Playing his third game in his debut county season for Hampshire, Ajinkya Rahane made 34 runs against Nottinghamshire at Nettleworth, a ground which belongs to Welbeck Colliery CC. For an Indian player used to the noise and atmosphere created by a crowd, playing on these small club grounds can be a humbling experience. It offers a different kind of a challenge too.
“We played our last two games at club grounds. To adjust to the swing and bounce on those wickets wasn’t easy. When the ground is open from all sides, the ball swings a lot, and I had to tackle that,” Rahane told Media from Nettleworth.
Elaborating on his experience, he said: “These grounds don’t have the same facilities as those at international cricket stadiums. The wickets are under-prepared at times. As a batsman, that’s a challenge. The bounce on the two club ground wickets was different. Not many games are held here. The ball keeps swinging the whole day. That doesn’t happen in the big international stadiums, unless the conditions are overcast big time. On these grounds, even if its sunny, the ball tends to move around because of the breeze.”
The small, but pretty grounds on which some of the county matches are held in England, have reminded Rahane of the Kanga League, Mumbai’s unique monsoon weather cricket tournament. Like all Mumbai cricketers, the 31-year-old has played a fair bit of Kanga.
“As a Mumbai cricketer, I’m used to playing at a club ground. At Azad and Cross Maidan, the sight screen is never an issue! It’s the same here. It’s good to see that people come to enjoy matches at these club grounds too.
“Like the Kanga, the matches start here even if there’s a light drizzle. While fielding in the slips, I was telling my teammates about the Kanga League- how it’s a historical tournament, how we play on wet wickets, how the grass is so tall in some of the grounds that the ball stops and we can sprint between wickets and take a few extra It’s important to be street smart these kinds of conditions,” he explained.
Rahane is the first Indian cricketer to play for Hampshire and is likely to return to the national side when they tour the West Indies after the WC. added icing to the cake was that he slammed a hundred (119) on his debut – against Nottinghamshire at Newport. “It was a special moment. What I’m learning here is that we focus so much on practice, but sometimes it’s all in the mind You’ve to adjust mentally as quickly as possible – whether it’ through visualization or any other method that you have. If you’re mentally strong, and adjust accordingly, then skill-wise you’ll adjust automatically. I saw how our opponents, the Nottinghamshire bats men, were playing in these conditions. I tried to apply the same things that I observed,” he said.
Playing at open club grounds can be different kind of challenges: Ajinkya Rahane
