've played against sides which featured a slew of former or present Indian discards."If you look at the Baroda game, let me tell you that we performed outstandingly and I thought we were plain unlucky not to have pushed the result in our favour," he explained.