Ajit Manohar Pai (born 28 April 1945) is a former

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played in one

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

in 1969.

Cricket career

A tall opening bowler and useful lower-order batsman, Pai made his debut for

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

in the 1968–69 season. After taking 11 wickets in his first three first-class matches he was selected to represent West Zone in the

Duleep Trophy The Duleep Trophy, also known as Mastercard Duleep trophy due to sponsorship reasons, is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India. Named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji of Nawanagar (also known as 'Duleep'), the competition wa ...

. He helped each team to the championship and finished the season with 129 runs at an average of 25.80 and 23 wickets at 23.21. In September 1969 he took 7 for 42 for West Zone against

Central Zone The Central Indo-Aryan languages or Hindi languages are a group of related language Variety (linguistics), varieties Spoken across North India and Central India. These language varieties form the central part of the Indo-Aryan language family, ...

in the Duleep Trophy and was selected to open the bowling for

in the First Test against

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later that month. He took two wickets and India won, but for the Second Test the selectors decided to use the all-rounders

Rusi Surti Rusi Framroze Surti ( 25 May 1936 – 13 January 2013) was an Indian cricketer who played in 26 Tests from 1960 to 1969. He was a left-arm medium pace and left-arm spin bowler and a lower-order batsman. Surti was also a popular professional fo ...

and

Syed Abid Ali Syed Abid Ali (born 9 September 1941) is a former all-rounder Indian cricketer. He was a lower order batsman and a medium pace bowler. He played an important role in Indian cricket in the 1960s and 70s. Early life Abid Ali attended the St. ...

to open the bowling and strengthened the spin attack with

Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan ( (informally Venkat, born 21 April 1945) is an Indian former cricketer. He captained the Indian cricket team at the first two ICC Cricket World Cups, and later became an umpire on the elite International Cri ...

. Again he helped West Zone and Bombay win their respective championships in 1969–70. Pai did not play any further matches in the Duleep Trophy, but in 1970-71 he had an outstanding match for Bombay against Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy. Batting at number seven, he made 91 out of a Bombay total of 265, then took 5 for 22 and 6 for 30 to take Bombay to victory by an innings and 82 runs. Once again he played in the Bombay side that won the Ranji Trophy. Pai's bowling form fell away after 1970–71, but he played in two more Ranji Trophy-winning Bombay sides, in 1974-75 and 1975–76, seasons in which his batting (310 runs at 28.11) and catching (18 catches in 10 matches) were more prominent. The 1975–76 victory in the final over

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

was his last first-class match.

Later life

Pai worked as an architect for the

Bank of Baroda Bank of Baroda (BOB or BoB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. It is the second largest public sector bank in India after State Bank of India, with 132 million customers, a total business of US$218 billion, a ...

References

External links

Ajit Pai at Cricket Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pai, Ajit 1945 births Living people India Test cricketers Indian cricketers Mumbai cricketers West Zone cricketers Cricketers from Mumbai