Ranji Trophy 2022-23: Pradosh Ranjan Paul’s ‘Bahubali’ Hundred Gives Tamil Nadu a Shot at Victory

A jubilant leap, a war-cry kind of a roar and waving his bat in the air – that’s a usual way how batters celebrate their centuries. But Tamil Nadu’s Pradosh Ranjan Paul went a notch ahead, making his maiden First-class Ton at Arun Jaitley Stadium memorable. He wedged his willow on the field, put his helmet on its handle and went down on one knee, while his teammates at the Virat Kohli Pavilion continued their standing ovation.

Back in 2019, Pradosh made his First-class debut at home against Delhi and grabbed the eyeballs right away with a crucial 78-run knock in the first innings. Three years down the line, he arrived in the national capital and found his first century against the same opponent.

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On the third day of the Ranji Trophy 2022-23, Elite Group B match against Delhi, the 22-year-old batter forged a pivotal century stand (103 runs) for the sixth wicket with Vijay Shankar. Once the allrounder was knocked over by Lalit Yadav, the Tamil Nadu No. 7 took the steering under his control, stitching another 88-run stand with Aswin Crist for the 9th wicket.

16 overs after the lunch break, came the moment that stood out as the best sight of the contest so far.

Pradosh clipped a good-length delivery from left-arm quick Kuldip Yadav towards point and stole a single to reach the milestone. And with that one run, he showcased his epic celebration, resembling very much to one of the scenes from the famous movie ‘Bahubali.’

Was Pradosh really inspired by the film? Well, the youngster says it was an instant reaction.

“Nothing like that, it was just spontaneous. It came instantly and wasn’t pre-planned,” Pradosh replied to a News18 Cricketnext query after the stumps.

Pradosh’s outing lasted 212 deliveries during which he smashed 16 boundaries to score 124 runs before getting castled by Pranshu Vijayaran. The knock was his career-best and indeed one of the most resilient ones as for a Tamil Nadu cricketer, it’s never easy to bat in Delhi during winters.

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As the national capital has officially turned colder than several North Indian hill stations, the players from the South were forced to don bennies and monkey caps on the first day of the play. But the next two days were comparatively warmer and by then, the visitors had acclimatized to the conditions.

Sharing his experience of batting in shivery Delhi weather, Pradosh said, “It was too cold when we initially came here. But the temperature rose a bit in the last two days. Before this [Ranji Trophy], I was playing Under-25 in Jaipur, so here, the climate was almost similar, especially today and yesterday.”

“So, it wasn’t much noticeable. But yes, on day 1, when we were fielding, it was extremely cold because, in South, we don’t get to see this. It was something new but we enjoyed it,” he added.

Before getting to his maiden FC century, Pradosh has scored 29 hundreds in age-group cricket for his state. But still, the nervousness was there when he was in his 90s. The youngster was emotional when he reached triple figures because he knew that the knock meant a lot.

Born in Odisha, Pradosh’s family shifted to Tirupur as his banker father was transferred to the city in 2012. But how he got into the cricketing field, that’s quite an interesting story.

On his way back from school one day, he saw a pamphlet about a summer camp at Tiruppur School of Cricket academy. He decided to join it, thus, taking his first step towards professional cricket.

An excellent innings from Pradosh in challenging conditions drew the attention of many. His former teammate Abhinav Mukund, a veteran of 145 FC matches, was all praise of the left-hand batter.

Taking to his official Twitter account, the ex-Tamil Nadu captain wrote, “Another leftie from the TN stables, one who has threatened to make a name for himself for a long time gets his 1st hundred in #RanjiTrophy. Well done Pradosh Ranjan Paul, good knock in difficult conditions. Wishing him many more!”

As the game heads into the final day, Pradosh and his mates will look to bowl out Delhi as soon as possible, paving the way for Tamil Nadu’s victory. The Baba Indrajith-led side declared their first innings on 427 for 8, taking a lead of 124 runs. In reply, Delhi lost Anuj Rawat to reach 28 for 1 at stumps and is still 96 runs behind.

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