Irfan Pathan sends a timely reminder to the selectors ahead of the World T20 2016

He was at his peak, expected to do wonders, he had his form, the rhythm, the ball was swinging both ways but that is when fitness eluded him. He has been a tough contender, he has always had to fight his way ahead and that is what he did once again. But was deemed unfit, and ignored for selection. Then all of a sudden he was handed over the captaincy for the Twenty20 tournament the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. This has been Irfan Pathan’s story for at least the past couple of years. Erasing off what has happened, the Baroda all-rounder with his team has been scripting a new success story in the T20 tournament thus far.

Leading Baroda into the tournament Irfan has been really impressive with the ball and also as a captain. Being the most versatile and experienced member of the squad in the particular format, he was handed over the responsibility of the team and by winning all the three matches that they have played thus far the younger Pathan has proved his escalation right. What is more pleasing to see is his bowling confidence looks high. In the very first match of the tournament against Assam he registered the first 5-wicket haul of his T20 career and led his team to a win.

After beating Railways in the second match, Baroda were up against Goa today. The match played at the Motibaug Cricket Ground, Vadodara proved to be a one-sided contest. Goa skipper Sagun Kamat won the toss and asked the home team to bat first. Openers Kedar and Mrunal Devdhar gave them a solid start and once the pair was dismissed Irfan first sent in all-rounder Hardik Pandya at no. 3 and then joined him coming in at four to build a match-winning stand worth 85 for the 4^th wicket and got Baroda past 150 in their 20 overs.

The left-hander unleashed himself against the Goa bowlers and put them to the cleaners hitting three sixes and as many boundaries during his 29-ball stay. Irfan was unbeaten on 49* at the end of the innings batting with a sublime strike rate of 168.97. While Hardik who loves to lead the show played a more stable knock and remained not out on 38 from 34 balls, striking one four and a couple of sixes.

155 is always a tricky target in T20 cricket as teams often fail to get over the line in such chases and that is what happened with Goa. Though they might have fancied their chances at the half-way stage their cause was given a serious blow once Irfan returned to the centre with the ball in hand. And like he did in the match against Assam he gave his team a breakthrough in the very first over of the match as wicketkeeper Pinal Shah pouched Sagun Kamat for 5. The skipper then came in his second spell to account for Reagan Pinto’s wicket who was again caught by the keeper.

The Baroda bowlers were too hot to handle for Goa who kept losing wickets almost every over and even before any of the bowlers apart from Hardik Pandya who also got a couple of wickets could finish their quota of 4 overs the opposition were bowled out for just 82 conceding the game by a massive margin of 72 runs. With this win, Baroda now have 12 points after 3 games and are placed right at the top of group C which makes the chances of them making it to the knockouts even more, prominent.

With 8 wickets in 3 matches and a 49-run match winning knock today, Irfan Pathan is certainly making a strong case for himself for the all-rounder’s slot in front of the national selectors before they sit down to pick the squad for the World T20 2016 to be played in India.

Brief Scores:

Baroda – 154/2 in 20 overs (Irfan Pathan 49*, Hardik Pandya 38*; Darshan Misal 2/25)

Goa- 82/10 in 15.4 overs (Deepraj Goankar 48; H Pandya 2/14)

Baroda won by 72 runs

Have you watched Irfan’s bowling in the T20 tournament?
Watch: Irfan Pathan shatter the stumps with an inswinger in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy