Just a week from now, Kotak will be 34 and the hectic cricket travel is taking its toll. “I was playing for BPCL in Udaipur on Monday. I finished that game, drove 250 kms myself to reach Ahmedabad and from there took a train here. Tonight, I take the train back to Ahmedabad and drive to Udaipur to join my BPCL teammates again,’’ he nearly loses his breath as he completes the sentence.

So after the game, when the cameras zoomed in, and South African skipper Graeme Smith casually remarked that the outing was satisfactory for his players, the other story — the international moments of an Indian domestic cricketer, one of the hundreds who go through the grind year after year — naturally went unnoticed. So what if Kotak’s slow left-arm bowling on a turning track severely tested Smith’s batsmen, and his stonewalling with the bat exposed Safs limited bowling options.

But then, the only one to benefit from Kotak’s presence at MIG today was Smith, who got a reality check before his team’s first game against New Zealand on Monday. For, Kotak’s cricketing stock isn’t expected to rise after this all-round show against the Safs. His 82 wouldn’t even get a mention in the selection committee meeting to decide the tour party for South Africa; in fact, he wasn’t even chosen for the West Zone squad picked just a few days ago. “It is no longer about getting the big break. Even the high of seeing one’s name in the headlines has long gone. Now at this age it’s very reassuring to know that I can still face the best. That long Udaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai trip was because of that,’’ he says.

Kotak, who started his cricketing career in the season Ravi Shastri was playing his last, is known as a batsman who doesn’t give an inch. West Zone cricket circles are riddled with stories of his grinding batting style that banks on a simple motto ‘first tire them and then hit them’. And Kotak says that he banked on his old formula while facing Pollock, Ntini, Langeveldt and Peterson. “I have believed all my life that patience is the key and today I proved it against the best in business,’’ he says.

As an afterthought, he adds, “Just check my domestic record and you will know how this has worked for me”. Nearly 5000 runs at an average of 40 plus in the longer version. And 2000 runs and 50 wickets in one-dayers. Nobody has that kind of one-day record in India,’’ he says.

Ask him about the Safs bowling attack and he makes a face that shows that he is in no mood to badmouth anyone. What about their only spinner Robin Peterson? “Won’t even have played for Saurashtra,’’ he says.

As he moves on, one final query. Was this the most satisfying day of his cricketing career? “Could be. But I didn’t remember to collect a stump as a souvenir,” he says. If one thought he would run to collect the missed memorabilia, the team bus is ready to move. With the long hard journey ahead, he opts to move on.