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)