The Bowler Ajith Ram has opened up on his love for bowling long spells and revealed to continuing his brilliant form for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy season.
Ajith picked up four wickets in 42 overs in two days versus Chhattisgarh in the Buchi Babu tournament semi-finals where the wicket offered no help to spinners.
He dismissed four batters conceding 109 runs for TNCA Xl at NPR College Cricket Ground. “In general, wherever I play, I love bowling a lot. The way I look at it, long spells mean a lot of opportunities to pick up wickets. I enjoy doing it,” said on Tuesday.
He said that he likes to keep bowling to plot a batter’s dismissal. He also prised out Shashank Chandrakar in just 10 deliveries with the new ball on the first day, the dismissal gives an understanding of his learning.
Chandrakar swept the ball for a six and four on the square leg boundary in Ajith’s first over. So, in his next over, Ajith darted in a short and just outside off delivery. The batter, playing for the turn, went on the back foot to cut the ball, which hit his back pad to get dismissed on lbw.
“Since I was bowling with the new ball, I tried to bowl cautiously to see what he does. When he hit those two sweeps, I got the idea that he was going to take me on.
“Since he was sweeping easily on the stump line, I thought I’d bowl it outside the stump line. I had bowled the previous two deliveries (before the dismissal) a bit slower. So, I tried to see what he does when I bowled it a bit quicker.”
“I thought maybe he’ll go for the sweep again and I’ll get an lbw opportunity. I bowled it just short and because of that, the ball got a lot of time to sharply go in as well. Also, since it was a new ball, it went in sharper than I expected,” he said.
Ajith Ram was the joint second-most wicket taker in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy picking 41 wickets in 13 innings. He is the leading wicket-taker after five rounds in the TNCA first-division cricket league with 32 wickets for Globe Trotters SC.
