Mumbai, Jan 23: The Mumbai U-19 batsmen have bested the UP bowlers to reach the Cooch Behar trophy semi-final on the basis of a first-innings lead. Harmeet Singh’s boys will now face Maharashtra in a bid to reclaim the trophy.

In his post-match media interaction, Harmeet spoke about the cohesiveness in the team and his personal form. Excerpts:

On the onslaught against UP today

Yes, we did have a bit of batting practice […] All [our batsmen] scored so [it was] good for the team.

On playing the final against Maharashtra

[It’s] just another game for us. We are playing well ourselves. We won’t play on others’ strengths. We will play to our strengths, not look at what they have.

On not having picked too many wickets recently

Actually, I have taken wickets whenever possible. Whenever [the] responsibility is on me, I have taken wickets. It’s a combined effort and the team is doing well as a whole […] Every bowler is coming up and responding to whatever responsibility I give him. [In the] first game [against Jharkhand in Ranchi] when we started off [… ] II bowled 80 to 90 overs and I got 10 wickets. But here there was no need [to do that]. We were playing four seamers so we were not dependant on the spinners. I got a chance in between when there was a partnership building up [and] I got two wickets there. It’s just that I am doing my job well and it’s just for the team. If I thought selfishly then I would bowl 60 to 80 overs every game and take five wickets.

On leading the side

[I have] led the Bombay Under-16 side and we lost the semis [at] that time. This time everyone is mature. It’s almost the same team which played in the Under-16 [category] and this time everyone is making a really big effort […] It’s really good to be part of the team and the amount of effort everyone is putting in [is considerable]. Even for the tenth wicket, the faith one batsman has in his partner [is good]. The [understanding] is really good between us.

On the weakness of the UP batsman that they were looking to exploit

They are flashy players […] They don’t have as much patience [as] we showed in the first innings. This game was about patience and […] we [got them] on the patience [factor]. They were not patient enough to survive there and the bouncers that we ducked, they played, so we got wickets. And we played the spinners in a completely different fashion that they did […]

On whether he had set himself any targets to make it to the senior team

My target is always to do well and not [look to] play Ranji this season […] or [for] India that season. I just want to keep playing well and keep taking wickets, that’s it.

On the lessons learnt from playing with the seniors in the Ranji team

[I imbibe] whatever possible experience I can get from every game. There were close encounters in the time that I played Ranji Trophy cricket. [Part of what I picked up was] the field placements that Wasim bhai [Jaffer] set; the field placements on my bowling. The dressing room talk reflects in the players’ [performances].

On the opportunity for his side to win at least one trophy in what has been a winless year for Mumbai

It is a big opportunity for us to prove our worth. At the start of the season we were told that we have [insufficient] talent in the team but our players have taken that [positively]. It’s just amazing, incredible I would say. When we played the first game I was just thinking that we needed to strive hard to take an outright victory [in Ranchi] […]. Then after that I [suffered a] fracture in the second game; we took that game outright. We qualified, I rested for two games [and] we lost one game. I knew the importance of my staying in the team. When I came back for the quarters we had a four-day camp in BKC that helped a lot because we were together the whole day. [We] strove hard there and our coach [Satish Samant] put in a lot of effort, as did the physio [and] everyone else. A big efforts has been put in by the MCA to organise the camp for four days. [They gave us the facilities] that got us together and we gained momentum for the quarters and semis.

On playing the Under-19 World Cup team

I have played that World Cup and recently the Under-19 West Zone [which] we won […]. The talent coming up at the U-19 [level] is really good. […] When I look back after two years everything has changed and suddenly there are three or four [good] batsmen and bowlers. Everything has changed.