On a historic high, Odisha dare to dream big

Bastab K Parida
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When Odisha qualified for Ranji Trophy quarter-finals in 2016, it was a moment that was celebrated across the state madly. For a change, victory poses donned the front pages of the newspapers but that was until Gujarat gave them a reality check in the game that mattered - the dream had been crushed.

It was the year Odisha broke the shackles to find a new identity - under the leadership of Govinda Poddar, the very inspirational figure in the Odisha dressing room, the team played fearless cricket. There was a spark inside the dressing room that was hard to miss as Poddar had said, ‘United by a common ambition’. 

After remaining unbeaten in the tournament until the last game of the group stage, there were hopes among the common public too - that it would finally be their year, a year the broken dream of 2000-01 would eventually be realised. Not so much, Gujarat dominated the entire course of the game in Jaipur on the back of a Samit Gohel triple century and eventually went on to win the whole damn thing. The dreams might have been crashed but it gave birth to another dream. 

It would be blasphemous to suggest that Odisha made some drastic changes to their attitude, with the similar storyline of pace bowlers dominating and batsmen failing one game after another being the regular theme for the next three years but something changed this season. By thrashing Chhattisgarh, Services, and Uttarakhand - the first two by an innings margin and the last one by 10 wickets - Odisha are at the top of Elite Group C, five points clear of second-placed Jharkhand. If you haven’t realised it yet, it is an Odisha record that for the first time in their history of the tournament, the team has been able to pull off such an incredible feat.

What has actually brought about this change? Is it only the change in attitude, or the inflection of new talents into the system, or having youngster Subhranshu Senapati as the leader of the pack? Whatever it was, it has calmed Odisha down. It has helped them settle and carve their own niche as the team awaits the challenge from far better teams than they have faced this year so far. 

“It has been a product of understanding each other well and creating an atmosphere that would propel everyone to succeed,” said Odisha’s pace spearhead Basant Mohanty, who has picked up 20 wickets so far at an average just a tad above 12, in an exclusive conversation with SportsCafe. “It is about belief but more about execution. Earlier, we used to fail to execute our plans properly and used to end up on the wrong side of it.”

Explaining further, Mohanty said, “Over the years in Ranji Trophy, there is a trend that if a team has one centurion and one five-wicket taker, then more often than not, you win. It is a plan that we had from the beginning and thankfully, we have been successfully making it happen during the game. Debasish and Shantanu have scored centuries, Rajesh, Suryakanta and I have picked five-wicket hauls. It is all coming together at the right time in the right fashion.” 

Basant couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Debasish Samantray - with a stunning 195 - did it against Services, Shantanu Mishra was the star against Uttarakhand, while the pace troika of Basant, Rajesh and Suryakanta have shared 49 wickets among them in three games so far. Not only that, Biplab Samantray has put his best foot forward as Odisha managed to secure the historic record.

“It is really a proud feeling and trust me, we have never been prouder of our team,” Samantray said, before adding, “If you look at our team, we have the same team in the last few years. It was building the block step by step. Probably, as you mentioned, it was the change in attitude that we have started enjoying each other’s success. We try to complement each other well and try doing everything for the team. It is a recipe that has helped us reach this point.”

Samantray, who has led Odisha with distinction in the past and remains one of the mainstays of the Odisha line-up for over a decade now, has seen the transformation along the way which saw not only the team reaching the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy, but also managing to reach the Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final in 2014. Samantray was one of the architects of both the achievements - scoring a century against Goa in the 2014-15 Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-final and being Odisha’s highest-run scorer in their Ranji QF campaign four years ago. He has been witness to the cultural changes inside the change room that he is extremely proud of.

“In the face of a batting collapse against Chhattisgarh, Sujit Lenka stood up. Debasish Samantray played one solid 195-run knock against Services on a difficult knock. The DRIEMS track was tough for batsmen yet Shantanu Mishra scored a stoic century. It was the combination of their efforts along with our pace bowlers’ performances that is the foundation of our success. Basant Bhai is leading the pack, and how beautifully Suryakanta and Rajesh complimented him! All three have been fantastic for us so far,” Samantray added.

Those who have followed the state cricket with close proximity, Biplab’s statement can actually be viewed in layers. Over the years, not least since Debasish Mohanty had the steering tight in his hand, Odisha’s batting has been their biggest Achilles’ heel, with the bowlers making inroads every single time they stepped onto the field. The story is a bit different this time for the batsmen though, albeit for good, but for the bowlers, it is the same old story of ultra-domination. 

“It is believing in ourselves and stay clear of all the mistakes in the previous years that are helping us," said Rajesh Mohanty, the former India U-19 pacer who has already taken 57 wickets from 12 first-class games. "With Basant Bhai and Suryakant Bhai around me, I have the freedom to go for wickets, nevermind the runs I concede in the process. Basant Bhai doesn’t give away easy runs which build pressure from the other end, helping me force the batsmen out of their comfort zone."

Shedding light on it, Basant rewound the clock back to the time he started playing for the state team some 13 years ago and the support that he had been given by the team’s then pace spearhead Debasish Mohanty. The former Indian pacer had done all the heavy-lifting for the major part of his career and as soon as Basant made his debut, he had no pressure of containing runs. That job was well managed by the senior pacer and Basant reaped the benefits of it. If anything, with the current lot, Basant is just trying to don the same role as Debasish did for many long years. 

“Deba Bhai is a legend of the game. His experience is unmatched and when I burst onto the scene, he gave me all the freedom to experiment with my own game. I picked wickets because of the freedom that I got. I know I can never ever be able to be as influential as Deba Bhai was, but I will try anyway,” a modest Basant Mohanty added with a sense of genuineness that would not tell you his incredible domestic record.

The challenges that await the team is no less in the upcoming matches, with Odisha getting comparatively easier draws for the first four rounds of the tournament; The likes of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Assam being far tougher competitors than Uttarakhand, Chhatisgarh or Services. But they have already set their dream in stone, started believing that they can, and if my experience of following the team for over a decade makes any sense, it is a team that is different from the teams of bygone years. But the real question is can they ride the historic high and go on to make history?

“We have our plans in place. 21 points from three games but we are not going to take our foot off the gas. We’ll eye for another seven points against Tripura,” Biplab signed off, with a sense of assuredness that hasn’t been the team’s biggest ally in recent years. It all can change as Odisha, sitting on the verge of history, take on a depleted Tripura who have lost all their three games in the season so far. 

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