“Our thought process was to get to at least 150”

An all-rounder of Baroda, Atit Sheth has been making waves in domestic cricket for quite some time now due to his unique skill set. Seam-bowling All-Rounders are a rarity in India and with the hunt still on for Hardik Pandya’s replacement, Sheth has quietly raised his hands with his impressive performances in domestic cricket.

One such impressive performance came during the recently concluded Duleep Trophy competition. West Zone was in all kinds of trouble in the semi-final against Central Zone at 65/5. This was when Sheth came out to bat and scored a scintillating 74 on a rough track.

Along the way, Atit Sheth had some important partnerships with veteran batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and teammate Dharmendrasinh Jadeja. Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, Sheth opened up about the mindset he and the aforementioned players had during the West Zone’s revival roles. He said:

“When I first went out to bat, Pujara Bhai was batting at the other end and told me how the wickets were playing. He made me realize that since the bowlers are on top, we had to bat for time and weather the storm so that it could get easier the longer the bats were. So at 65/5 our thought process was to get to at least 150 and then re-evaluate if we were better off in. Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and I also had a good partnership and when the runs started pouring in we started to consider a total of about 200 where it was That should give the bowlers some relief.”

West Zone somehow managed to get to 220 and then bowled deftly to beat Central Zone for just 128. In the second innings, Pujara produced one of the tournament’s hits, smashing an astonishing 133 runs and ensuring his team could not lose the game. You come sheth added about this

“The pitch was very hard. But the way he hit Pujara Bhai in the second innings and scored a hundred, it was great to score a century on that pitch. The way he batted was by learning how to bat in such conditions. When he batted there didn’t seem to be anything going on on the pitch when the reality was he was just going around it.”

You came Sheth in bowling

Atit Sheth also had four crucial points in the semi-final and seemed to know exactly what lengths to hit right from the start. He opened up about the favorable conditions in Alor and also explained how he prepared his plans for the opposition fighters.

Concerning this, Sheth said:

“I’ve played a lot of cricket at Alur and realized the middle bowlers get a little buy in on that pitch. The conditions helped the seamers a lot and I prepared myself accordingly. I focused on doing the basics right, which is hitting the right lengths and bowling in that lane of uncertainty. We also played against middle field last year and I watched videos to prepare for certain strokes. So the focus was on moving stump to stump because there was enough help in the toss.”

Atit Sheth’s next stop will be the Deodhar Cup and he’ll be keen to continue putting on the performances that brought him into the limelight.