At 33, Siddhesh Lad has finally got a dream season he has been looking for since the time he made his Mumbai debut more than a decade ago. He went on to score his fifth hundred in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season and this time the landmark came as a Mumbai skipper against Delhi on day two at the MCA-BKC ground. His innings helped Mumbai take a lead of 45 as the home team went back with their collars high.
Once looked at as a crisis man Lad has been under the constant lens not because of his potential talent but due his coaching father, who has poduced India captains like Rohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur and many other domestic players. Lad knew that he had it in him to succeed but in the initial stages of his career, he batted lower down the order. His friends and team mates often advised him that if he wants to play for the Indian side in his life, he will have to eye a higher spot in the line up. Selectors prefer only those who bat in the top four and score aplenty. Somehow with Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav batting at the top, Lad never managed to be in top four for Mumbai.
Lad looked comfortable batting late in the order but his cricket didn’t prosper. He was part of the Mumbai Indians set up for many years but could get only one game under his belt. There is a sense of pride that his cricket graph won’t get whittled down to being just another domestic cricketers in the country.
In his late 20’s he even tried to change his state and moved to Goa but had to come back due to lack of stability in the new state. He underwent a mandatory cooling period three seasons ago where a Mumbai player who returned home after serving another state had to stay a year in exile.
Mumbai selectors then decided to pick him back last season.
“I feel blessed, I never thought I would score these five hundred at this age especially coming from a different state. My father was always telling me that I still have it in me. I didn’t know whether I should continue playing cricket or not. At the same time it will be unfair if I will not thank MCA president Ajinkya Naik because the way he supported me was immense,” Lad said after his unbeaten 102 which came in 178 balls and had 12 fours in it.
His presence in the middle-order did stabilize Mumbai’s middle-order this season. For the first time in his domestic career, he managed to cross the 700 runs a season milestone. Alongwith Suved Parkar, Mumbai ended their day on 266 for 5 stretching their lead by 45 runs. Lad and Parkar added 130 runs for the sixth wicket. Mumbai were 136 for 5 at one stage after they had lost four wickets. Resuming, on 13 for 1, Mumbai lost overnight batsman Tushar Deshpande early while opener Akhil Herwadkar went for a mere 12. Musheer Khan went on to slam a decent half century before he was caught on leg side despite the deflection coming off his pads.
Sarfaraz Khan looked in good touch and slammed a few fours to pacer Money Grewal. He scored four from a square cut and next ball played a brilliant cover dive, however, he went chasing one pitched outside off-stump and found an edge to wicket-keeper Pranav Rajvanshi.
Brief Scores: Delhi 221 vs Mumbai 266 for 5 (Musheer Khan 57, Siddhesh Lad 102 not out, Suved Parkar 53 not out) lead by 45 runs.