To know what the Saurashtra players do to rev themselves up, you need to have not many people watching. Otherwise, as captain Jaydev Unadkat tells ESPNcricinfo, it wouldn't be needed.
You can be watching on television, or online, just not from the venue. Because it's the silence of Ranji Trophy matches that gave rise to the team's own brand of pumping themselves up.
If you haven't seen it, this is what happens: there are moments in a game when the fielders all start clapping in sync, almost as if they are about to start a flash mob. It acts as an adrenaline boost to the bowler, and the team on the whole. There is no designated 'conductor' of this mini orchestra, it can even be started by the men out of the playing XI, sitting beyond the boundary.
It works in domestic cricket because of the lack of crowds. In international cricket, with the wall of noise around, you don't need it.
"It works here because there is less crowd and you need some kind of momentum on your side," Unadkat says. "But you won't need it if you are playing for India.
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"It started a couple of years back. In a Ranji Trophy game, there aren't that many spectators in all the games. So you need to create that atmosphere where you feel good about yourself and you back your bowlers really well. I think it's something that gets us in our zone, which is really good. For a team to have a routine and get into that zone is something I love personally as well. If I'm bowling, and they start clapping and that atmosphere comes up, I really get that punch. And it's the same with everyone."
Batsman Avi Barot started the routine, having picked it up when playing junior cricket for Gujarat. Barot began his first-class career for Gujarat, moved to Haryana for a while, and then moved to Saurashtra in 2015-16. That was the season Saurashtra reached the final, losing to Mumbai. In the semi-final against Assam, the clapping began. It was a match Saurashtra won by 10 wickets.
"We used to do it in junior cricket in Gujarat to cheer the team up," Barot says. "And I started doing it here also to create a good atmosphere, and everyone liked it. We anyway clap and cheer on the field, so we thought we'll do it all together so that there is more atmosphere created.
"Last year in the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-final against Baroda, we began clapping and suddenly a bunch of wickets fell," Barot remembers. In that match, Baroda were 101 for 2, but lost five wickets in 4.4 overs to sink to 105 for 7, and Saurashtra eventually won by three wickets.
Barot started it, and the team has adopted it. "Everyone just picked it up," Unadkat says. "Anyone can initiate it at any moment. Now it's just a team thing, it doesn't really have any conductor. It can be two claps, three claps, or a two-one-two rhythm. Someone starts it and everyone does it. We don't say anything, it's just clapping.
"Oppositions haven't tried to imitate us but they do pull our legs about it off the field. But it's something that we do in our team and we don't really care what others think about it."