Power of Six

Maharashtra Academy of Engineering, Alandi, team doesn’t believe inthe ‘spin’ factor as they have a six-pronged seam attack which isdoing the job for them

Suhrid Barua, Pune Mirror, February 24, 2009
Most teams tend to bank on spin bowlers to do the job for them or atleast play a supporting role in the success of a team. ButMaharashtra Acad-emy of Engineering, Alandi, team are refreshinglydifferent. This team doesn’t believe in the ‘spin factor’.The MAE outfit relies heavily on its seamers - they have employed asmany as six medium-pacers in each match and the team hasn’t done badlyat all, racking up their sixth consecutive vic-tory after pippingMAEERS Arts, Sci-ence, Commerce College in the ongoing DamodarKarandak Cricket Tournament to book a final date with ILS LawCollege.
The MAE side operates with new ball bowlers - right-arm bowler HarshitDev and left-arm seamer Dhruv Vaghasis. Rahul Ranjan, Rishikesh Singh,Vinay Tomar and skipper Ankit Jain make up the all-seam attack.“We have a squad of fourteen players. We have six seamers playing inall the matches. We don’t have a spinner in our team,” reveals MAE captain Ankit Jain, who wrecked MAEERS Arts, Science, Commerce Collegewith a bo-dacious five-wicket haul.
So, was the ploy to go with an all-seam attack in every match adeliber-ate strategy? “Not all,” says Ankit. “It’s sheer coincidence.We never planned it that way. It just so happened that our bowlingattack revolves around the seamers.”But was the presence of a spinner missed by his team? “Not really.This is our sixth consecutive romp and all our bowlers have deliveredwhen it mattered in every match. The impressive performance of ourseamers have never made us feel the absence of a tweaker,” Ankitobserved.
The MAE captain does agree that not having a spinner in its rank canserve as a surprise element for their oppo-nents. “Most of the time,opponents would not know what to expect. Every time the new ball bowlers are taken off the attack and the first, second or third choicebowlers are brought into the attack, opponents would eagerly wait tosee a spinner to roll his arm over as they can anticipate going forthe top but with us no team can harbour the prospect of facing aspinner,” he explains.