Arjun Tendulkar made headlines after scoring a century on his Ranji Trophy debut for Goa. A day later, Arjun proved his mettle with the ball as well with wickets of set batters Mahipal Lomror and Salman Khan to push Rajasthan on back foot on Day 3 of the match.
In a matter of four overs, Arjun dismissed Lomror who was looking to build a solid partnership for the third wicket. He edged one to wicketkeeper Eknath Kerkar. Lomror scored 63 runs from 156 deliveries. Few overs later, he got rid of Salman as well in similar fashion. Salman missed out on his half-century as he got out after scoring 40 runs.
Mohit Redkar was the pick of the bowlers as he bagged three wickets including opener Yash Kothari who scored a 93-ball 96 and skipper Ashok Menaria (12).
At the end of day's play, Rajasthan had 245/6 on the board, still trailing by 302 runs. Arjun conceded 77 runs from his 14 overs including two maiden overs.
On Day 4, Rajasthan lower order batter will face an uphill task to match the first innings score of 548/9 by Goa which included Suyash Prabhudessai's 212 and Arjun's 120-run knock.
“I did tell him (to go for 100). He was batting on 4 not out, he was sent as a nightwatchman. He asked, ‘what do you think would be a good total?’ They were 210/5 down. I said, 'at least 375 is what you need to get to'. And he said, 'are you sure?' I replied, 'yeah. you need to go out and get a hundred. Do you believe you can go out and get a 100?” legendary Sachin Tendulkar revealed during an Infosys event.
“As of the approach today, it was more about the basics. Just give first hour to the bowlers. After we grit the initial phase out, it’s time to capitalise. And time to get runs. As I said, it was the new ball and the new ball would do something. I honestly don’t care how I look, I gritted the first difficult phase out and then I cashed in,” Arjun had told the reporters after equalling his father’s feat.
