‘At least Ahmedabad had a pitch…there was none in Faridabad’

The 22yard strip rolled out for the justconcluded twoday Test match will be a topic of discussion long after the dust settles in the India v England seriesThe team that adjusted best to the abrasive Ahmedabad surface came out trumps so Indiarsquos win can be termed as somewhat welldeservedFormer Test batsman Sandeep Patil felt that England were too defensive in their approach and would have been better off had their batsmen showed more intent to score runs rather than scratch around ldquoI feel they were very defensive in their approach and thought about the pitch too much You have to attempt to score runs because that is going to make a difference especially in a lowscoring gamerdquo Patil told middaycomPatil was also part of such a scenario before leading Mumbai to victory over Haryana in the 198485 Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at FaridabadldquoAt least there was a pitch in Ahmedabad At Faridabad there was no such thingrdquo he said in tongue in cheek fashionldquoThis Test match reminded me of that game It was Sanjay Manjrekarrsquos Ranji debut and Haryana had two spinners to exploit the conditions ndash offspinner Sarkar Talwar and leftarm spinner Rajinder Goelrdquo recalled Patil who was leading a Mumbai side without Sunil Gavaskar Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri all of whom on India duty in Australia featuring in the World Championship of CricketHaryana led by Ravinder Chadha did not have the services of India players Kapil Dev and Ashok MalhotraPatil lost the toss and Haryana put up a competitive 223 thanks to halfcenturies from opener Ashwini Kumar and Satya Dev Mumbairsquos offspinner Kiran Mokashi claimed 666Mumbai managed only 195 and would have been deeper in the trenches had debutant Manjrekar top score of 57 and Chandrakant Pandit 39 not put on 66 for the fifth wicketTalwar returned figures of 7107 while Goel who opened the bowling with Rakesh Jolly claimed 359When Mokashi injured his ankle Patil took on the bowling responsibilities with his medium pace along with leftarm spinner Ravi Thakkar Their fourwicket hauls helped dismiss Haryana for 148 and Mumbai were set a victory target of 177Openers Lalchand Rajput and Ghulam Parkar provided a fine start but both fell to Goel and Talwar respectively when the total reached 94 Patil used his punitive blade to slam 59 In that onehour stint at the crease he clubbed Talwar for a six in addition to his six fours Onedrop Shishir Hattangadi who had scored 27 in the first innings kept him company in an unbroken 83run partnership for Mumbai to win by eight wicketsldquoSandeep took Haryana by storm He felt attacking them was the only way to win the game He just didnrsquot allow the ball to land He decided to take on Talwar while I was told to take care of Goel It was a bizarre gamerdquo said Hattangadi