Rahane backs lowprofile coaches
Ajinkya Rahane, the Mumbai captain, has stressed on valuing local and lowprofile coaches in domestic cricket while taking a dig at “flashy coaches”.
“It is really good to have a coach like Omkar (Salvi) with us. It shows that you don’t need highprofile or flashy coaches to be around the team. You can still be under the radar. You can still stay lowprofile and get the best out of each and every player,” Rahane said here on Saturday.
While Omkar Salvi – the former bowling coach of Mumbai and Kolkata Knight Riders – has excelled in keeping Mumbai’s mission to regain the Ranji Trophy, Vidarbha has also fared well with Usman Ghani in charge.
“Omkar was with Mumbai team before earlier, but in a different role. Now as the head coach, the work he has done with every player, the amount of attention he has given to each and every player has been amazing,” Rahane said.
“Even the Vidarbha coach, he is also very lowprofile, so it’s good to have lowprofile coaches. They give importance to players. They give freedom to the players. It’s a good sign for Indian cricket coaches. Even lowprofile coaches can do the job for their team.”
While Rahane stressed the team respected Vidarbha as an opposition, Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar attributed Vidarbha’s performance to its depth at grassroot level.
“When we won the Ranji Trophy in 201718, we had won CK Nayudu Trophy prior to that, and even before that we had lifted the under 19title, so those under19 and under23 players are now graduating to the Ranji Trophy,” Wadkar said.
“Everyone comes up the ranks through performance. If we have done well in the last 10 years, it is because we have done well in all age groups.
Wadkar was confident Vidarbha will not wilt.
The Services team celebrates after beating Goa in the final.
P.P. Shafeel scored with a spectacular piledriver to help Services beat a strong Goa by a solitary goal in the final to lift the Santosh Trophy for the seventh time in the history of the premier interstate senior men’s football competition.
The opening session at the Golden Jubilee Stadium ended goalless as the attackers failed at both ends. There was no dearth of action though as both sides adopted an open approach. They produced some nice raids that were either neutralised in the box or went wide for want
of precision.
The second session came alive with more concentrated efforts from Services, which started probing the Goa box with more purpose. Goa goalkeeper Antonio Da Silva made a crucial save in the 50th minute to make up for the mistake of his defensive colleague Deeshank Kunkalikar, who miscued a clearance to let Services righthalf Subham Rana have a crack.
Services kept pressing for the lead and found it in the 67th minute when midfielder Rahul Ramakrishnan set up Saheel outside the Goa box. The Services rightback answered with a
powerful grounder that went through Da Silva’s defences. Goa went in the hunt for the equaliser and came close to finding it on at least three occasions. But Services’ defence stuck to its task and found the clearances at the right moment.
The best chance came in injurytime (90+3 minute) when Deeshank put in a nice cross for substitute Joshua D’Silva. The latter’s header beat the Services goalkeeper Abdul Kadir but Pradeep Kumar cleared from the line to save the day for Services.
The result: Services 1 (P.P. Shafeel 67) bt Goa 0.