Ever since his debut seven years ago, Manoj Tiwary’s phone must have been pinged with more sympathetic messages than applause or praise. From being hailed as the next Dada of Bengal to eventually becoming the perfect example of an unlucky young cricketer, he has seen it all. Injuries — sometimes picked up during a football game or even while batting — have tagged him at worst possible times.

The impact of these mishaps have been to calm the once temperamental player. “I used to be very short tempered. I got upset about a lot of things, on as well as off the field. But as you grow older you become more mature. My injuries also gave me a lot of time to think about my game and also myself as a person,” he says.

That maturity could be seen at the Wankhede stadium on Sunday. It was Tiwary’s brilliant 151 which ensured East Zone remained in the hunt for the Deodhar Trophy with a 52-run against a Yuvraj Singh-led side (Harbhajan Singh missed out due to mild fever).

There was no shortage of intent in Tiwary’s121-ball knock, which comprised 15 fours and four sixes. But rather than a mindless assault, the innings showcased responsibility tailored to the match situation. Tiwary used his aggression deliberately to break free of tricky situations. With his team on 2 for 33 inside 12 overs, on a track which had helped bowlers initially, Tiwary charged Parvez Rasool and hit the spinner for a six and four. They were just the fifth and sixth deliveries he had faced but the payoff to his gamble was that the field spread out allowing easy singles.

When North Zone threw in their experienced spinner Amit Mishra, Tiwary pulled his first delivery to the midwicket boundary. He slammed two more fours off Mishra’s next couple of overs and ensured the leg spinner couldn’t find a rhythm. He moved to 99 with a boundary past point off Yuvraj before getting to his hundred off the next delivery.

Tiwary ensured the scoreboard kept ticking over but began to accelerate post the 40 over mark when East had reached 178 for 5. 95 runs came off the last ten overs with the last two alone fetching 34 . Rishi Dhawan was hit for a six and two fours in the 49th over while Sandeep Sharma was dispatched for a six and a four in the final over to propel East to a respectable 273/8.

Stuttering chase

The North chase never really got going. Ashoke Dinda had Naman Vohra caught in the slips in the first over and soon had Unmukt Chand top-edging a wide ball to deep third man. All eyes were on Yuvraj Singh but he too disappointed. Chasing a full ball pitched way outside the off-stump, Yuvraj only managing to get an edge to the keeper. At 3 for 29, North still managed to show some fight as Mandeep Singh and Gurkeerat Mann kept things in control before Mandeep found a leading edge to point against the off-spinner Saurashish Lahiri. He fell for 40 and when Mann was dismissed for 83 in the 39th over, North had lost half their side for 174. North needed one long partnership but there was no one to play a knock like Tiwary had done.

With the World Cup around the corner, the fringe players must be on the constant lookout for these opportunities and Tiwary certainly did himself no harm considering his timely ton came in a game watched by the national selectors. Tiwary, however, said he felt no additional pressure. “I don’t carry excess baggage when I go to bat. Earlier I used to think about other people who are watching and that I have to impress them. I used to think that I have to play on the up or play lofted shot like others. But over time I have realised what my game is and tried to improve on that. That helped become more consistent,” he said.

Brief scores: East Zone 273 for 8 (M Tiwary 151, S Goswami 43, S Sharma 3/49, R Dhawan 2/53) North Zone 221 in 47.1 overs (M Singh 40, G Singh Mann 83, A Dinda 2/59, S Lahiri 3/41).