The form is with me and I want to make it count: Sudip Chatterjee

The form is with me and I want to make it count: Sudip Chatterjee: Born in a Bengali middle-class family, engaged in the garment business, 24 –year old Sudip Dipen Chatterjee, has now become a ‘household name’ in Kolkata.

Having made his debut in first-class cricket in December, 2012, this stylish south-paw, playing in his debut game in Ranji Trophy against Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, could score only 20 runs in the first innings and could not even ‘open his account’ in the second. He could muster only 75 runs in the four innings he played in that season.

Sudip scored 303 runs in the eight innings that he played 2013-14 season of Ranji Trophy. This also included a 96-run (264m, 176 balls, 14 fours) score in the first innings of the second quarter-final match against Railways, played at Eden Gardens, between 8^th and 12^th January 2014.

From the 2014-15 edition of the tournament, Chatterjee became a regular member of Bengal Playing XI. He scored his maiden first-class century in the season opener against Baroda at the Reliance Stadium, Vadodara, played between 7^th and 10^th December, 2014.

Winning the toss, Bengal, under the leadership of Laxmi Ratan Shukla, opted to bat. Going in to bat at No 3, at the fall of Rohan Banerjee’s wicket, with the team score reading at 78/1, Chatterjee, stayed put at one end and went on plundering runs against the bowling attack comprising of Munaf Patel, Gagandeep Singh, Yusuf Pathan etc.

He held on till the team total reached 437 runs. He contributed 192 runs, staying at the crease for 462 minutes, facing 303 deliveries and striking 21 fours. In the process, he put up two useful partnerships. For the fourth-wicket, Chatterjee and the wicket-keeper, Srivats Goswami added 156 runs (the highest partnership in the match) and for the fifth-wicket, along Bengal skipper, Laxmi Ratan Shukla posted 108 runs.

Though Sudip had scored his maiden first-class century, he missed out on his maiden double-hundred by a very narrow margin. He went on to register another 392 runs from 12 innings that he played in the season that included 4 half-centuries with knocks of 57, 59, 60 and 58 respectively. Chatterjee ended with 584 runs in 13 innings at an average of 44.92 in that season.

The ongoing Ranji Trophy 2015-16 has been extremely useful and beneficial for the youngster. Playing in 9 innings (prior to the match against Maharashtra underway at Pune), he has already accumulated 455 runs at an average of 50.56, including three centuries (145, 116 and 116).

In the season’s first game against the defending champions, Karnataka, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, Sudip, going in to bat at a precarious condition, Bengal having lost three wickets for just 26 runs on the board in the first innings, put up a 173-run fifth-wicket partnership with the India wicket-keeper, Wriddhiman Saha (90, 200m, 132balls, 10 fours  1 six) and another 50-run sixth-wicket partnership with the former skipper, Laxmi Ratan Shukla (24, 4, 36balls, 4 fours, 1 six).

Chatterjee notched up 145 runs in a stay of 351 minutes at the wicket, facing 247 deliveries, studded with 16 fours. In the game against Delhi played at Firoz Shah Kotla, between 22^nd October and 25^th October, 2015, a match that was marred by on-field verbal duel between the rival skippers, Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwari, Sudip played a stellar innings, registering 116 runs off 243 deliveries with 12 fours after a stay of 364 minutes at the crease in the first innings.

In the process he put up a 103-run 3rd wicket partnership alongwith the skipper, Manoj Tiwari (55, 174m, 126 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) and a 155-run partnership (the best in the match) with the wicket-keeper, Wriddhiman Saha (72, 179m, 128 balls, 10 fours, 1 six).

The match against Vidarbha, played between 7^th and 10^th November, 2015, at Jadavour University Second Camus Ground, Kolkata, witnessed Chatterjee make a very remarkable match-winning contribution. The game has been important for the fact that the former Team India opener, Wasim Jaffer, who had taken a transfer from Mumbai to Vidarbha, at the commencement of this season, went on to become the first batsman in the history of Ranji Trophy to cross the 10,000-run mark, when he scored 8 runs in his first knock.

Sudip scored 116 runs off 200 deliveries with the help of 14 fours and a six after a stay of 307 minutes at the crease. Going in to bat at No. 3, with the team score reading at 118/1, at the fall of Abhimanyu Easwaran’s wicket, Chatterjee was the last one to be out after they had scored 334 runs.

His superlative batting efforts combined with a wonderful bowling display by the left-arm spinner, Pragyan Ojha (who also had taken a transfer from Hyderabad at the start of the season), claiming 11 wickets in the match, helped Bengal register their maiden ‘out right’ victory in the tournament.

Playing against the previous season’s ‘runners-up’ Maharashtra at Pune, Sudip Chatterjee scored an unbeaten 51* runs (his 8th half-century) in the first innings at end of Day 1 on 15^th November, 2015. Speaking to a cricketing website, Chatterjee said, “I have been doing well in this season. The form is with me and I want to make it count. So there is no extra pressure on me. Rather it’s an opportunity to prove what I am capable of.”

Sudip is the one cricketer to be watched out for in this Ranji season. With the kind of form that he is in, by the end of the season his will be a ‘big name’.