Ranji Trophy: Captain Sachin Baby revels in pressure

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sachin Baby had just completed his century. Madhya Pradesh seamer Kuldeep Sen was steaming in and he bowled a bouncer that took off sharply and came back at Sachin.
The left-hander, though, was unperturbed. He was watching the ball like a hawk and had time to sway back a bit and run the ball off the face of his bat over the wicketkeeper for a delectable boundary.Not an easy shot to play but Sachin at the moment is so confident that he could pull that off.
The Kerala captain is probably going through his best phase as a batsman. The 143 against Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at Thumba on Friday was his second century of the season and fifth overall.
He had earlier scored 147 in the season opener against Hyderabad at the same venue. Sachin is Kerala's second-highest run-getter this season with 341 runs, behind Jalaj Saxena who has 381. In the Vijay Haare Trophy preceding the Ranji Trophy, Sachin was Kerala's leading scorer with 278 runs.
In the 2017-18 Ranji season, Sachin led Kerala to their first-ever quarterfinal appearance but the differences within the dressing room snowballed before the beginning of this season. A group of players asked for the removal of his captaincy but the Kerala Cricket Association backed Sachin. Eventually, peace was brokered between the players and Sachin and he was persisted as captain.
The whole saga could have weighed down Sachin and leading to his game suffering. But he has taken it as an opportunity to grow more into the role of a leader.
"It has helped me become stronger and tougher and get better as a person. There were a lot of misunderstandings and now we have sorted it out," Sachin had said before the start of the season.
The mental resolve he had acquired through the tough times was on display against Madhya Pradesh. Kerala were tottering at 38 for four and staring at an innings-defeat at the start of the third day of this match. He hung in there and his 199-run partnership with Vishnu Vinod brought Kerala back into the game and he was egging on his young partner all throughout their stand.
"Sachin leads from the front. He leads with his physical presence. Look at him while fielding, if he dives and gets a bruise, he would get up and get on with it and that sets the right example," said Kerala coach Dav Whatmore.
Whatmore thinks Sachin is enjoying the leadership and that is shown in his batting also. "I don't think he has changed anything technically, He has become more confident. Thre was an issue we all know. It was not easy. But now all that is sorted and it is in the past. He is now revelling in leadership and responsibility," added Whatmore.
Watching Sachin this season, one gets the feeling that there is a conscious effort not to get bogged down and play more freely. He has become more adventurous against spinners and is rotating the strike smoothly.
"Scoring at nearly four runs an over has now become the norm in Ranji also. We need to score at a faster clip to get results. So if there is a risk worth taking, we should take it," said Sachin on a day when Kerala scored 352 from 90 overs, a charge led by the skipper.