Vinay Kumar to Australia

Vinay Kumar at last gets selected to India’s Test Team. Vinay deserves this selection. He has been a very consistent performer in Domestic cricket. Lead Karnataka with aplomb for last 2 seasons and couple of matches this season. His captaincy and bowling during the Ranji Trophy match against Mumabi at Mumabi this season were remarkable.

Obviously Vinay lacks pace. One has to remember that we have to accept him as he is. His skill set includes everything but pace. He is a line and length bowler who is smart enough to fox any batsman.

Domestic performances have to be rewarded. Vinay Kumar’s selection will gladden those bowlers who are not flamboyant, who are not express but are hardworking, do their job and get wickets regularly.

You want guys like Vinay to succeed. They struggle season after season in domestic backyard of Indian cricket. They keep performing season after season in the hope of being recognised. And when that recognition comes they often find themselves playing the wrong format of the game.

Vinay is not a player for One Dayers. His performance in India’s 50 over domestic cricket Tournament for Vijay Hazare Trophy has been poor all along. But he gets selected for one dayers based on his performance in the longer version of the game (Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy)!

I always had doubts about Vinay succeeding at International level because of his lack of pace. But he has done well in One dayers and proved me wrong. And there is no reason why he should not do well in Test matches if given a chance.

Hope he does well. His success will be the success of India’s Domestic Cricket.

India's Obsession with Speed

(Copied from my other blog where it was posted on 26-11-2011)

India is not known to produce quality express fast bowlers. Kapil Dev was medium fast. And he excelled at that. Madan Lal was gentle medium. And he did well. Chetan Sharma was haphazard. But he did not do bad at all except for that last ball six at Sharjah and being smacked for 23 runs in an over in his comeback match.

Then there was Javagal Srinath. Medium fast again. How he succeeded at International Level with his limited set of arsenals is still a wonder. We can forget about the swing when it comes to Srinath. Probably he never knew what 'swing' meant! He never had a slower ball until the last year or so of his career. And I would say his eagerness to use that slower ball excessively (may be since he learned it so late he wanted to get maximum mileage out of it) was also one of the reasons along with Zaheer's infamous first over that cost India the WC final in 2003. But Srinath was very good. From the time he burst into national seen with those 7 wickets against Maharashtra at Pune he was a marked man. He was India's torch bearer during those tough times when Azhar was the captain. Then he was the prime member of the core team that was responsible for India's resurgence under Ganguly. Srinath was not flamboyant, but did his job remarkably. Moreover he was very very professional in his conduct and approach to the game.

Lanky Venky, the master of slower ones. Venkatesh Prasad travelled all the way to New Zealand as a replacement and got a game only because he travelled that far! Again medium pace. But a master of deception. Top batsmen edging him to slip cordon was a treat to watch. Those slower ones and those outswingers were great to watch. Always will be in the hearts of Indian fans for knocking out Sohail's stumps in WC 1996 at Bangalore.

Then came Zaheer Khan. Sometimes played for Baroda and sometimes for Mumbai and now permanently plays for Mumbai. (Sachin has this bad habit of asking promising bowlers to leave their home team and play for Mumbai. Young bowlers find it hard to say 'no' to Sachin, considering his status. Munaf Patel played for Mumbai for couple of seasons at Sachin's behest. But he has understood his folly and has gone back to Gujarat.) Zaheer is fast and very good. He has lead India's campaign after the exit of Srinath. And has been doing very well. Has got the speed, the swing, the reverse and what not. A complete bowler. Only if he takes care of his body and fitness...

Ishant Sharma burst into seen with that remarkable bowling performance when India toured Australia last. Anil Kumble was the captain and he nurtured the young bowler remarkably. The way Ponting kept getting dismissed to Ishant was memorable. Ishant is back to prime form after being in the wilderness for a brief period of time. He needs to be handled with utmost care. He is only 23 and if handled carefully can serve India for another 8-10 years and that too remaining at the top of his game. He is an exceptionally talented and skilled bowler.

Now with India going to Australia, how Zaheer and Ishant perform will decide whether India at last will win a series in Australia. They came close last time. But devil Bucknor was in the Australian team. Australia too are going through changes in the side. Pin them down when they are down. (Batting will also play an important part. Mark my words, if Sachin goes to Australia still stuck on 99, then he will be a flop).

Zaheer and Ishant need a good backup. Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron seem to have impressed all. Australian batsmen play such bowlers regularly in their domestic circuit. Both Yadav and Aaron have one trait which the Aussie batsmen have always found it difficult to handle. The swing. But do they have the skill?

Our selectors rush youngsters into Indian team too fast. Ishant played about 35 first class matches before playing for India. But even that is less. But Ishant is a talented bowler and he developed the skills and survived. Umesh Yadav plays for lowly Vidarbha and Aaron for Jarkhand. Both the teams play in plate league. As it is they have played less number of matches and whatever wickets they have picked up in plate league should not matter. Deepak Chahar grabbed wickets a plenty last season in Plate league playing for Rajasthan. But he is finding it difficult to get wickets now in the Elite League. What matters is how a bowler performs in Ranji Elite league, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy.

In the Irani trophy match held last month 3 fast bowlers represented Rest Of India team. Aaron was rubbish in that match. Yadav bowled very well. But the pick of the bowlers in terms of economy and wickets column was Vinay Kumar!

Skill and Experience counts. Pankaj Singh has performed creditably over the years for Rajasthan. Last year he was phenominal for Rajasthan. Along with Chahar he bagged a bountiful of wickets playing in plate league. This year in the Elite league Pankaj is still taking wickets but Chahar is not! That is the difference in skill and performance. Put in Yadav and Aaron in Chahar's place and they would also flounder.

Ajith Agarkar and Dhawal Kulkarni combined tally of wickets was 1 in the Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka at Wankhede in Mumbai held last week. Vinay Kumar troubled Mumbai batsmen on the same pitch and got 4! His victims included Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane. Vinay Kumar lacks pace. But has got the temperament, skill, swing and attitude. But he is not in the scheme of things for Test matches.

In the emerging nations tournament held in Australia Vinay Kumar was the bowler who was consistent with performance, taking wickets and containig batsmen. Varun Aaron flopped there.
Pankaj Singh and Vinay Kumar would be my choices after Zaheer and Ishant for Australia.

Just a word about another bowler who hasn't bowled a single no ball in his career that includes even club matches and may have excelled for India if given chances. That is Ranadeb Bose. He went to England 4 years back with Indian team picked up 5 wickets in practice game but never got to wear the India cap. He was dropped after that tour. Varun Aaron goes to England in 2011, plays a practice match, goes wicketless and gets tonked all over the park, does not get to wear a India cap, BUT stays in the team after that tour! Double standards?

But our fascination towards pace puts Umesh Yadav (with less than 17 Ranji Trophy matches in plate league) and Varun Aaron (with less than 8 Ranji Trophy matches in plate league) in contention. They both possess something Pankaj and Vinay do not. PACE. Swing coupled with pace at 140+ speed can be deadly. But do they have the temparament and skill? We will know in Australia. My gut feeling says they will fail. Hope that is not the case for India's sake.

Bravo Jharkhand

(Copied from my other blog where it was posted on 05-04-2011)

Surpirse Surprise! Jharkhand are the winners of Vijay Hazare Trophy. This is the national tournamnet for 50 Overs One Day Cricket. The final was held on March 1, 2011 and Jharkhand beat Gujarat comfortably by a huge margin of 159 runs. Not many noticed this with the WC going on at the same time.

I have been following Jharkhand cricket closely ever since the state was formed. Initially there was no Jharkhand team in the domestic cricket as there were some disputes withing the Bihar Cricket Association out of which Jharkhand Cricket Association was to be formed. This dragged on for couple of years and the cricketers suffered. A bitter battle was ensuing.

All was well after some time and finally Jharkhand came on the domestic circuit. MSD played for Jharkhand for a couple of seasons before he became too busy with the national team. As a team Jharkhand is a young unit and they have never made it to the Super League of Ranji Trophy. They languish in the Plate League and continue to languish there and will continue to languish there for quite some time.

Their performance in this year's Ranji Trophy Plate league proves what I am saying. They were handed innings defeats by MP and Goa. They narrowly escaped defeat against Rajasthan as Rajasthan had no time on the last day of the match to score the 27 runs required to win. They drew with Hyderabad and then their only win came against the lowly placed Tripura. They escaped with a draw in the 2 matches because of Ishank Jaggi's stuning batting performance and SP Gautam's dour batting display.

It is always the case of one or two brilliant performance here and there. No consistent performance from any players (With the exception of Gautam and Jaggi). Saurabh Tiwary never made big runs in the Ranji Trophy on a consistent basis. He shone because of IPL and he got into IPL because he was an under 19 India player. Even if one looks at his performance in the Ranji Trophy after he came to prominence, it was just average. But there is one thing about Saurabh Tiwary that needs to be admired. Players who have a chance of making it to national team often move out of their home state if their home state is in the plate league and finds it difficult to qualify for the super league. This is because performances in the plate league have virtually no weight when compared to runs scored in the super league. But Saurabh Tiwary stuck to Jharkhand and even said openly that he takes pride in playing for his home state and would never move out for the sake of recognition. Thats Ethics. Kudos to this young man.

Then there is Ishank Jaggi, a dasher of a batsman with a flamboyant personality. His heroics earned him a place with RCB in IPL, but they never gave him a chance. Jaggi can shred any attack to pieces if he applies his mind rather than heart. He can be compared with former Karnataka opener J Arun Kumar. Loads of talent but lack of focus. JAK missed India bus because he quite too often lacked focus in his play. Jaggi is still young but he is showing all the signs of going the JAK way. Hope he gets it right and scores consistently.

Varun Aaron, Shabaz Nadeem and Kumar Deobrat Singh are the products of the proper youth cricket system put in place by JCA and are the latest entrants into the Jharkhand team. All 3 of them have put in a creditable performance in the tournament. The point to be noted is that in Vijay Hazare Trophy, Jharkhand shone in both batting and bowling, whereas earlier in all formats it used to be batting only with mediocre bowling with exception to the lion hearted Mihir Diwakar.

Jharkhand qualified from East Zone with a 100% win record which in itself is an amazing feat. Then in the Quarter Finals they stunned Mumbai and then itself I guessed Jharkhand would go all the way (My hunch was based on the fact that in the QF of Ranji Trophy Rajasthan knocked Mumbai out and went on to win it). It was a great match where the toughness and grittiness of Jharkhand came to the fore.

A creditable bowling performance saw Mumbai being restricted to 213. Yajuvendra Krishnatry, Subroto Ghosh, Varun Aaron and Keshav Kumar stifled Mumbai's star batsmen, choked them and picked up 2 wickets apiece. While chasing Jharkhand found themselves in trouble when the ever reliable wicket keeper Shiv Prakash Gautam was dismissed for a first ball duck and the score read 115 for 6. But all this tournament the team had found someone or the other to take up the challenge and this time 18 year old Kumar Deobrat took up the challenge and blunted the Mumbai attack in the company of another youngster Shabaz Nadeem. Both of them slowly but surely took Jharkhand forward. Shabaz hit some lusty blows and was dismissed for 46 and Deobrat took it forward from there to give Jharkhand a 3 wicket victory. It was a wonderful performance from Jharkhand and from Kumar Deobrat. The 18 year old showed tremendous composure and patience to score a match winning unbeaten 66.

In contrast to the QF, Jharkhand had it relatively easy in the Semi Finals against Vidarbha and won the match by 5 wickets with 28 deliveries remaining. Vidarbha were restricted to 186 with Yajuvendra Krishnatry picking up 3 wickets and Subroto Ghosh 2. Jharkhand chased it down comfortably with their 2 star batsmen Ishank Jaggi and Saurabh Tiwary scoring85 and 72 not out respectively.

By now Jharkahnd was a well oiled unit and there was no stopping them. They virtually steamrolled Gujarat in the final and won the match by a huge margin of 159 runs. Batting first they put up a neat score of 255 with that man Ishank Jaggi again scoring a patient innings building knock of 58. Kumar Deobrat supported him well with a fine 52. Then Shiv Prakash Gautam and Varun Aaron added 51 runs in 23 balls to give the finishing touches. Gautam remained unbeaten on 35 of 23 and Aaron was out for 34 of only 16 deliveries. While chasing Gujarat lost their openers with only 6 runs on board. Then Manpreet Juneja and Niraj Patel put up a good partnership and the score read 74/2 after 15.3 overs. And when the last ball of the 24th over was bowled Gujarat were all out for 96! They were blown away by the left arm off spin bowling of Shabaz Nadeem who finished with an unbelievable spell of 4-1-6-4 which gave him the Man of the Match prize.

Vijay Hazare trophy falls into the lap of Jharkhand. Nobody would have foreseen this. Just like the Ranji Trophy, the Vijay Hazare trophy too has an unexpected winner. Fancied teams have fallen by the wayside. That really has added the much needed spice to the domestic cricket scene in India.

Bravo Jharkhand!

Will Baroda plan another escape?

(Copied from my other blog where it was posted on 11-01-2011)

Ranji trophy 2010-11 season final starts from today at Vadodara between Baroda and Rajasthan. Baroda hosted Karnataka on a dust bowl in the semifinals and managed a great escape. But no such dust bowl will be on offer in the finals.

Faced with criticism for the kind of surface that was offered for an important match like semifinals, Baroda Cricket Association has scheduled the final at the Motibaug stadium, same place where even the semifinal was scheduled and was changed at last minute.

This is a lively wicket with equal opportunities for batsmen and bowlers as well. Now lets see how Baroda manages to perform against Rajasthan. Baroda were wary of Karnataka's seam attack and shifted the venue from Motibaug to Reliance ground for the semis. Now at Motibaug, it will be really interesting to see how they stack up against an equally good seam attack of Rajasthan. Will they be able to plan another escape? But they do not deserve to win. Rajasthan does. Lets see.

Comments:

Azad Said: Hi Drifter. Rajasthan did go on to win the Finals in spite of horrendous umpiring which almost did them in. By the way, it is Sanjay Dixit who was the real brain behind this remarkable resurgence. He is the Hony. Secretary of the RCA and runs the Association with impeccable integrity and efficiency. (07-02-2011, 01:04am)

The Drifter Said: Mr.Azad,

Yeah Rajastahn did win the trophy. I had no time to write about it and by the tiem I had some time to write it was already 15 days late. So I opted no to write anything on it. All the things positive about rajasthan was already said and there was nothing more to say. That was also a reason I did not write about the final.

3 cheers to Desert Boys and the administration. (22-02-2011, 02:17pm)

WOW! Desert Foxes in Ranji Trophy Final!

(Copied from my other blog where it was posted on 06-01-2011)

Can anybody believe it? But that damn thing is the fact. Rajasthan is in the final of the Ranji Trophy 2010-11 season. Now if anyone were to tell me about this when the season started I would have had a good laugh.

But boy, weren't the desert foxes fantastic this season. They ran through the Plate league, finished top of the table and qualified for the super league of next season. 2 seasons back Ranji trophy super league format was modified and quarter finals were introduced. The 3 top teams from 2 super league groups would advance to knock out stage. The rest 2 spots were given to the winners of the semifinals of the plate league i.e the qualifiers to the next season's super league. Not many or it is safe to say nobody gives any chance to these 2 teams of making beyond quarterfinals. But Rajasthan has defied the trend and all damn logic and has made it to the finals. If you ask me I would say considering Baroda's team strength, Rajasthan will win the Ranji trophy of 2010-11.

In the semifinals played at Jaipur, Rajasthan dismissed Tamilnadu well short of their first innings score and advanced to finals. S Badrinath fought a lone hand for Tamil Nadu with an unbeaten 175. It was not enough. Rajasthan's batting and bowling both are clicking at the same time and big time.

Whether they win the Ranji trophy or not is immaterial. Just the fact that they are in the finals is unbelievable. It is a team which finished at the bottom of its group in last year's plate league behind teams like Assam, Tripura, Vidarbha, Goa and Jharkhand. And this year they have risen from the ashes and have not only qualified for next year's super league but damn (i am using this word again, because i can not believe that they are there) are in the finals of the Ranji trophy.

How did Rajasthan manage this? What is the reason for this turnaround? Rajasthan had a core group which was playing together for last 5-6 seasons. Performances of these guys were on and off. One season they would do all the hard work and get into super league only to be demoted to plate league next season. Last year they were pathetic. Team was in shambles.

Was the board which looks after cricket affairs in the state in order? It was not. There was this well publicised tussle between Sanjay Dixit group and Lalit Modi group for the control of Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA). Even the court had to intervene in this. BCCI had to keep Rajasthan out of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy because RCA was not in order. No one knew who was in charge.

I do not know who is in charge now but whoever it is he had his priorities right. Rajasthan Cricket Association took some decisions during the off season and its paying dividends now. RCA had enough of its core bunch of players and dismantled them. There was to be no excuse for the bottom of the table finish and that too in the plate league. Players like Rajesh Bishnoi and Kuldeep Singh who were not performing to potential were dropped. Players like Nikhil Doru and Rahul Kanwat who served Rajasthan for a long time were also dropped. Former India player and the very well known Gagan Khoda who too served Rajasthan cricket for a long time was asked to leave or whether he retired i am not too sure. By all accounts he was asked to step down. Only those who were performing were kept in the team.

Professionals were roped in from other states. Rashmi Ranjan Parida, despite performing creditably over the years for Orissa was feeling the pressure from youngsters and felt that he was unwanted by his board for the next season. He was roped in to strengthen the middle order. Akash Chopra who too was unwanted in Delhi was looking for other options. He too was signed up. Hrishikesh Kanitkar who was shoved out of Maharashtra team long back was playing for Madhya Pradesh from couple of seasons. He was offered the captain's seat and was asked to join. All 3 of these professionals performed creditably and guided the other young batsmen to form a strong batting lineup for Rajasthan.

Then there is this bowling lineup which is looking very threatening. After Karnataka's trio, this trio of Pankaj Singh, Sumit Mathur and Deepak Chahar of Rajasthan look the best. Pankaj brings in plenty of experience, Chahar is young and energetic and Mathur is the hardworking back up. Vivek Yadav adds spice to this bowling lineup with his leg spinners.

The bowling team has remained much the same only with Deepak Chahar making his debut this season. But its the batting that had to be strengthened and RCA did that with the help of Parida, Chopra and Kanitkar. RCA brought in these professionals because they saw no other possible way to qualify to super league. They achieved that goal and were happy with that achievement. But this entry to the final has been a pleasant surprise to even them and is a very good bonus. And if they win the Tropy, all other super league teams will be shaking their head.

There is some criticism coming Rajasthan's way saying that because of the help of 3 outsiders they have made it thus far. Those who say so must note the fact that the bowlers have done a tremendous job for Rajasthan and none of them are the so called outsiders. Even their own batsmen like Robin Bisht, Vineet Saxena and Ashok Meenaria have performed creditably. Vineet Saxena's ton against Mumbai was top drawer stuff. So was Meenaria's and Bisht's performance against Tamilnadu.

Players moving from one state to another is very common. If a player thinks he is capable and feels unwanted by his home state then he will definitely look at other states, who are looking for good players. This has a win-win situation for both. The player gets an opportunity to keep playing and the state which has welcomed him will gain by his experience and knowledge which he will pass on to its younger players. Some such player movement examples are listed below.

1. Sridharan Sriram and Hemang Badani were given signals that they would not be picked and hence they moved to Assam and Haryana respectively.
2. Nishith Shetty and Wilkin Mota both from Mumbai have been playing for Tripura from last 2 seasons.
3. Ajay Ratra still only 29 has been booted out of his homestate Haryana 4 years back and has been playing for Goa since then.
4. Karnataka's V Cheluvaraj all of 21 years of age moved to Railways. He would have had no chance to get into Karnataka team because of Bangalore Politics. He has done reasonably well for Railways.
5. Dheeraj Jadhav of Maharashtra is with Assam. Amol Muzumdar was unwanted in Mumbai and he moved to Assam.
6. Sairaj Bahutule moved out of Mumbai, then played for Maharashtra and came back to Mumbai, then for Assam and this season he played for Andhra Pradesh.
7. Bhavin Thakker and Vineet Indulkar of Mumbai are gutsing it out for Himachal Pradesh.
8. Ambati Rayudu moved to Andhra Pradesh from Hyderabad, then came back to Hyderabad and now is with Baroda.
9. Remember Vinayak Mane? The short opener who played for Mumbai 3 seasons back and was said to be promising. He was not delivering the goods and was dropped from Mumbai Team. He played one season with Jammu and Kashmir.
10. Karnataka's Deepak Chougule who was touted as the next Rahul Dravid was shown the door and this season he spent time with Jharkhand team.
11. Yogesh Takawle of Maharashtra is with Tripura.

Mind you. When these players happen to play against their home state then they want to succeed at any cost and remind them what they have been missing. This season the way Shreedharan Shriram celebrated when he scored a ton for Assam against Tamilnadu was a scene to watch.

Rajasthan have done well. Lets give credit to them and not find petty reasons to discredit them. I am thrilled at Rajasthan's performance. All cricket lovers of India should be thrilled at this team. The usual teams are missing this time and we are seeing new names in the semis and finals. That is good development. The Desert Storm is showing no signs of subsiding. Looking forward to the final.

Three Cheers to Desert Foxes.

Karnataka Shocked Out!

(Copied from my other blog where it was posted on 04-01-2011)

The brittle batting that was worrying Karnataka Coach Sanath Kumar all this season, finally reached its nadir at Vadodara against Baroda. Karnataka were shocking in their batting and were bundled out for 107 and 88 and lost to Baroda in the Semifinals of 2010-11 Ranji Trophy.

Baroda Cricket Association shifted the match to a new ground from the regular ground as they were wary of Karnataka's seam attack, against which they probably would have had no chance. They played it smart as the host organisation and made full use of the privilege. By holding the match at a venue that was nothing but a dust bowl, they gave themselves 50% chances of winning which was much better than no chance at all.

Karnataka team arrived at Baroda 2 days prior to the match and found out to their surprise that the match is not being played at the regular venue! Karnataka Coach said their board did not inform them at all about this venue change. Certianly, not an auspicious beginning for Kumble and Co. at the helm of KSCA.

None of the Karnataka batsmen managed to put up a fight. They did not apply themselves at all and some even got out to loose shots. Baroda did not perform any better in their first innings either. It was the captain's knock from Pinal Shah which gave them the lead of 46 runs.

But Karnataka's total capitulation in the second innings surprised me. By now they knew the pitch. A better performance was expected. But they just disintegrated like a torpedoed ship and were all out for 88. That left Baroda a target of 43 which they achieved but not before losing 3 wickets.

All this season Karnataka's batsmen were inconsistent. Some of them boosted their averages by scoring tons in the second innings when the opposition team was just going through the motion.

Stuart Binny played one vital knock against Himachal Pradesh and after that all he did was pile up runs when the fate of the match was already decided. Ganesh Satish scored a decent fifty in the first match of the season against Punjab and was a total flop thereafter. He was the star last season. He even bagged a pair in the QF.

Manish Pandey shone brightly in the first half of the tournament with 2 qualty centuries but he faded away as the knockout matches started. He too was guilty of throwing away good starts. KB Pawan was a total flop as opener.

Then there is our great opener Robin Uthappa! He smashed 149 in the first match against Punjab. And after that ran out of steam. he failed to provide the team good starts. Couple of times failed to build on good starts and overall he was disappointing. He even blamed the pitch for the semifinal match. How is that he did not perform when the pitch was good in other matches? Uthappa has lost the batting touch. Hope he gets it back and entertains us in the next season. Also hoping that he controls his obesity problems.

Only Amith Verma and wicket keeper batsman CM Gautham performed creditably. Both played under tight situations and came out trumps. Though Amit is guilty of throwing away starts on a regular basis, Gautam though not his fault often ran out of partners as he comes to bat at no.6. Only these two were good as far as the batting was concerned.

Bowlers were top class. One can say that only because of its bowlers Karnataka reached thus far. Even if they had 120-130 to defend in the Semifinal, I am sure they would have made a match of it. But 43 was too small a target. Vinay Kumar lead the side with purpose but his batsmen let him down. He missed 2 matches because of national duty and picked up 19 wickets. Abhimanyu Mithun scalped 24 and Sreentah Aravind took 26 wickets. But the leading wicket taker was the old warhorse Sunil Joshi. He ended the season with a commendable tally of 32 wickets.

Baroda have shocked the last years runners up and have made it to the finals of 2010-11 Ranji Trophy. Congratulations to them and special congratulations to: Murtuza Vohora (5 wickets in Karnataka's first innings), Pinal Shah (scored 83 in Baroda's first innings, the next highest score of the match was35), Bhargav Bhat (5 wickets in Karnataka's second Innings and 8 wickets in the match) and Swapnil Singh (5 wickets in Karnataka's second Innings.

Semifinalists of Ranji Trophy 2010-11

(Copied from my other blog where it was posted on 27-12-2010)

Rajasthan, Karnataka, Baroda and Taminadu are the semifinalists of Ranji Trophy 2010-11. At the start of the season if one were to say that Rajasthan would be in the semi finals then he had to be either a genius or a madman. But here they are, an amazing journey from last place in plate league to semifinals!

Baroda have fought it out and are a worthy semifinalist. Karnataka batsmen have put up an unconvincing performance this season and are in the semifinals largely due to the efforts of their bowlers. Tamilnadu are there too on the basis of good performances in a couple of league matches. This season they played most of their matches at home and at least 3 of their matches were badly affected by rains and they had to share points. Still they made it on the basis of net run rate.

Quarter Final 1: When Mumbai players boarded the plane to Jaipur, they probably thought that this is going to be an easy encounter. After all, the opposite team is a plate qualifier which will be trying to make a mark in the super league in the coming season. Mumbai were arrogant (as always) and competitive (as always). But this time they were over confident as well. They brushed off Rajasthan in their minds and thought that they would have a nice batting practice and on a pitch that had some help for fast bowlers they decided to bat on winning the toss. Their strategy was simple. On winning the toss, bat and pile up a huge score and then put pressure on the other team. But this time they paid for their over confidence and got rolled over by Pankaj Singh.

Pankaj has been in the circuit for more than 5 years now and he has evolved as a very fine bowler. By his own admission he lacked the swing and the incoming delivery in his armoury, and had tried hard over the last couple of seasons to perfect what was missing. Mumbai hardly expected this and paid scant respect to Pankaj and his bowling partners - Deepak Chahar and Sumit Mathur - and paid the price. All out for 252 even before the close of first day's play. After that it was a matter of Rajasthan batsmen applying themselves and grinding Mumbai bowlers. Vineet Saxena and Hrishikesh Kanitkar made sure of that upfront. Their good work was continued by Rashmi Ranjan Parida and Ashok Meenaria. Mumbai got a taste of their own medicine and were kept on the field for 2 full days. Man, didn't I enjoy that! Well done Rajasthan.

Quarter Final 2: Karnataka too thought they would have this one easy when they traveled to Indore to take on the second qualifier from Plate League, Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh were languishing in the plate league since 2005 and this is the first time they have qualified to super league. The occasion got the better off them and were bundled out for 200 on the first day itself. Karnataka bowlers who have had a dream season delivered again and it was a perfect start. So they thought.

But MP regrouped and started putting up a fight from the second day itself. On the outset it did look that Karnataka had the match firmly in control. But the fact was MP was fighting back. MP bowlers bowled well, bowled to their field, kept on picking up wickets and made run scoring difficult. Karnataka batsmen fought hard and were well placed at 294/5 with Amith Verma on 85 and only 5 overs to go for the end of 2nd day. All of a sudden Amith plays a horrible shot and gets out. Two more wickets fall and Karnataka end the day at 306/8. On the third day CM Gautham plays well and Karnataka are dismissed for 361, a lead of 161. If Amith had not played that shot Karnataka's lead would have been much bigger and they could have batted MP out of the match. Karnataka too were guilty of taking it easy after taking that lead. They did not attack MP batsmen and went on a more defensive approach when MP came out to bat in their second innings.

MP saw their chance and went after erasing the lead and then raced towards setting a good target. For the first time in the season Karnataka's famed bowlers lost line, length and direction and were ransacked by MP batsmen. Naman Ojha, Mohnish Mishra, Abbas Ali and Murtuza Ali all made merry. 45 minutes into final day's play Karnataka were batting in their second innings chasing 177 for a win. Knock out games can bring out the nervous devil hiding inside a batsman to the fore and in no time Karnataka were 39/3 and then 77/4 with Robin Uthappa gone. But Amith Verma made amends for his first innings mistake and scored a very composed and unbeaten 68 and guided the team past the target. Madhya Pradesh fought well and gave a scare to Karnataka. Better take the plate qualifiers serioulsy. One knocked out the defending champions and the other almost knocked out the runners up.

Quarter Final 3: At Rohtak, Haryana put up a solid score with the help of Nitin Saini and Sunny Singh but fog robbed them of a place in the semifinals. The heavy fog did not allow any play for major parts of 2nd and 3rd day. Haryana declared at 379/6 and on the fourth day they tried their best to dismiss Tamilnadu within that score and had them reeling at 92/4. But R Sathessh stonewalled their efforts with a classy century and captain Dinesh Karthik hit form at last and scored a half century. TN finished at 285/6 and qualified on the basis of better net run rate.

Quarter Final 4: Baroda had it easy against Railways from the moment they took a good first innings lead of 168 runs thanks to Kedar Devdhar's century. From that point onwards Railways were playing catching up. Though Railways put up a much better batting performance in the second innings with Prashanth Awasthi scoring a century and set a competitive target, Baroda chose to play it safe and showed no interest in chasing down the target.

Rajasthan will take on Tamilnadu at Jaipur and Baroda will lock horns with Karnataka at Vadodara in the semi finals starting from January 3rd 2011.

Comments:

Harsh Said: Uttar Pradesh was weak this time but they will be back strongly in next season. Bole to sabki watt laga dalega UTTAR PRADESH. (02/01/2011, 5:50pm)

The Drifter Said: harsh,
UP were not weak. truth is they did not play well as a team. (05/01/2011, 9:15pm)

Will Karnataka make it to the Semi Finals?

(Copied from my other blog where it was posted on 26-12-2010)

20010-11 season Ranji Trophy Quarter Finals have thrown up some surprises. The performance of the plate qualifiers Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh deserves praise.

Biggest surprise has been the state of defending champion Mumbai. At Jaipur with one day to go plate qualifiers Rajasthan are in lead by 232 runs with 3 wickets in hand. It is almost certain that Rajasthan will deliver the biggest surprise of the Ranji Trophy for as long as you remember.

On the other hand the second qualifier from plate league Madhya Pradesh are not making it easy for Last year's runners up Karnataka at Indore. MP though folded up meekly in their first innings and conceded a big lead of 161 runs, fought back well in their second innings and are in lead by 151 runs with 3 wickets in hand. They scored at over 4 runs per over and in the last session the run rate was almost 6 runs per over. After conceding the first innings lead MP have nothing to lose and are going for a win. They will add another quick 40 runs and set a target of around 200 runs. Karnataka were guilty of defensive approach in MP's second innings and may end up paying dearly for that strategy. All this season Karnataka's batting has been very average and tomorrow will be the biggest test.

The Quarter Final draw is such that the plate qualifiers are always drawn to meet the finalists of previous years Ranji Trophy Final. Hence no one expects them to proceed beyond the first knock out match. But this year has been different. Rajasthan is almost sure of delivering the knock out punch to Mumbai and whether Karnataka will get such a punch from MP will be known by tomorrow evening. My gut feeling is that Karnataka may just get the knock out punch.

Kudos and a round of applause to plate league qualifiers - Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

in the 3rd QF match at Rohtak, Haryana have put up a good batting performance against Tamil Nadu by reaching 379 for six and have declared at the same score. Fog and bad weather robbed almost 2 days play. With one day to go TN are at 72/2 and need to score 307 more, weather permitting. If first innings remains unfinished with TN still trailing then the winner will be decided on net run rate.

In the 4th QF match at Vadodara, Baroda are having it easy against Railways. Railways are 52 runs ahead with 6 second innings wickets in hand. With the last day coming up Baroda are almost sure of a SF birth.