It's not always about how many runs a batter scores. Sometimes, especially in red-ball cricket, how a batter scores those runs is just as important.
This is particularly true for innings where the team has gone through a period of upheaval, not least because during these times, survival is top priority.
On Sunday in the Duleep Trophy, East Zone's Sudip Kumar Gharami came in at 25 for 2 with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi gone cheaply. Gharami had to contend with North East Zone's new-ball bowlers, who were on song. Gharami, of course, isn't new to pulling off rescue acts, having scored a career-best 299 in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals for Bengal last season, before following it up with 146 in the semi-final.
Upheaval, scoring opportunity and risk all came together in a single package in the seventh over, three balls into his innings.
The first test came in the form of a full ball outside off. It wasn't a half-volley but Gharami was close to the line and drove slightly on the up. The ball raced to the cover boundary. Two balls later, he got a bouncer at the body. It didn't rise much, so Gharami swivelled and pulled it into the ground for a four through midwicket.
Then, in left-arm spinner Imliwati Lemtur's first over, Gharami reached forward and got a chancy slog sweep to fly flat over mid-on. There were also full balls punished with drives and flicks, as he crafted a dazzling highlights reel.
However, one of the many charms of red-ball cricket comes from how non-scoring shots determine the level of control a batter is exercising.
While there were regular boundaries even before the first two wickets fell, there was also a lingering sense of instability as balls regularly hit or flew past the edge.
That tension seemed to dissipate when Kumar Kushagra, with whom Gharami added 92 off 114 balls for the third wicket, waited in the crease for a top-of-off length ball and defended it to cover. The duo followed that up with leaves and blocks in an effort to negotiate the seam and up-and-down movement off the pitch. Their task was made harder by grey clouds above ground 2 of the Centre of Excellence on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Both batters rode their luck. Lemtur got unplayable bounce twice to beat Kushagra's bat, while Gharami survived a close lbw shout against Akash Choudhary.
Then came the slump before lunch, in which East Zone went from 117 for 2 to 138 for 5. That included the wickets of Virat Singh and Ishan Kishan. Virat was hard-handed as he pushed at the ball and edged to first slip. Kishan tried to guide a wide ball behind point and nicked it to the wicketkeeper. Both instances saw batters feeling for the ball or reaching out, which Kushagra and Gharami avoided at the start of their knocks.
Gharami effectively re-lived the start of his knock during the mini-collapse. For East Zone, the game seemed to have regressed into a state where a wicket could be sensed every time a bowler ran in. There was no getting away for Gharami's partners; for him, the earlier pattern stayed in place.
The blocks and leaves continued to prolong his survival, but he also made sure to break free with a boundary every few deliveries.
In fact, this was a persistent theme throughout North East Zone's bowling: four or five good balls, followed by one or two boundary balls. They either missed their line or their length, if not both. Batters often picked up boundaries either side of a wicket in the close spans.
According to Cricinfo's ball-by-ball data, Gharami scored 35 of his runs with pulls. That was off ten balls and included six fours and a six. That means seven out of the ten attempted pulls went to the boundary. There were also 31 runs in sweeps, paddle and slogs, in 11 balls. To cap it all off, 40 of the 80 overs North East Zone bowled in the day included at least one boundary.
This day should have been the story of North East Zone's bowling. They started on fire, but lost control and ended up burning themselves out. Maybe they would've gotten away with it had the pitch not eased out after lunch or had the sun not come out later in the afternoon. But they didn't help their cause and made the 'how' of Gharami's run-scoring challenge simpler. The 'how much' followed for him (146) and the team (355 for 6).