"Abhi jo announce hua ki hamein paanch crore milega agar jeet gaye, ab Vijay Hazare me to hum log jaan laga denge [Now that it's been announced we will get INR 5 crore if we win, we will give it our all in the Vijay Hazare Trophy]."
Ishan Kishan was in his element at the felicitation ceremony held by the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) a day after Jharkhand clinched their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) title after beating Haryana in the final in Pune. As the victorious Jharkhand team arrived in Ranchi, JSCA announced an INR 2 crore reward for the players and support staff. They also dangled a bigger incentive - INR 5 crore if they lift the Vijay Hazare Trophy, which begins on December 24, prompting that quip from Kishan.
Jharkhand enjoyed a near-flawless SMAT campaign. They won ten of their 11 matches, most of them convincingly. Grouped alongside three former SMAT champions - Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka - they won seven out of seven games to top group D.
In the Super League stage, they were pitted against Andhra, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab. They dropped just one game in three and ensured qualification to the final. The captain/vice-captain duo of Kishan and Kumar Kushagra then turned the final exceedingly one-sided, setting up a total of 262, a record by any team in a T20 final, and a 69-run win.
The celebrations flowed deep into the night, first in Pune and then in Ranchi the next day. The ride to the top, however, had been anything but easy.
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February 28, 2024. An inconsolable Ratan Kumar, the then Jharkhand Under-23 head coach, sat by the boundary line in tears after his team was knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the CK Nayudu Trophy in Jamshedpur. Twenty months later, Ratan, now the head coach of the senior men's team, was emotional again, this time shedding tears of joy, and of having proven people wrong.
Not many gave Jharkhand a chance at the start of the white-ball season, and for good reason. They had never before qualified for an SMAT final. The last time they made the final of any senior domestic tournament was when they won the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2010-11. Results since then had been patchy at best.
What's brought about this resounding change? "We have seen so much adversity, so many results have gone against us, that the fear of losing is gone now," fast bowler Sushant Mishra, the joint-leading wicket-taker in the SMAT, tells ESPNcricinfo. "Most of the time, we don't qualify. Now we have the freedom to express ourselves and dominate; there is fearlessness within the team. More than anything, the recognition Jharkhand cricket deserves, we are getting that, and that makes me the happiest.
"People don't always talk about Jharkhand cricket as a whole; it is always about one or two players. Now with this win, we as a state will get greater recognition. Our cricket will go from strength to strength. This will act as motivation for everyone around."
Jharkhand had to be fearless, considering the group they were in. They began with a comfortable win against Delhi and then pulled off an improbable come-from-behind win against Karnataka. Chasing 158, Jharkhand looked down and out at 105 for 6 in the 13th over, only for allrounder Anukul Roy to haul them over the line with an unbeaten 58-ball 95. Jharkhand were now full of belief that they could win from any situation.
"When we saw the fixtures, we realised that this is a very strong group that we are part of," Virat Singh, who finished the season with 382 runs at a strike rate of 169.77, says. "Jharkhand has long been known for individual talents, but to showcase our name on the bigger stages, we needed to create a name for ourselves as a group. And that could only happen once we defeated the bigger teams.
"Earlier, we weren't able to close out games. In crunch situations, we used to crack under pressure; this year, we excelled under pressure. That was a huge plus point and brought us the win."
Different players stepped up at different times. Kishan was the star of the show, finishing as the tournament's highest run-getter with 517 runs in ten innings at a strike rate of 197.32, but he couldn't have done it alone. Kushagra (422) was third on the run-scorer's list, Virat (382) was sixth. Anukul was phenomenal with bat and ball, picking up 18 wickets and scoring 303 runs on his way to picking up the Player-of-the-Tournament award.
On the bowling front, Sushant picked up 22 wickets in 11 outings, while Vikash Singh gave Jharkhand regular powerplay wickets.
"We defeated teams that are packed with superstars, players who have won the IPL, and that was the most satisfying thing," Ratan says. "And we won games convincingly. It wasn't as if we were chasing down totals in the last over or winning by one wicket.
"We had different players step up at different times. See, Ishan is a big name; he will win you games single-handedly, but even the others played their part. It was Kushagra at some point, Robin Minz at some other, Virat was great when he was asked to open.
"If the batting didn't click on some days, the bowlers would shine. Sushant was outstanding, Vikash always delivered with the new ball. There was Saurabh Shekhar, Amit Kumar, who recently got an IPL contract. It was a collective team effort."
Another factor that contributed to Jharkhand's rise was a string of changes in management and coaching personnel before the start of the season. Saurabh Tiwary and Shahbaz Nadeem, two of Jharkhand's longest-serving players, were appointed JSCA secretary and joint secretary respectively.
They sought advice from MS Dhoni, who suggested having coaches who know the system inside-out rather than bringing in someone from the outside. Ratan, who has been actively involved in various coaching roles for the last eight years across Jharkhand's age-group cricket, was appointed head coach, while Sunny Gupta was named bowling coach.
"When we started the season, right from the appointment of the coaching staff, we have always taken his [Dhoni's] advice and suggestions," Nadeem says. "And he also has a keen interest in the Jharkhand team. He wants them to do well. It feels good that such a big player is paying close attention to our team.
"And I'll tell you something, he follows every game very closely. He followed the entire [SMAT] tournament, noted all the strengths and weaknesses of the players and discussed with us. He knows the stats and numbers of each domestic player from Jharkhand. He is very interested in helping Jharkhand cricket grow."
But it's surprised even those in charge that the results came this quickly. "When I got the team, we thought we would take the first year in building the team and then, from the second year onwards, we would make it into a winning team," Ratan says.
"I thought let's instil the coaching philosophy within the players in the first year. And by the next year, we would have a championship-level team ready. But when I saw this bunch play T20 cricket, they were playing on a different plane and I was myself shocked at how quickly they gelled together."
The Nadeem-and-Tiwary-led administration also introduced an incentive structure for the coaching staff, promising them bonuses dependent on tournament performances, on top of their salaries. This was another decision backed by Dhoni.
"We thought we should give the players and support staff a motivation factor," Nadeem says. "Everywhere there is a certain pay structure; you win or lose, you get a certain amount of money and that's that. But here, we said, 'no, this fixed amount is always there, but what about the incentives?' So we decided that if a team qualifies for the quarter-finals, we will give them an incentive that increases as the team goes further into the tournament.
"What will happen with this? The value of the coaching staff increases; they are much more dedicated. So this monetary benefit always helps. But we were also firm that if the results aren't there, then questions will be asked of the coaching staff. And that's fair. Earlier, coaches used to come, stay with the team till the end of a season, and leave. There was no accountability. But this time, we said, 'if you win, you will get all the credit, and if the team loses, questions will be raised.'"
How much this win meant to the state could be gauged from the reception the players received on landing in Ranchi, with fans thronging the airport. Kishan said that when the SMAT began, there was anger within the team and an obsession to prove doubters wrong. The T20 trophy is in the cabinet now. Can Jharkhand now do a double and conquer the Vijay Hazare Trophy as well?