Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Players- 3
Lukman Meriwala
It was supposed to be Mumbai’s day. They were playing at home, before a limited crowd who were probably there because Ajinkya Rahane was playing or maybe because it was 500th Ranji Trophy game. Either way, they were there to see Mumbai get past Baroda with ease.
Enter Meriwala and Sheth. The latter began the day by dismissing the top-order and Meriwala went along with the Sheth’s song. He dismissed Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad. Sheth then came back to the party to pick up three more and Meriwala dismissed Shardul Thakur and Vijay Gohil to finish off the proceedings.
Mumbai were done and dusted in the first innings. The team, that was supposed to put up a high total, fell before two relatively unknown pacers. However, they had managed to draw the match in the end. Still, the damage done is done.
Wankhede Stadium is special. Getting a five-wicket haul is definitely and adding more icing to the cake, that was his first Ranji season. Meriwala did make heads turn with 13 wickets to his name in the season.
Of course, it is not like this was his only big moment. Meriwala has been around since 2013. He had been playing in both Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for years now.
2013 it was. Young Meriwala walked in for the first time in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Lesser did anyone knew he would take Baroda to the trophy. He had managed to grab 21 wickets while giving away just 5.57 runs per over with the best of 5 for 23 against Delhi. The second-highest wicket-taker in that season had 16 wickets.
Unfortunately, the team had Pandya brothers and of course, Pathan brothers who usually had the spotlight. Meriwala had to sit out whenever their main men returned and sometimes, the others were too good that they went on to make it to the eleven. Still, Meriwala doesn’t complain and loves to get better with every single day.
Now, Meriwala doesn’t come from a place that breathes cricket. He comes from Sarnar Village which approximately is home to 250 families. They mostly speak Gujarati and is 80-odd Kilometers from Baroda. Meriwala began to practice the game when he was 12 years old. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. He also has a younger brother.
His life took a different path when a neighbour convinced the family to take him to Baroda for better training in the game. He then moved 80-odd Kms from his native to Baroda in search of an opportunity. It took him years to reach where he is and Meriwala never had a coach when he was young. His first official training was with Baroda Cricket Association years ago. Also, his coach there played a major role in making him adjust to the lifestyle change in Baroda from his village.
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Nobody looks after players like Irfan Pathan does. If he knows that the player is talented, he takes them under his wing. From Hardik Pandya to Abdul Samad, everyone found a mentor in Pathan and he continues to help many talents even today. Meriwala was/is one of them.
In fact, the Pathan brothers took Meriwala under their wings and thought him different things. While the elder Pathan helped Meriwala to learn more about the mindset of the batters, the younger Pathan taught him to hone his skills when it comes to swing bowling.
Looks like, even today, Irfan Pathan manages to keep in touch with Meriwala and calls him whenever he wants to talk about his bowling. Meriwala also had support from Munaf Patel who was a star at the time when Meriwala debuted.
Despite making his debut in 2013, it took Meriwala a few years to be a regular in the Baroda team. In the previous season, he was one among the people who had a good domestic season but went unsold in the IPL. In the last Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Meriwala returned with 16 wickets to his name from 7 matches while giving away just 6.33 per over. Still, he had no takers in the IPL in that season.
In 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, it looked more like Meriwala was just too tired of everything and just wanted the world to know what he is capable of. After initial good performances, he chose the semi-final to be his day.
He knew he had to come up with something special to dismiss in-form Abhishek Sharma. He bowls a length delivery that seemed back in and went through the defence of Sharma. He had no answers but to stand there and watch the stumps do a cartwheel. It was just too good.
Now, Punjab is full of talent. Removing Sharma wasn’t going to be enough and as expected, the team top-scorer Prabhsimran Singh began to take on Meriwala. Four-Zero-Four. Meriwala went short this time. It wasn’t as quick as Prabhsimran was expecting and ended up finding a fielder. Meriwala gets his 2nd and inaugurated the Punjab collapse.
In the end, he came back to pull off the curtains, to close the play by dismissing Sandeep Sharma with a slow off-cutter. Sharma dragged the ball to the stumps.
In the final, Baroda made only 120 and they needed something special from him. Meriwala, though a bit expensive than one would have thought, ended up dismissing the leading run-scorer of the tournament, N Jagadeesan early in the innings.
Meriwala came up with a similar delivery that he used to dismiss Prabhsimran Singh, the 2nd leading run-scorer, in the semi-final. He bowled a short delivery that wasn’t at the right speed and height to pull for Jagadeesan and he ended up giving an easy catch to midwicket.
Of course, ending on the wrong side of the result would have hurt him but Meriwala had proved himself once again in the tournament that was being watched by many this year.
With 15 wickets, 6.52 economy rate to his name, Meriwala finishes this year’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy edition at 2nd place. If not for the IPL auction, he at least has managed to make people talk about him. In a way, this is a win too.
