Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR
The first-ever participant to get to a century at No. 11 in the Ranji Trophy, former Tamil Nadu opener Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, recalled his innings on Tuesday. He scored a 122-ball 115 (17×4, 3×6) in the pre-quarterfinal versus Delhi on the IIT-Chemplast floor right here in 2001. Mumbai’s Tushar Deshpande turned the second No. 11 batter to rating a ton in the event with his knock of 123 in opposition to Baroda on Tuesday.
“This is something which doesn’t happen (at all). Mine happened out of chance only. Because, I still remember, I wasn’t supposed to play that game. I think Ashish Kapoor at 9.15 a.m. (on matchday) came and told me that I was playing. I heard it as ‘You’re not playing.’
“So, till 11 a.m. or 12 p.m. on the first day, I thought I wasn’t playing! Then, suddenly (captain) Robin (Singh) came and asked who should bat at No. 10 and 11 between M.R. Shrinivas and me. That’s actually when I knew I was playing.
“Some senior player said that M.R. is a more compact player and that I would just throw the bat. So, I was sent in at No. 11. Otherwise, maybe if I had gone at No. 10, it wouldn’t have been the same,” he mentioned.
After the innings, he was in for a nice shock that made the knock much more particular for him. “I got the century with Sachin Tendulkar’s bat! (Sadagopan) Ramesh was playing for India at that time. His brother (Sadagopan) Mahesh had brought that bat for that match. After I scored the hundred, he told me, ‘This is a very special bat, because Sachin gave that bat to Ramesh and you used that bat to score a century!’”
