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Satish shared his feelings about playing his 100th first-class match and scoring a double century. “It feels great and honestly it does not feel any different from any other game.

Ganesh Satish has hit a double century in the ongoing Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra. Satish’s magnificent 275 has put Vidarbha in the driver’s seat.

This double century is all the more special for Satish as it coincides with his 100th first-class match. On this special occasion, Satish made it even more memorable, registering his best individual score to date. His previous best, 237, was against Andhra in the 2019-20 season.

“Ranji Trophy is the biggest opportunity for domestic cricketers to showcase their talent. It is the livelihood of more than 600 players. All the greats of Indian cricket come up from the Ranji trophy and it is also a matter of pride to say I’m a Ranji Cricketer.” Satish said.

Talking to The Indian Express, Satish shared his feelings about playing his 100th first-class match and scoring a double century. “It feels great and honestly it does not feel any different from any other game. I just take it game by game. The first game or 100th game was not going to change the way I approached it. It’s just great and obviously, I feel proud to have played so many games. I am really happy that I contributed with the bat for my team.”

‘Nagpur is my second home’

Satish played a vast chunk of his cricket for Karnataka before migrating to Vidarbha. “I won the Ranji Trophy with Karnataka and I scored a century in the final. After a while, I had a difference of opinion with the selectors there and the team think-tank. I decided to shift base and join a team where I would get stability and game-time,” Satish said.

Expressing his feelings about the Vidarbha team, he said: “I think, all of us get along very well. It is a small region in Maharashtra but everyone gets along really well. We play as a team and I think that’s the best part. Ever since I moved from Karnataka to Vidarbha, I have never felt like I am an outsider. I always felt like Nagpur is my second home. This is my eighth year with Vidarbha and we won the Ranji trophy twice. It has been a fantastic journey.”

Early days

Born to doctor parents, Satish started playing cricket at the age of five. His parents have been supportive of him all through his journey. His father’s love for cricket made him encourage his son to play cricket. Satish said: “I started playing leather ball cricket when I was five. My dad took me to the Brijesh Patel cricket academy. He saw some talent in me. That’s how I started my journey. My dad is a huge cricket lover and my parents are doctors. They encouraged me to play cricket. Until the 12th standard, until I played for India U-19, studies always came first at home, but then slowly they saw that I had the potential to play highest-level cricket. They always encouraged me to follow my passion. That’s when cricket took precedence. I represented Karnataka at U-12 and U-14 age groups. Then I played all the age-group tournaments for Karnataka. At the age of 20, I made my debut for the Karnataka senior squad.”

Playing for India is the biggest motivation

The 33-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman acknowledges that age is a factor when it comes to professional cricketers but he does not want it to become an impediment. He said: “I know obviously, it gets tough once you cross 30, but my dream is to play Test cricket. This is what motivates me to perform better every time I go out there in the middle. I won’t give up on my dream until I stop playing. I will continue to strive for it.”

There are times when a player is unable to perform to the best of his ability. According to Satish, the key is to be consistent. He confessed: “I have been through tough times but you have to believe in yourself. The support system is very important and I am lucky to have my parents, my brother and my wife to support me during my tough times. When I made the decision to leave Karnataka, they stood by me. My coach Rajesh Kamath has been with me since my childhood. He helped me shape my batting throughout.”

Talking about winning the Ranji Trophy twice while playing for Vidarbha, he said: “I think the first time, nobody expected us to win the trophy. But we always believed that we have the talent and we can win. Everyone put their hands up in the crucial moments. We had that experience since Wasim Jaffer was there with the side. We have a team of fighters. Since you are the champions, people will be more aware and wanted to prove that it is not a one-time affair. So the second year also, we played brilliantly and won the title.

Article courtesy: Ashish Satyam of Indian Express

The Baba twins of Tamil Nadu – Aparajith and lndrajith – achieved an unprecedented feat in Indian cricket on Thursday.

They became the first set of Indian twins to score centuries in the same First-Class match for the same team. However, the two had scored hundreds in a First-Class match before – during the 2018 Duleep Trophy in Dindigul -though for different teams. Aparajith was representing India Red while lndrajith played for India Green.

On Thursday, Indrajith {127, 2lx4) and Aparajith (101 batting, 8×4,2×6) notched up a 206 run third wicket stand that was the highlight on Day one of their Ranji Trophy clash against Chhattisgarh at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. The duo was instrumental in Tamil Nadu ending the day on 308 for 4.

“Batting with each other has always been fun right from the time we took up the sport as kids. We root for each other always. While the last time we scored hundreds in a match – it was for different teams – but doing so in the same match and that too for Tamil Nadu is a truly special feeling  altogether,” Indrajith told TOL

Aparajith, on the other hand, was all praise for Indrajith for the way he went about his innings. “He was striking so fluently and I didn’t want to do anything silly. With the wicket on the slower side, the idea was to settle down before playing my shots,” Aparajith said.

Thursday’s partnership saw the two employ different modes of run-scoring. While Indrajith dealt majorly in boundaries, Aparajith played second fiddle during his unfinished 197-ball knock. After starting the Ranji season with a fluent 117 against Delhi, this was Indrajith’s second successive hundred.

It took Indrajith just 109 balls and one session-the post­lunch-to raise his 11th First Class ton. Indrajith arrived at the fall of opener L Suryaprakash (21,3×4) in the first over after lunch. From being S9 for 2, the Indrajith-Aparajith pair laid the foundation for Tamil Nadu’s innings with their 28S-ball partnership.

The duo brought the 5O run partnership in the 40th over of the innings with Indrajith contributing 35 in it. A bulk of Indrajith’s run came off left-arm spinners – Sumit Ruikar and Ajay Mandal. While Indrajith got 42 runs off Sumit studded with f ive fours, Ajay accounted for 2S that had 3 hits to the fence.

As Indrajith he raced to 88, Aparajith he crossed the 5O-run mark in 131 deliveries. Indrajith took just three deliveries to move from 88 to the t hree-figure mark in the last over before tea. That over, bowled by medium-pacer Shashank Singh, saw Indrajith hit three back-to-back boundaries to get to the three-figure mark.

Indrajith’s 141-ball essay was cut short when he was cleaned up by Ajay (2-82) in the 71st over of Tamil Nadu innings. Despite losing skipper Vijay Shankar (O) cheaply, Aparajith, in the company of M Shahrukh Khan (28 batt ing, 1×4, 2×6), got to his 10th First-Class century before close of play. The in­form Shahrukh was given a life on 14 by Ravi Kiran who dropped a sitter at backward point region.

Earlier, the start of play was delayed by an hour due to wet patches on the wicket.

Note : It was me who unearthed this feat to a query from Shri Ashok Venugopal of Indian Express

Article courtesy – The Times of India of Feb 25, 2022

WHAT could have been a better occasion than the 100th First-Class match to score a century! Ganesh Satish, Vidarbha’s only professional cricketer, hammered a huge unbeaten century in his 100th First-Class match to help former two-time Ranji Trophy champions recover from a shaky start and end Day One at a comfortable position. Maharashtra pacer Mukesh Choudhary had put Vidarbha on the back foot sending back both the openers —captain Faiz Fazal (14) and R Sanjay (3) as early as seventh over of the game. But Satish (114*), along with Atharva Taide (68), first did the repair job and then, as the game progressed, strengthened Vidarbha’s position to end the day at 270 for 3.

The day at Gurugram in Rohtak belonged to Satish who was playing his milestone match. The 33-year-old right-handed batter dropped his anchor and played sensibly, picking runs from all parts of the field. Satish and Taide added 177 runs for the third wicket during which the former also completed his 17th First-Class century which was also 10th for Vidarbha in Ranji Trophy. He has also scored six centuries for Karnataka and one for Vidarbha in Irani Trophy while playing against Rest of India. Satish used all his experience and picked runs from all the bowlers. He did not let Choudhary get under his skin and hit four sweetly-timed boundaries from 54 deliveries he faced and collected 27 runs. He had same treatment for Pradeep Dadhe from whose bowling he picked 30 runs with four boundaries. Satyajeet Bachhav, who had taken 11 wickets in Maharashtra’s win over Assam, was in for some special treatment from Satish as the batter collected maximum of his runs from the spinner’s bowling hitting four boundaries and a six. Taide, on the other hand, targeted only Dadhe as the 29 runs he picked from the bowler had six boundaries.

Both the batters were in total control and were close to taking their total past 200 when Taide lost concentration and got stumped off Bachhav in the 63rd over of the day. By the time Taide got out, Vidarbha were back on their feet after the early morning setback. Last match’s centurion Akshay Wadkar joined Satish in the middle with around 25 overs still to be bowled and the wicketkeeper-batsman continued from where he left collecting 35 runs with six boundaries. He looked quite comfortable batting against left-arm orthodox Bachhav picking three boundaries while two came from 19-year-old spinner Vicky Ostwal’s bowling. Satish and Wadkar have already added 75 runs for the fourth wicket and both will look to consolidating it on the morrow.

Earlier in the morning, R Sanjay, who had hit 94 against Uttar Pradesh fell prey to Choudhary’s seam bowling as he nicked one back to give wicketkeeper Vishant More an easy catch in the 5th over. Two overs later, Fazal, who had slammed 192 in the opener, too, could not keep his bat away from a swinging delivery as he too was caught by More. But Satish and Taide made sure there were no more casualties and bailed out Vidarbha. With seven wickets still in hand, Vidarbha are in a strong position to post a huge first innings total and put Maharashtra under pressure. Vidarbha left out Umesh Yadav from the playing XI as he was expected to join the Indian team for the Sri Lanka series.

Article Courtesy : The Hitavada

Ganesh Satish’s 275 for Vidarbha against Maharashta at Sultanpur in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2021/22 provides the 562^nd occasion of a batsman scoring a double hundred in the history of Ranji Trophy. All such occasions are tabulated team wise