Ranji Trophy 2018-19: Railways vs Mumbai game has father and son on the opposite sides

Sometimes, responsibilities can create the biggest of challenges in the life of man. Dinesh Lad, the observer for the Railways team in Ranji Trophy has been assigned the task of planning the dismissal of his son Siddhesh – who plays for Mumbai. The two teams have locked horns in their opening encounter of the prestigious domestic tournament which kicked off on Thursday.

In the Elite Group A game being played at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi, Mumbai captain Dhawal Kulkarni won the toss and elected to bat. The 41-time champions faced some initial trouble but it was Lad who partnered with Suryakumar Yadav to put up crucial 129 runs for the fourth wicket and Mumbai ended the day at 278 for 5. What’s even more encouraging for them is that Siddesh is still batting on 80 which means his father is yet to get on with his task.

Dinesh came to know about his role just ahead of the game

The senior Lad, whose more popular identity is Indian limited-over vice-captain Rohit Sharma’s childhood coach, is a former cricketer of the Western Railways. Dinesh, however, said that he came to know about his role as the Railways’ observer this season only on Wednesday. “I was only told yesterday that I would be the Railways observer for this season. I haven’t yet received any appointment letter so I will only meet the team after the end of the day’s play,” he was quoted as saying in Indian Express.

When asked whether he has indeed been asked to devise a strategy to see the back of his son, Dinesh laughed.
Calling it a “tricky situation”, Dinesh said he had to both keep his responsibility in mind as well as his son’s success. Siddhesh, a right-hand bat, has played 41 first-class games so far, scoring nearly 3,000 runs at an average of 43 plus with six hundreds. The 26-year-old averages almost 47 in List A games.

This is, however, not the first time that Dinesh and Siddesh have found themselves in opponent teams. According to Dinesh, during a match in Times Shield, while he was coaching Western Railways, Siddesh was representing the Indian Oil Corporation. As far as plotting Siddesh’s dismissal is concerned, Dinesh said waiting for an in-form batsman to make a mistake was the only way out.

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