C. Andre Siddarth is all of 18 but seems to have a mature head on the young shoulders. The Tamil Nadu batter came to the team’s rescue in tricky conditions on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy clash against Assam here with an enterprising knock that underlined his growing stature.
Andre, who made his Ranji Trophy debut in the season opener against Saurashtra, scored a 163-ball 94 to put his team in control after a rather poor start.
“The wicket was actually quite tricky from the morning till the end. It was damp...there was no sunlight,” he said at the end of the day’s play, indicating the difficulty of batting on the pitch at the ACA stadium in Barsapara.
He began a tad slowly but picked up pace once he gauged the nature of the surface and played some lovely shots, preferring the off-side.
The young batter, who has come through age-group cricket and hit an impressive ton against Gujarat in the Buchi Babu All-India tournament in August, put his knock on Wednesday in perspective and said that it was important for the team’s cause.
“I thought more than the 100, this knock is important for the team, if I had played longer, our team could have gotten 20-30 runs extra at the end of the day,” he said.
The right-handed batter also said he had to grind it out as the Assam bowlers bowled with discipline. He added that both the pacers and spinners were equally difficult to face. The pacers got the ball to cut in while the tweakers were able to extract turn from the surface.
After having scored the third half-century in his fourth Ranji match, he sought to put the team first and said, “I have got three fifties but for me (three fifties) is not playing on my mind. For me, when the team requires a certain amount [of runs] and [is in] a situation where I should be there, the team comes first and my performance is second for me...”
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