Meanwhile, back in the Ranjis...
Amol Cricketwallah
Bombay vs Delhi:
Nothing short of an amazing final day. A pitch which was considered
a cart-track, with chunks peeling off it on the first hour of the
match itself - incredibly hard to bat on. Delhi got 199 allout on
the first day, Bombay were 183/8 on the 2nd day. On the 3rd day
Bombay eventually ended up 239 allout, and Delhi responded with
223/9. All the reports said that the game was basically on an even
keel, with Delhi 183 ahead going into the final day on a 4th day pitch
that had been bad from the first morning - that Bombay had a chance,
but if Delhi had one bowler step up they could easily win the game
outright, and there was a very tight final day in prospect.
Bombay wrapped up the innings first thing in the morning, Bahutule
getting his 4th wicket (and 9th of the match) - Kulkarni also had
4 wickets in the 2nd innings. Thus Bombay needed 185 to win, a
testing target on that pitch.
And the Bombay openers Jaffer and Mane took them into lunch playing
out 33 overs, at 73/0 - a wonderful battling start. They came back
from lunch and stayed together unseparated, and the partnership
continued to build slowly. Jaffer finally reached his fifty in 152
minutes, Mane was still there at the other end. And then Jaffer
changed gears and went on the rampage - and scored his 2nd fifty in
54 minutes! Eventually he ended 117* of 181 balls with 9 fours and
a six (over long-on off Sarandeep), and Mane was still there with
63* off 152 balls at the other end. And Bombay had chased down the
difficult target of 185 with 10 wickets in hand, with half a days
play left! A mind-boggling result given the hard slog of the 3
previous days - and 5 points for Bombay from the game, 4 for the
win and 1 completely stunning bonus point for winning by 10 wickets!
And the second straight game in which Jaffer has led his team to a
4th innings victory (he had 86* out of 160/5 in the last match - and
thus has pushed his Ranji average this season to about a hundred).
BTW, Munaf Patel had 1/52 in his Ranji debut match for Bombay.
Gujarat vs Assam:
Another surprising final day. After trailing by 54 on first innings,
Assam had rattled up 302/3 in 60 overs at the end of D3 to give
themselves a chance. They batted on on the final day to let Sarvanan
get his century - and declared at 312/3, setting Gujarat 259 to
win. And Gujarat didnt even bother to try and play out a draw and
keep the 2 points they had already secured - instead they went
for it, and scored 260/3 in 83 overs and won outright. Thus 4 points
for Gujarat, and none for Assam. The only Assam bowler to get wickets
ont he last day was veteran LAS Sukhvinder Singh, who got all 3.
Kerala vs Railways:
A dull draw. Trailing by 26 on first innings, Railways were 181/3 at
the end of D3, 155 ahead, and needing to make all the running if they
wanted any points from the match. They didnt - they batted half the
last day to get 320 allout, setting Kerala 295 to win and only 45
overs to play out for a draw. Which Kerala duly did, finishing with
142/3 - and 2 points, with 0 for Railways.
Karnataka vs Bengal:
A very disappointing day for Karnataka. They had put up 411 in the
first 2 days, then claimed 11 Bengal wickets on D3 - getting them
228 allout and 17/1, and looking to claim 9 more wickets on the
last day and win outright, with still 183 runs to play with. Instead
they didnt even come close - Bengal ended the day 318/7 and very safe,
with wickets in hand and 120 clear by the end. Chakraborty and
Haldipur both batted over 3 hours for 50s early in the day - and
then Rohan Gavaskar batted over 3 hours for 64* to see it thru to
the end of the day in the company of Shukla (whose wicket for a
3-hour 87 resulted in the match being called off as a draw). Karnataka
used 9 bowlers but couldnt get the wickets - 4 for Ganesh, but only
1 each on the last day for Prasad and Joshi. Thus Karnataka has to
be satisfied with only 2 points instead of 4.
UP vs Punjab:
A batting collapse by Punjab cost them vital poitns on the last day.
UP had set up 471 on first innings, and Punjab had responded from
the doldrums of 1/2 with a 285 run stand between Dinesh Mongia and
Ravneet Ricky for the 3rd wicket. They had ended D3 at 312/3, another
160 runs from going home with first-innings points with Ricky still
there on 102* and Dharmani on 10*. On the last day they proceeded
serely along to 353/3, another 120 runs away - and then Ricky fell
for 115. And Punjab slid from 353/3 to 441 allout, to end up conceding
a 30-run lead to UP - and also concede the only 2 points that were
ever realistically at stake in this contest.
So at the end of Round 2, the following are the standings:
Group A:
Bombay 2 matches 9 points
Andhra 2 matches 4 points
Railways 2 matches 2 points
Delhi 2 matches 2 points
Kerala 2 matches 2 points
UP 2 matches 2 points
Punjab 2 matches 2 points
Baroda 2 matches 0 points
A very strange round. Bombay beat Delhi, and Andhra upset Baroda (after
both had gotten 0 points in the first round). And all the others who
had taken first innings points in the first game, conceded first innings
points in their second game!
Group B:
TN 2 matches 9 points
Hyderabad 1 match 4 points
Gujarat 2 matches 4 points
Rajasthan 2 matches 4 points
Karnataka 2 matches 2 points
Assam 1 match 0 points
Bengal 2 matches 0 points
Hyderabad had a bye this round, so have a game in hand over the teams
they are tied with on 4 points. Bengal has had a poor start to the
season, and will have to dig themselves out of a hole.
Third round starts next week. Bombay travel to UP. Bengal's season
doesnt look likely to improve any - they visit Madras to play TN
next. The 2 Delhi teams, Delhi and Railways, battle each other.
And Baroda play at home against Punjab in what has become a critical
must-win game for them, very early in the season. (And all the teams
will be missing players, apparently, because of the SL-A series that
also IIRC begins next week at the same time).
Sadiq [ Baroda in early season trouble - again ] Yusuf
DiiVolunt
> Round 2 ends. With some interesting results on the last day.
Suggestion. why don't we continue this as ranji thread for the whole
season or atleast till knockouts.
> Bombay vs Delhi:
> Nothing short of an amazing final day. A pitch which was considered
> a cart-track, with chunks peeling off it on the first hour of the
> bad news deleted!!
Man, they should sell Sanghvi back to Railways and buy Karthik back,
send in Sarandeep too. Two for one deal. Abhishek can partner Karthik.
disappointing preformance, I did not mind losing but by 10 wickets!
talk about two bad news in a day (other one about that street game at
eden gardens from standard of fielding)
Now that we lose gtambhir and chopra, delhi will struggle to save a
place in primary league. shoot! twas a great fall, my citymen.
So, Chetan Chauhan 's nephew and Madan Lal 's son make their ranji
debuts.
I hope they are half as good as their inspirations. I was hoping that
abhishek does not take wickets againt lankans... so bad is the
situation back home.
It is like karnataka crashing when all of the team went to south
africa in 1996-97.
As for Puru Raj singh. He does not look old enough to be in the
original Chetan Chauhan XI. well back in 1970s and early 1980, Chetan
Chauhan and his family including his 5 sons (some or all may be just
nephews), some of daughters, some of nephews and i think Mrs Chauhan
who umpired, would go out to local maidan and had interesting test
matches. It was a crowd puller, one of the sides had their own chant
Chetu metu hetu something something. Anyway, it was famous enough for
Dharmayug to cover those "matches".
any idea where is Ashu Dani or Akash Malhotra nowdays? or even Sumit
Dogra.
Pankaj joshi faded away despite early promise..man we are as bad as
mumbai batting!! without the bowlers.
Bhandari is a slow season starter, i hope. Bombay is now merrily on
the way. Punjab has lost 2 easy points (maybe 4) though UP has enough
seniors to be not that easy pushovers..
> Gujarat vs Assam:
> Another surprising final day. After trailing by 54 on first innings,
> Assam had rattled up 302/3 in 60 overs at the end of D3 to give
> themselves a chance. They batted on on the final day to let Sarvanan
Karnataka can really complain though i see no fault in assam decision
except they relied their bowlers to do the job. interesting idea, to
go for 4 points at all costs. kudos to assam for this.
> Karnataka vs Bengal:
> A very disappointing day for Karnataka. They had put up 411 in the
> first 2 days, then claimed 11 Bengal wickets on D3 - getting them
> 228 allout and 17/1, and looking to claim 9 more wickets on the
Rohan 's batting is coming together at right time and i forecast that
he will not be standout though solid preformer against lankans. and
maybe when we send guys out for ODIs.....
>
> So at the end of Round 2, the following are the standings:
>
> Group A:
> Bombay 2 matches 9 points
> Andhra 2 matches 4 points
> Railways 2 matches 2 points
> Delhi 2 matches 2 points
> Kerala 2 matches 2 points
> UP 2 matches 2 points
> Punjab 2 matches 2 points
> Baroda 2 matches 0 points
>
> A very strange round. Bombay beat Delhi, and Andhra upset Baroda (after
> both had gotten 0 points in the first round). And all the others who
> had taken first innings points in the first game, conceded first innings
> points in their second game!
5 3rd place finishers, Baroda must be really happy with this table,
none of major rivals pulled away!
>Shivakant has done ok in U19s, but I dont know if his domestic U19s
>were *that* good, really. Bombay actually won the U19s a year ago
>(not last season, but the season before that). We had some pretty
>useful guys too, if youre looking for "can bowl a bit too" - Harshad
>Rawle, for one. But he never seemed to get an India U19 call for
>some reason. Same with Omkar Khanvilkar. This year Sahil Kukreja
>got a callup - but I really dont know if he is Bombay's best batsman
>anyway (and he is only a pure batsman, not a bowler of any kind).
>Suresh Raina is probably as good a prospect as Shivakant too, and
>younger, no?
Yeah, shukla did not do well, his brother did better though. but i am
going by vengsarkar 's articles, he in his capacity as U-19 coach and
development of youth ambassdor or Czar (Tsar) saw these guys close. I
read about Kukreja too, but is there a bowling kukreja too? spinner?
from MP or is it Kokje i am thinking..wasnt he who did MP to u-22
title
i have pencilled in kukreja though as also raina, bisht, several other
u-25s (also u-16s, u-19s)
then some one told me, u-25s did'nt matter and we see a lot of them
showing up in this year's teams.. hum! there was a sahu and saha in
the watchlist too (just digging for all spinners i guess:-), saha for
the name (meghnad saha)) and seven-er..
england taught us bowling spin (we had nasser, amar, bannerjee,
shahbuddin et all and only mankad rememeber) and then in 2000, an
english bowler came to india to learn spin. (boy did he pick a wrong
country..)
I tink that like english we are losing the spin gift.
So Shatrunjaya Gaekwad is now in action. strange, all baroda royals
got a lot chances with their team and flopped. only ones to succeed
was a distant branch a million guys away from succession and it has
three test cricketers including a test captain! they are the common
gaekwads, almost common!
>OTOH, if you put up a team like CCI - they will probably be *very*
good
>IMHO. At least, normally CCI is an outstanding side - but that
includes
>Ranji players from all over. Even otherwise this is probably a pretty
>decent idea (though nobody in Bombay will like it, because it means
>all young good players will move to CCI instead of other clubs, thus
>making the Kanga League too CCI-biased; right now CCI is not the
>Kanga winner, usually). But if they *do* let CCI into the Ranjis,
I'll
>bet that within a year they'll be in the First Division after gaining
>promotion.
CCI would be interesting side as states might not release their
players so CCI would have to offer contracts and states to respect
these. don't see that happening but may give exposure to lot of good
bombay players who will get to reside at home and play too.. sort of
like Mumbai B (they can call it Bombay)
instead of two in assam, three in railways and so on..
>Sadiq [ Bombay needs a couple big batting performances tomorrow]
Yusuf
you got your wish, should have wished for india too!
regards
Pranshu B
Uday Rajan
>
> It is like karnataka crashing when all of the team went to south
> africa in 1996-97.
Reminds me of Bombay in 1970-71. A lot of the batting went to the
West Indies (Gavaskar, Mankad, Wadekar, Sardesai, Solkar), and
yet Bombay won the Ranji Trophy. Sudhir Naik pulled up his socks
(if you'll pardon the pun) and led the team to the win.
And then in 1975-76, with Gavaskar, Vengsarkar and Solkar gone,
and Wadekar and Sardesai having retired, Ashok Mankad led the
charge, and Bombay again won the Ranji Trophy. Perhaps Delhi
similarly will find someone who will take up the responsibility.
> >Sadiq [ Bombay needs a couple big batting performances tomorrow]
> Yusuf
>
> you got your wish, should have wished for india too!
We do, we do. But India doesn't deliver quite as often. I
continue to be astounded at the rate at which Bombay has
delivered this last season and a fifth or so, despite having no
batting to speak of.
Atul Thombre
> cricke...@hotmail.com (Amol Cricketwallah) wrote in message news:<a374a779.03111...@posting.google.com>...
> > Round 2 ends. With some interesting results on the last day.
>
> Suggestion. why don't we continue this as ranji thread for the whole
> season or atleast till knockouts.
The discussion continues... If not in this thread, in some other
thread..
I second this too.
>
> >OTOH, if you put up a team like CCI - they will probably be *very*
> good
> >IMHO. At least, normally CCI is an outstanding side - but that
> includes
> >Ranji players from all over. Even otherwise this is probably a pretty
> >decent idea (though nobody in Bombay will like it, because it means
> >all young good players will move to CCI instead of other clubs, thus
> >making the Kanga League too CCI-biased; right now CCI is not the
> >Kanga winner, usually). But if they *do* let CCI into the Ranjis,
> I'll
> >bet that within a year they'll be in the First Division after gaining
> >promotion.
>
> CCI would be interesting side as states might not release their
> players so CCI would have to offer contracts and states to respect
> these. don't see that happening but may give exposure to lot of good
> bombay players who will get to reside at home and play too.. sort of
> like Mumbai B (they can call it Bombay)
> instead of two in assam, three in railways and so on..
>
Maybe instead of Mumbai-B, let the team be picked from all the clubs
in Mumbai. Sort of CCE [Combined Club Eleven]. Hopefully, there wont
be lot of politics in the selection.
On a side not - I saw atleast 4 pawar/Powar in the Ranji premier
league. They are playing for Mumbai, Baroda, Gujarat, and Aasam [of
all places]. Can Sadiq give us a run down of the pawars of the Indian
Cricket?
Thanks in advance,
Atul.
Amol Cricketwallah
> > Round 2 ends. With some interesting results on the last day.
>
> Suggestion. why don't we continue this as ranji thread for the whole
> season or atleast till knockouts.
>
Yep, we should.
>
> > Bombay vs Delhi:
> > Nothing short of an amazing final day. A pitch which was considered
> > a cart-track, with chunks peeling off it on the first hour of the
> > bad news deleted!!
>
> Man, they should sell Sanghvi back to Railways and buy Karthik back,
> send in Sarandeep too. Two for one deal. Abhishek can partner Karthik.
> disappointing preformance, I did not mind losing but by 10 wickets!
> talk about two bad news in a day (other one about that street game at
> eden gardens from standard of fielding)
>
Yes, that was quite a final day. A complete turn-around of the entire
match - after 3 bowler-dominated and low-scoring days, for Jaffer and
Mane to just blaze their way to 185/0 was amazing. Hit Sanghvi around
a bit, too - especially Jaffer, apparently. I had expected a very
hard-fought close game, and a wafer-thin margin at the end - and instead
logged on to find a washout, it was a very pleasant shock :-) Another
great job by Pandit - they said that there was a conference with
Pandit and the openers at the end of D3, and he especially talked
about the first innings (where the openers had batted well and put
on 49 before falling). The plan basically was to just totally cut out
a few shots that would prove especially risky on these tracks, and just
stick with the rest - and it was executed very well. Pandit was saying
how especially pleased he was that Jaffer played his natural game, but
made sure to cut out all loose shots on the final day completely, and
it worked like a charm.
> Now that we lose gtambhir and chopra, delhi will struggle to save a
> place in primary league. shoot! twas a great fall, my citymen.
>
Delhi should still be ok, really. They really do have a good side, which
makes this win all the more satisfying for Bombay (for the second year
in a row, a very big win - and the second year in a row that Jaffer
has made a vital century against Delhi). Madan Lal was saying after
the match how this was really their best 15, and they couldnt do
much about it - and he's right. The Delhi newspapers were basically
very upset, and they pointed out this was a side chock-full of big
names that lost anyway - and theyre right. I mean, Chopra, Gambhir,
Manhas, Jadeja, Dahiya, Bhandari, Nehra, Sarandeep, Sanghvi - thats
almost entirely full of internationals.
> So, Chetan Chauhan 's nephew and Madan Lal 's son make their ranji
> debuts.
> I hope they are half as good as their inspirations. I was hoping that
> abhishek does not take wickets againt lankans... so bad is the
> situation back home.
>
Yes, interesting team. I hope both kids really deserve their spots and
are not receiving boosts due to their relatives - which has sometimes
been a problem in Delhi cricket. Someone like Amit Suman used to be
a terrific U19 fast bowler - and he hasnt been making the side lately.
A player like Sohail Rauf used to be the mainstay of the Delhi U19
middle-order side - he isnt making it either. Kuldeep Rawat is a
young kid who played for Delhi even last season - how come he's vanished
from the picture entirely?
> It is like karnataka crashing when all of the team went to south
> africa in 1996-97.
>
> As for Puru Raj singh. He does not look old enough to be in the
> original Chetan Chauhan XI. well back in 1970s and early 1980, Chetan
How good is Puru Singh, BTW? My U25 cards from the 2001/02 season
dont seem to indicate much - he played, but didnt really stand out
in any way whatsoever. Did he really improve and do very well last
year?
>
> any idea where is Ashu Dani or Akash Malhotra nowdays? or even Sumit
> Dogra.
> Pankaj joshi faded away despite early promise..man we are as bad as
> mumbai batting!! without the bowlers.
>
> Bhandari is a slow season starter, i hope. Bombay is now merrily on
> the way. Punjab has lost 2 easy points (maybe 4) though UP has enough
> seniors to be not that easy pushovers..
>
Yes, Punjab hasnt done that well yet - should have beaten Kerala
outright and didnt, and really should ahve had the first innigns
points against UP after being 312/3 overnight going into the last
day. Now its a bit of a dogfight - Kaif will return for UP too,
wont he?
>
>
> > Gujarat vs Assam:
> > Another surprising final day. After trailing by 54 on first innings,
> > Assam had rattled up 302/3 in 60 overs at the end of D3 to give
> > themselves a chance. They batted on on the final day to let Sarvanan
>
> Karnataka can really complain though i see no fault in assam decision
> except they relied their bowlers to do the job. interesting idea, to
> go for 4 points at all costs. kudos to assam for this.
>
Yes, very good decision - they had already lost the 2 points, so they
went for the full 4. Brave of Gujarat to go for it on the last day
too, however. Good stuff all around. Assam must have hoped its
spinners would do the job on a last day pitch - but only veteran
Sukhvinder Singh got any wickets.
>
> > Karnataka vs Bengal:
> > A very disappointing day for Karnataka. They had put up 411 in the
> > first 2 days, then claimed 11 Bengal wickets on D3 - getting them
> > 228 allout and 17/1, and looking to claim 9 more wickets on the
>
> Rohan 's batting is coming together at right time and i forecast that
> he will not be standout though solid preformer against lankans. and
> maybe when we send guys out for ODIs.....
>
Maybe so. Devang Gandhi has been named Bengal captain for the next
match - he missed the last one due to personal reasons. Great effort
by Bengal to salvage a draw, and a poor effort from Karnataka. They
got 0 points from the first game and would dearly ahve liked 4 from
this one - and they had 11 wickets on D3, and needed only 9 more on
D4. But despite Ganesh, Prasad and Joshi they couldnt pull it off,
at home. Must be very disappointed by it, even if they are still
quite well set in their group.
>
> >
> > So at the end of Round 2, the following are the standings:
> >
> > Group A:
> > Bombay 2 matches 9 points
> > Andhra 2 matches 4 points
> > Railways 2 matches 2 points
> > Delhi 2 matches 2 points
> > Kerala 2 matches 2 points
> > UP 2 matches 2 points
> > Punjab 2 matches 2 points
> > Baroda 2 matches 0 points
> >
> > A very strange round. Bombay beat Delhi, and Andhra upset Baroda (after
> > both had gotten 0 points in the first round). And all the others who
> > had taken first innings points in the first game, conceded first innings
> > points in their second game!
>
> 5 3rd place finishers, Baroda must be really happy with this table,
> none of major rivals pulled away!
>
Yes indeed, especially after how badly theyve played so far. Cant
believe they lost outright to Andhra at home! But in some ways they
are still only 1 win away right now - one outright win in the next
match, if they can manage it, and they really are back in the hunt
for the Ranji Trophy. They do this every season, always start slow
and then turn it around. They will find it harder to do this year
though, missing Zaheer and Irfan and perhaps more.
>
>
> >Shivakant has done ok in U19s, but I dont know if his domestic U19s
> >were *that* good, really. Bombay actually won the U19s a year ago
> >(not last season, but the season before that). We had some pretty
> >useful guys too, if youre looking for "can bowl a bit too" - Harshad
> >Rawle, for one. But he never seemed to get an India U19 call for
> >some reason. Same with Omkar Khanvilkar. This year Sahil Kukreja
> >got a callup - but I really dont know if he is Bombay's best batsman
> >anyway (and he is only a pure batsman, not a bowler of any kind).
> >Suresh Raina is probably as good a prospect as Shivakant too, and
> >younger, no?
>
> Yeah, shukla did not do well, his brother did better though. but i am
> going by vengsarkar 's articles, he in his capacity as U-19 coach and
> development of youth ambassdor or Czar (Tsar) saw these guys close. I
> read about Kukreja too, but is there a bowling kukreja too? spinner?
> from MP or is it Kokje i am thinking..wasnt he who did MP to u-22
> title
Yes, thats Kokje - seen him listed as Amol and Amal. MP kid, very
good offspinner, huge talent. I messed up by believing what the
newspaper told me - they said 50 wickets each in U15 and U19 last
year, and that was wrong. It was actually 50 each in U19 and U25
IIRC. A real prospect, played for U19 yesterday - but was called
for throwing a couple of times on D3!
MP and UP are throwing up a few good young kids. Ravikant and
Shivakant Shukla that you mention, and Raina. And Piyush Chawla,
a leggie from UP who is very young and going to be very very good
apparently.
> i have pencilled in kukreja though as also raina, bisht, several other
> u-25s (also u-16s, u-19s)
> then some one told me, u-25s did'nt matter and we see a lot of them
> showing up in this year's teams.. hum! there was a sahu and saha in
> the watchlist too (just digging for all spinners i guess:-), saha for
> the name (meghnad saha)) and seven-er..
>
Tushar Saha? The U25s are useful in picking players into a Ranji
side IMHO - but I dont think theyre useful in picking a national
side at senior level at all. Shouldnt be used for that at all (though
it seems to be, in Munaf's case). Quite a few U25 kids are moving
into Ranji sides though, as it should be.
>
> So Shatrunjaya Gaekwad is now in action. strange, all baroda royals
> got a lot chances with their team and flopped. only ones to succeed
> was a distant branch a million guys away from succession and it has
> three test cricketers including a test captain! they are the common
> gaekwads, almost common!
>
Shatrunjay is another of these U25 guys. Was a regular middle-order
guy for Baroda U25 in 2001-02, and I believe last year as well. Did
quite ok too - though probably not as well as captain Rohit Chandorkar.
(And then they have Rakesh Solanki, of course, who played both U19
and U25 for them last year, and stepped into the Ranji side to end
the season. He missed Baroda's first 2 matches - the first because he
was with the U19 side in Pakistan, the 2nd because he was playing
against SL-A. He will be back for the next match, and is certain to
make the playing 11 - I wonder who will be dropped, probably not
Shatrunjay after his good performance on debut).
>
>
> >OTOH, if you put up a team like CCI - they will probably be *very*
> good
> >IMHO. At least, normally CCI is an outstanding side - but that
> includes
> >Ranji players from all over. Even otherwise this is probably a pretty
> >decent idea (though nobody in Bombay will like it, because it means
> >all young good players will move to CCI instead of other clubs, thus
> >making the Kanga League too CCI-biased; right now CCI is not the
> >Kanga winner, usually). But if they *do* let CCI into the Ranjis,
> I'll
> >bet that within a year they'll be in the First Division after gaining
> >promotion.
>
> CCI would be interesting side as states might not release their
> players so CCI would have to offer contracts and states to respect
> these. don't see that happening but may give exposure to lot of good
> bombay players who will get to reside at home and play too.. sort of
> like Mumbai B (they can call it Bombay)
> instead of two in assam, three in railways and so on..
>
Yes, that would work very well. Also, of course, there are a fair
number of decent-ish players who arent playing Ranjis around the
country, because they didnt want to move away from club and office
cricket in Bombay. They would form a pretty good team all by
themselves IMHO. (An example would be Mandar Phadke, a very good
batsman who rarely played for Bombay, who finally moved only last
year when he was 30-odd years old already, to Goa. And played 2
matches for them, like 4 innings, and 2 tons and a fifty IIRC, for
an average up near 70). There are a few good players like that
floating around - the Amol Rane's etc of the world who might do
very well given an extensive exposure.
Sadiq [ Division Two starts next week as well ] Yusuf
Amol Cricketwallah
> DiiVolunt wrote:
> >
> > It is like karnataka crashing when all of the team went to south
> > africa in 1996-97.
>
> Reminds me of Bombay in 1970-71. A lot of the batting went to the
> West Indies (Gavaskar, Mankad, Wadekar, Sardesai, Solkar), and
> yet Bombay won the Ranji Trophy. Sudhir Naik pulled up his socks
> (if you'll pardon the pun) and led the team to the win.
>
> And then in 1975-76, with Gavaskar, Vengsarkar and Solkar gone,
> and Wadekar and Sardesai having retired, Ashok Mankad led the
> charge, and Bombay again won the Ranji Trophy.
An even better time might have been 1980-81 - when Solkar was old
and ancient and came back (IIRC) and led the team again, and led
them all the way to the title. A *very* depleted team - an old
Ramnath Parkar, Ghulam Parkar, G Gupte, Ashok Mankad, Rahul Mankad,
Solkar, Suru Nayak, Zulfi Parkar, Sandhu, Shivalkar, Mokashi. They
beat TN in Madras in the semis (led by Venkat, including V Siva,
K Srikkant, Abdul Jabbar etc, missing very few players). And that
same XI went ahead and absolutely pulversized Delhi in the finals
to win the Ranji Trophy - beat Delhi by an innings and 46 runs!
And Delhi had Raman Lamba, Arun Lal, Surinder Khanna, Madan Lal,
Rakesh Shukla, Sunil Valson, Maninder Singh, and their captain
Bishen Singh Bedi!! Surely one of the most amazing performances
in Ranji history.
That very ordinary Bombay side bowled first - and reduced Delhi to
18/5 on the first morning! Delhi finally got 251 allout, and Bombay
responded with 517! Ghulam Parkar 121, Ashok Mankad 265. Then
bowled Delhi out for 220 on 2nd innings, to win by an innings in
a stunning game.
And the Ravi Shastri led effort of 1993-94 wasnt bad either - missing
Tendulkar, Manjrekar, Kambli etc to the senior side, and Kuruvilla
and Ankola to the A-side IIRC. With a young Paras Mhambrey in his
debut season, and a bowling attack of Manish Patel, Sanjay Patil
etc. Sulakshan Kulkarni played as a pure batsman, Amol Muzumdar
made his debut in the knockouts and averaged over 150 for the
season, and in the one critical match that Muzumdar missed thru
injury (QFs, against Karnataka in Bangalore) Bombay collapsed to
174/6 chasing 406 against Prasad, Johnson and Joshi - and were
rescued by Shastri scoring 151 and young tyro Bahutule 134* as
they put on a partnership of 259 for the 7th wicket that saw Bombay
into the lead and victory (still, I believe, an all-time record for
7th wicket Ranjis in India - or is that just in Bombay? :-)
> Perhaps Delhi
> similarly will find someone who will take up the responsibility.
>
They dont need it half as badly IMHO - they are still going to be a
pretty good side. Mithun Manhas is an established player, was among
the top scorers in the tournament last season. Ajay Jadeja is back
to provide strength to the middle-order. They will still have Sarandeep
Singh and Rahul Sanghvi, and Vijay Dahiya. Abhishek Sharma was a
regular bowler for them all of last season. They will miss Gambhir
and Chopra and Nehra - but they should still be fine, really.
> > >Sadiq [ Bombay needs a couple big batting performances tomorrow]
> > Yusuf
> >
> > you got your wish, should have wished for india too!
>
> We do, we do. But India doesn't deliver quite as often. I
> continue to be astounded at the rate at which Bombay has
> delivered this last season and a fifth or so, despite having no
> batting to speak of.
Yes, its been amazing stuff - Pandit has been doing it with smoke and
mirrors, almost. Excellent coaching, wonderful planning and execution
with little resources.
One of the Delhi papers in the last couple of days spoke of the Bombay
side as the Australia of our Ranji Trophy - maybe it was a few years
ago, but thats a wild exaggeration now. But the aspect they mentioned
was actually pretty accurate - they mentioned the Aussie habit of
somehow finding a way to win, with someone or the other stepping up
in the crunch when the team really needed it, and somehow the team
ended up winning anyway. That is one quality that has been very
present in the Bombay side for the last season. The talent might
have been lacking, but the spirit was clearly there - a great desire
to live up to the history and pride of the team. At all sorts of
situations, someone or the other stepped up and guided the team
to safety.
This was a team last year, as you say, with almost no batting to speak
of - even Mane (one of the better ones) was coming off a horrendous
season where he had averaged 20 and been dropped. Pandit and Vengsarkar
and company couldnt find any batsman who could play a long innings, and
they knew it - and they knew the team would find it almost impossible
to score even 350 in an innings (and that is a recipe for a disaster
in a 4-day match). And in the very first game, Bombay was bundled out
for 98 allout - and pretty much everyone in the Bombay cricketing
community accepted that this would be a season of struggle indeed, with
no batting in sight.
And somehow Pandit and Mhambrey turned it all around. First Salvi
bowled Bombay right back into that Hyderabad game, and Bombay won
it comfortably in the end. And then everyone contributed, in a real
team effort. In every match 1 or 2 batsman would do ok - and Bombay
would end up getting about 130/5 with their top batsmen gone (mostly
because 1 or 2 of them got them to 130-odd). And then the tail would
pick up the slack, game after game. Keeper Samant at #6 produced 3 or
4 vital fifties. Bahutule at #7, Mhambrey at #8, Ramesh Powar at #9 -
everyone produced vital knocks, 3/4 fifties each, with Ramesh Powar
eventually even managing a ton or two. And somehow Bombay always
ended up producing 250-300 or so at least, good fighting totals.
And then the bowling did an amazing job - tight, disciplined, always
in the corridor. A good bunch of bowlers anyway, but who were also
very disciplined and gave away nothing, made the batsmen earn their
runs, and got them all out one by one.
Overall it was an amazing effort last year, by pretty much everyone
giving their all. A real team effort that produced the most unlikely
title in Bombay cricketing history.
And this year is a whole new challenge now. Now suddenly the new strike
bowler Salvi is lost to injury - and now Munaf is gone to the A-team
as well. Pawar has moved, Ramesh Powar also gone to A-team. Suddenly
this side which was a real "team" is now dissipated - and will have
to start from scratch, missing its vital pieces. They cant use the
same formula as last season to win - they dont have the bowling
anymore to pull it off (they are missing the entire pace attack from
last year, plus Munaf too who was now first backup).
It'll be interesting to see what they do. They *have* to score more
runs this year than last - that is the only way they can survive,
because they cant afford to give their bowlers as low totals to defend
as they did last year. If Amol doesnt score in another game he is
probably gone for good. Bhavin Thakkar must surely play most games
now - and maybe another youngster will get a chance too (I'd go with
Pushkaraj Jadhav myself, but most likely it will be Vinit Indulkar).
The pace bowling is wide open - probably Swapnil Hazare and Rajesh
Verma, who have 1 Ranji game between them to this point. We will
*have* to get production out of Robin Morris, with both bat and
ball. The 2 veteran spinners are still there - Bahutule and Kulkarni -
but there is no third right now, and no obvious third in the wings
either. This team is basically down to 2 openers (one of whom has
yet to make an fc century), 1 middle order bat (who hasnt done
much for years bar one ton), and 2 spinners. The rest is all up
in the air. It'll be fascinating to see if Chandu Pandit can
conjure something up out of it this time around.
Sadiq [ UP in UP next week - have to get runs from somewhere and
draw, because they never get bowled out on those pitches ] Yusuf
Srinivasan
Aussies without Sachin...and they nearly won the Irani last year (but
for Dravid,Laxman and the cameo from Balaji)...
I wish for a Mumbai vs TN final this time too..with both teams at full
strength..(meaning Nemesis Sachin is going to be there!)...
One thing I always wonder about: Why is the National ODI Championship
not given that much publicity? (Its the Wills cup ..right?).
Cricketislife!
(Srinivasan) wrote:
>Aaah..the most amazing performance by the Mumbaiyaas was against the
>Aussies without Sachin...and they nearly won the Irani last year (but
>for Dravid,Laxman and the cameo from Balaji)...
er... Dont forget my contribution there. I was there in the crowd
supporting ROI.
That reminds me of a guy in crowd, who got all worked up, when Balaji
caught Sachin. Our man stands up.
'Dei Balaaajiiiiiiii' Moole iruka? Sachin catchay pudichitiye...
unaku Indian teamle chance kidaikathu..!
( Do you have brains? u have caught Sachin! Now u wont get a chance to
play in Indian team...!!)
Tremendous laughter all around. but a man sitting next to me, serious
n focussed on cricket, turns around and says almost in disgust'' Summa
jokers, cricket pathi theriaydu, vanduruvanga match pakaraduku.
galataa panradukaga.. Vai moodindu match pakavendiyathu dane..!" (
jokers, dont know anything about cricket, come to see the match to
create nuisance, just shut up and watch the match I say..!)
All this was said in a whisper, lest the HERO heard it and bashed this
guy up..!
Prabhu Rangarajan
>
> >One thing I always wonder about: Why is the National ODI Championship
> >not given that much publicity? (Its the Wills cup ..right?).
Speaking of wags and wit, I'd been to a masala match where Chetan was
all padded up but even though the batting side was pottering around
without upping the ante, he didnt get a promotion up the order. A gang
of college girls started chanting his name in restlessness. Upon
which a less-than-pleased youngster seated 2 rows behind Chetan yelled
"Dey kadiya, unna koopadaraanga da!"(they're calling out to you, you
big bore(hope xlation is precise!))
Don't think Sharma knew what that meant, though he'd been featured in
a chat with some Madras ladkis in Kumudam, Aug 86.
BTW, Is Wills the official ODI championship? I think each zone has
their own ODI league or so - equivalents of Subbiah Pillai cup do
exist. Not to mention their hopeless wickets, Bombay routinely used to
chase 320+ in 40 or so overs.
Cheers,
Prabhu
Srinivasan
> That reminds me of a guy in crowd, who got all worked up, when Balaji
> caught Sachin. Our man stands up.
> 'Dei Balaaajiiiiiiii' Moole iruka? Sachin catchay pudichitiye...
> unaku Indian teamle chance kidaikathu..!
Wonder what that chap would have said to Madanagopal for dropping Sachin in
his 30s and Sachin going on to score his 245 to put TN into its misery in
the Ranjis a few years ago!. (That 245 turned out to be his highest in fc
IIRC) and the next day every print paper was raving about how Sachin
shielded S.Saxena and took Mumbai to a First Innings Lead over TN...The Lead
was so demoralizing for TN that they collapsed in the second innings!.
I feel that Sachin is always upto some magic when he plays for Mumbai..and
its a wonder that the Mumbai players respond so well to his captaincy but
our Indian Team members didn't..
Srini..
PS: I thought Sachin could have been a greater captain if only he was given
the best possible support and the team..He got Sujith Somasunder and Noel
David ..Ganguly gets Harbhajan, Yuvraj and Kaif.
"Cricketislife!" <cricke...@rediffmail.com> wrote in message
news:tq1rrvg5bcg6np63t...@4ax.com...
Amol Cricketwallah
> Cricketislife! <cricke...@rediffmail.com> wrote in message news:<tq1rrvg5bcg6np63t...@4ax.com>...
> >
> > >One thing I always wonder about: Why is the National ODI Championship
> > >not given that much publicity? (Its the Wills cup ..right?).
>
>
> their own ODI league or so - equivalents of Subbiah Pillai cup do
Pretty much, yes. The way theyve been doing it is, each zone plays its
own zonal OD championship. They used to do it so that each side played
each other in the Ranjis, and then played an OD game against each
other after the Ranji game - and the OD points were added up, and the
one with the most points won the league. Now its different - now all
the teams get together in 1 location for a week, and play each other
there, and the team with the most points is the zonal OD champion.
Then, all the zonal OD champs go forward to the Wills Trophy - and are
joined usually by 2 more sides, the BPXI and the Wills XI. And they
play a straight knockout, for the Wills Trophy championship.
There has long been a belief that a much better job should be done with
this. Indians in general are crazy about OD cricket - they show up for
good D/N games no matter what teams are playing (even India vs India-A
etc draw good crowds in this regard, surprising the organizers). What
they probably ought to do is send maybe 10 teams forward - and play
a solid 2/3 week long OD championship under lights, televised etc.
Would probably draw great crowds and a lot of attention - and would
serve us very well, in enabling us to figure out who the good players
are for future Indian ODI sides. At the moment players are basically
chosen for Indian ODI sides on the basis of first-class performance,
which is really pretty silly (the difference in performance of someone
like Robin Morris in OD cricket and fc cricket is glaring, to say
the least - he is pretty much an OD specialist, and might even be a
good pick for an Indian ODI side in this respect. But in terms of
Ranjis he barely is good enough to make the Bombay Ranji side - and
under the current system players of his type have pretty much no
shot at getting to an India-ODI level).
> exist. Not to mention their hopeless wickets, Bombay routinely used to
> chase 320+ in 40 or so overs.
>
Not really. The tournament moves from place to place, so its been held
in Baroda one year, Pune one year, Bombay one year etc. And Bombay is
actually a very good OD side, far better as an OD side than as a Ranji
side IMHO - and doesnt always have to chase 320 anyway. But Bombay
plays its ODs in the subcontinent the way SL does - with the idea that
a pinch-hitter at the top for the first 15 overs is always a very good
idea. And this has worked very well indeed for Bombay - they go with
Robin Morris and Wasim Jaffer at the top, with someone like Vinayak
Mane coming at #3 or #4. And they load up with allrounders anyway -
Morris, Bahutule, Powar, Agarkar etc (and Dani, until he moved - a
very good OD bowler, tight economical bowler who batted very aggressively
as well, a good OD choice).
Anyway. A season ago the WZ games were played in Bombay. Maharashtra
made 251, Bombay chased it down (Morris 55 off 32 balls at the top).
Against Saurashtra Bombay made 338 in 50 overs (Morris 111 off 92
at the top) - but Saurashtra only made 203 in reply. Gujarat made
222 in 50 overs- and Bombay chased it down with 5 wickets down with
only 4 overs to spare, a low-scoring tight game. The one really high
scoring game was against Baroda (like the one you mention above), and
that was because it was the only game held at MIG ground, which is a
smaller ground - Baroda made 318 and Bombay chased it down in 47 overs.
The previous year the games were in Baroda. Then Bombay won all 4
games as well, chasing all 4 times. They chased down 167 vs Maharashtra,
205 vs Saurashtra, 149 vs Gujarat, and 203 vs Baroda to win the games.
Again, none of the games were incredibly high-scoring, really.
Sadiq [ no Wills Trophy last year, IIRC ] Yusuf
> Cheers,
> Prabhu
Amol Cricketwallah
> diiv...@hotmail.com (DiiVolunt) wrote in message news:<bbe332a3.03111...@posting.google.com>...
>
> >
> good
> > >IMHO. At least, normally CCI is an outstanding side - but that
> includes
> > >Ranji players from all over. Even otherwise this is probably a pretty
> > >decent idea (though nobody in Bombay will like it, because it means
> > >all young good players will move to CCI instead of other clubs, thus
> > >making the Kanga League too CCI-biased; right now CCI is not the
> > >Kanga winner, usually). But if they *do* let CCI into the Ranjis,
> I'll
> > >bet that within a year they'll be in the First Division after gaining
> > >promotion.
> >
> > CCI would be interesting side as states might not release their
> > players so CCI would have to offer contracts and states to respect
> > these. don't see that happening but may give exposure to lot of good
> > bombay players who will get to reside at home and play too.. sort of
> > like Mumbai B (they can call it Bombay)
> > instead of two in assam, three in railways and so on..
> >
>
> Maybe instead of Mumbai-B, let the team be picked from all the clubs
> in Mumbai. Sort of CCE [Combined Club Eleven]. Hopefully, there wont
> be lot of politics in the selection.
>
There probably will be :-) But still, they can probably put up a
pretty good team overall. Seriously, the simplest way to do it
would be to put up a Bombay-B - sort of like the A-team. It would
avoid a lot of players having to move to different sides across
the country, and still enable them to play good quality club and
office cricket. And now with 2 divisions in the Ranjis they could
start in the second division - and if they deserve promotion they'll
win it, if they dont they wont, simple enough.
> On a side not - I saw atleast 4 pawar/Powar in the Ranji premier
> league. They are playing for Mumbai, Baroda, Gujarat, and Aasam [of
> all places]. Can Sadiq give us a run down of the pawars of the Indian
> Cricket?
>
Gujarat's is Luv Pawar IIRC - dont know that much about him. Played
a couple of games last year too, dont remember him that well from
U25 or U19 the last year or two. He's done ok at times, bats #3
for them usually.
Bombay's is Ramesh Powar. Off-spinning allrounder, probably Bombay's
3rd best spinner but has improved quite a bit in terms of bowling
(bowled very well in the Irani Trophy game, taking 4 top-order
wickets in one great spell in the first innings - Dravid and Ganguly
and people of that quality). A very useful lower-order bat in the
Gilchristian mould - comes in and hits the ball really hard, and often
changes the game by scoring very rapidly in the lower order. Batted
#9 most of the time for Bombay last season, but was 3rd highest scorer
on the entire team and also 2nd in averages IIRC (with an average of
about 46 for the season, with a couple of tons and some fifties).
Currently part of the India-A side to play SL-A next week.
Baroda's is Rajesh Pawar. Left-arm orthodox spinner, who is becoming a
sort of allrounder lately. Former India U19 captain, and grew up
playing for Bombay U19, National Cricket Club (with Jaffer and Nilesh
Kulkarni) and Indian Oil Corporation (also with Jaffer). Was Bombay's
#1 bowler 2 seasons ago when Bombay won the Ranjis - the brightest
young spin prospect in the city, he had made his big breakthru into
the Bombay side, took 39 wickets in the season at an average of about
22 including a 7-fer in an innings in the Ranji finals, and seemed
set to star for Bombay for many years and maybe make a push for
national selection sometime down the line. Instead it all went wrong -
he had an ordinary game or two to start the next season, while Nilesh
Kulkarni and Sairaj Bahutule did very well, and then Bombay went with
3 seamers so there was no room for him. Then Ramesh Powar got a game
and did very well with the ball - but proved himself more than that to
be a very good allrounder. So by last year Pawar had slipped all the
way down - if only 2 spinners were played (as was usual), they were
Bahutule and Powar, the allrounder-spinners. And if a third was taken
it might well be Nilesh Kulkarni (who played a test for India only
2 years ago after all). So Pawar was now 4th spinner, despite not
doing anything particularly wrong (and still captaining and starring
for Bombay U25 with both bat and ball - he had a U25 century with the
bat once last year). So at the start of this season Pawar moved to
Baroda, and is currently their #1 LAS (and one of 2 spinners playing
in their final XI, along with allrounder-offie Ajit Bhoite).
Assam's is Kiran Powar, brother of Bombay's Ramesh Powar. Another
former India U19 captain, captained India U19 to Australia in 1994/95
(and had one brilliant century in the "test" there). Was in the Bombay
15 for a long time but could never really break in - got only 1 chance,
scored about 15 or so, and then went back out of the XI (but remained
in the 15), unable to break into a very solid middle-order (with
Amol, Paranjpe, Manjrekar, Kambli etc). Eventually about 2 years ago
he moved to Goa, and scored 3 centuries for them in 5 matches in his
first year. Last year he moved to Assam (possibly because Lalchand
Rajput was their coach a year ago - and because Assam was a Premier
Division side while Goa was a Second Division Side). Scored another
3 centuries for Assam IIRC, and averaged over 70 for the season and
was easily their premier batsman - and they easily retained their
Premier Division spot (pushing Orissa down to 2nd division). He has
stayed with them this year too - and had a century in the 2nd innings
last week, in Assam's first game of the season. Probably deserves to
break into the higher level somewhere - Duleeps, or India-A, or something
like that (his record is far superior to Rohan Gavaskar's in the same
zone, for example) - but he hasnt yet. Also played professional cricket
with Maghull in the Durham League in England over the summer.
Sadiq [ the most Pawarful Pawar heads the Bombay Cricket Association ] Yusuf
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Atul.
DiiVolunt
>
> Yes, that was quite a final day. A complete turn-around of the entire
> match - after 3 bowler-dominated and low-scoring days, for Jaffer and
> Mane to just blaze their way to 185/0 was amazing. Hit Sanghvi around
> a bit, too - especially Jaffer, apparently. I had expected a very
> hard-fought close game, and a wafer-thin margin at the end - and instead
> logged on to find a washout, it was a very pleasant shock :-)
Yup! it was a shock alright, won't say it was pleasant :-)
>
>Madan Lal was saying after
> the match how this was really their best 15, and they couldnt do
> much about it - and he's right. The Delhi newspapers were basically
> very upset, and they pointed out this was a side chock-full of big
> names that lost anyway - and theyre right. I mean, Chopra, Gambhir,
> Manhas, Jadeja, Dahiya, Bhandari, Nehra, Sarandeep, Sanghvi - thats
> almost entirely full of internationals.
>
Almost! the buggers are all experienced international prerformers,
other than skipper , one chap had 2 international tours, other has 5!,
Jadeja has a chock full, Dahiya not too bad either, less said about
rest
the better. the point you made that all did badly is a reassuring one,
one win will change picture dramatically. I think 13 points should be
enough for knockout place and what with 3 wins and a innings win, it
ispossible..
> > So, Chetan Chauhan 's nephew and Madan Lal 's son make their ranji
> > debuts.
> > I hope they are half as good as their inspirations. I was hoping that
> > abhishek does not take wickets againt lankans... so bad is the
> > situation back home.
> >
>
> Yes, interesting team. I hope both kids really deserve their spots and
> are not receiving boosts due to their relatives - which has sometimes
> been a problem in Delhi cricket. Someone like Amit Suman used to be
> a terrific U19 fast bowler - and he hasnt been making the side lately.
> A player like Sohail Rauf used to be the mainstay of the Delhi U19
> middle-order side - he isnt making it either. Kuldeep Rawat is a
> young kid who played for Delhi even last season - how come he's vanished
> from the picture entirely?
Surprised about Rawat, he was on my watchlist too... maybe rauf and
suman screwed up in DDCA league.. delhi selectors do watch that league
preformances..
Angurala used to be selected just for college preformances..
I think Kunal and Pururaj may be good enough for selection. Delhi
traditionally does not kow tow to player's relatives. This year, last
season 's outstanding U-25 player verma is not in delhi side ( he is
trying with railways now).
Verma is son of ex- chief minister and current union minister..
Saurabh Shukla , son of ex player and selectors anand shukla and uncle
Rakesh shukla was also coach could not get into delhi side... Jadeja
was son of powerful MP,
related to both domestic trophies, uncle was respected delhi keeper
and did not make the side despite lot of runs in university and broken
windows at stephens!
or Ajay Mehra ( good enough for A and BP XIs), son of Vijay mehra,
doyen of delhi cricket and his family practically built the kotla..did
not get in delhi, went to Punjab..
having said that Chauhan is powerful ex-MP, respected player but an
outsider, originally from Maharashtra (played for them for almost a
decade) and resides in UP around 120 miles away.... Madan is respected
player and now coach, i don't think his integrity is to be questioned.
when delhi U-15 played, some committee members did dharna protesting
against rules for including players and press built it up as
anti-jadeja protest.
That delhi side had two sons too Manan ajay sharma and Rushiel Bhaskar
Pillai.
> >
> Yes, Punjab hasnt done that well yet - should have beaten Kerala
> outright and didnt, and really should ahve had the first innigns
> points against UP after being 312/3 overnight going into the last
> day. Now its a bit of a dogfight - Kaif will return for UP too,
> wont he?
Now that UP has not fallen far without Kaif, Kaif can also propel them
to semis. as i said, i think 13 points might be enough and UP just
passed two big tests against North powers and now the west powers are
next up..
>
> Yes, thats Kokje - seen him listed as Amol and Amal. MP kid, very
> good offspinner, huge talent. I messed up by believing what the
> newspaper told me - they said 50 wickets each in U15 and U19 last
> year, and that was wrong. It was actually 50 each in U19 and U25
> IIRC. A real prospect, played for U19 yesterday - but was called
> for throwing a couple of times on D3!
>
> MP and UP are throwing up a few good young kids. Ravikant and
> Shivakant Shukla that you mention, and Raina. And Piyush Chawla,
> a leggie from UP who is very young and going to be very very good
> apparently.
>
Is kokje 's throwing an aberration or oh oh! another harvinder.
>
> Yes, that would work very well. Also, of course, there are a fair
> number of decent-ish players who arent playing Ranjis around the
> country, because they didnt want to move away from club and office
> cricket in Bombay. They would form a pretty good team all by
> themselves IMHO. (An example would be Mandar Phadke, a very good
> batsman who rarely played for Bombay, who finally moved only last
> year when he was 30-odd years old already, to Goa. And played 2
> matches for them, like 4 innings, and 2 tons and a fifty IIRC, for
> an average up near 70). There are a few good players like that
> floating around - the Amol Rane's etc of the world who might do
> very well given an extensive exposure.
>
>
> Sadiq [ Division Two starts next week as well ] Yusuf
they should call it a title something like we already have ranji,
duleep,
umrigar, mankad, CK, Cooch behar, viziangram, irani, deodhar, all of
whom did a lot for indian cricket earlier. they can call it Wazir or
Nasser-Amar trophy.
or patiala only one missing from 1930s.. or Lala Amarnath cup.
or Amarnath-Adhikari cup. Both veterans passed recently..
I liked Gilchrist 's SRT-SW cup idea. sorry to introduce this in
domestic thread, promise will never happen again (sic)
we should have nice names for trophies with other countries:
vs England at home: Spinwash cup; England away: heartburn cup, next
time cup
vs Australia at home: Spin-it-is cup, australia away: Hum Honge
Kamyabek Din cup
vs south Africa at home: Azhar-Cronje cup. SA away: Rathore-Raman
cup..
vs. Kiwis home: Groundsmen trophy, Kiwi away: cantplaypacefornuts cup
vs. Pakistan at home: Cancelmenot trophy; away: pleasecancelmenot
trophy
rest we can name after real persons!
p.s. Kale is innocent, i mean the system is well to curropt for words!
(pre-script)
regards
PRanshu B Saxena
Amol Cricketwallah
joining the Premier Division.
Premier Division:
Bombay vs UP:
A slow slow day in Kanpur. A depleted Bombay side brought back Swapnil
Hazare as their new-ball bowler, and gave a debut to young off-spinning
allrounder Omkar Khanvilkar (he's 21, former Bombay U19 captain - used
to also bat #4 for them, lefty bat, and bowls pretty useful off-spin.
Was a member of Bombay U22 last year. Will be interesting to see at
what spot he bats here - he is replacing off-spinning allrounder Ramesh
Powar, away with India-A).
UP won the toss and batted - and were in trouble right away, which set
the tone for the slow play all day long. Opener Prakash (coming off
a century in his last match) was bowled for 1 in the 2nd over by
Robin Morris. Jyoti Yadav went next over to Hazare, and then Shukla
LBW to Morris for 15 - 36/3 in 9 overs (Shukla had hit 15 off 15 balls
in his innings). And that was that, 36/3, UP could no longer attack,
and the day just ground to a halt. Young Suresh Raina (only about 18
years old, freshly returned from India U19s tour of Pakistan) got
together with veteran Rizwan Shamshad and they put on 41 in 33 overs (!)
before Hazare returned to get Shamshad. Raina finally fell for a
3-hour 43, giving debutant Omkar Khanvilkar his first wicket. Nikhil
Chopra fell to Bahutule for 1 (made in 43 minutes), keeper Malaviya
to Khanvilkar for 17. Only the bloody-mindedness of old Gyanendra
Pandey saved the day for UP - as usual he held up Bombay's advance
with his battling grit. UP were 135/7, but ended the day 169/7 in
90 overs - with Pandey 57* at the end, once again the highest scorer
for his team. After those first 9 overs, 133 runs were scored in 81
overs - a *really* slow day!
For a relatively inexperienced Bombay attack, a pretty decent day.
Hazare 20 overs, 2/56 with the new ball, Morris contributing his
mite too as allrounder with 13 overs, 2/37. Bahutule 18 overs, 1/32;
Kulkarni his usual miserly self, with 25 overs, 0/27. And young
debutant Khanvilkar had a first day he would be very satisfied with -
the 5th bowler used, he had 14 overs, 2/14. Bombay wont be happy
that they couldnt finish the day off, though - the 8th wicket pair
saw out the final 14 overs of the day - but they cant be unsatisfied
giving up less than 2 runs per over all day long.
TN vs Bengal:
Bengal won the toss and batted - and TN's attack badly missed Balaji.
An opening stand of 119 demonstrated that, made in 41 overs. There
was a mini-collapse to 152/3, but opener Haldipur continued to grind
it out for once, and Shukla hit up a quick 30 - and Bengal made it
up to 207/3 with 22 overs left in the day when the rain came. Haldipur
has batted out 68 overs for his 79* - a very talented player whose
career has fallen badly off the rails, its nice to see him battling
so hard in this innings. One wicket each for Srinivas, Ganapathy and
Ganesh Kumar - and none on this first day for this seasons spinning
sensation Ramkumar. BTW, TN has brought back S Vidyut for this match -
clearly he has returned from his Haryana soujourn. However he is
apparently being seen as a pure batsman, because despite Bengal losing
only 3 wickets in 68 overs, he didnt get to bowl a single ball! TN is
also giving a debut to E Suresh (Samarth help us know more about him -
why is he ahead of the U19 kids who were doing so well the last year
or two in the middle order? The Noorul Riaz's and the rest?)
Rajasthan vs Karnataka at Jaipur:
What they have done to the Jaipur pitch, I have no idea - suddenly, all
year so far, its doing crazy things. And its a big-time seamer pitch
too! Whatever they are doing to it, the rest of the country could use :-)
Rajasthan's pitch is a bit too crazy however - they ended up losing
in 2 days to TN last week, with Balaji going wild with a 10-fer.
This one sounds like another crazy green-top - Karnataka was put in,
and collapsed to 145 allout. And Rajasthan responded with 111/5!
Karnataka were probably happy to get 145 itself - only one top-order
batsman reached 20 (Bharadwaj with 23). Finally their #7 batting
allrounder Stuart Binny did his usual strong hitting, getting a top
score of 39 and taking Karnataka to 145 allout. Sanjeev Sharma is
loving these pitches, he's probably never seen them before in his
40 years - he took 3/39 this time (to go with his 10 wicket haul
vs Bengal in the first game). Rajasthan came out and were promptly
in trouble themselves, with Prasad and Ganesh proving a handful.
Prasad claimed 3 and Ganesh 2, and Rajasthan slid to 45/5, still
100 behind! But Gagan Khoda is still there with 43*, and blasted
38* with 7 fours, and Rajasthan semi-recovered to 111/5 at close.
Overall Karnataka cant be too displeased after falling for 145 -
this game will have a result, and they surely have too much firepower
for Rajasthan to stay with them the rest of the way.
Assam vs Hyderabad:
Assam won the toss and batted, and ended the day at a reasonable 230/3.
A 71 from opener and captain Palash Das, a failure from Kiran Powar (only
11 this time), but another fine innings from Vasanth Sarvanan who was
80* at the end of the day. No Hyderabad bowler really made a mark,
Shivaji Yadav with 2/44 being the most successful.
Railways vs Delhi:
A track with some green on it prompted new Railways captain Sanjay
Bangar to put Delhi in - and he had good results on his first day
of captaincy, with Delhi 194/8 to end the day.
A very strange-looking Delhi side - Gambhir and Chopra away, Nehra
and Bhandari away, Jadeja out with a hamstring pull. Chetan Chauhan's
nephew opened the batting (apparently there have been several eyebrows
raised at his selection, and Chauhan is currently president of the
DDCA) - he hung in there for more than an hour before being LBW for 19.
Dahiya batted #3, captain Mithun Manhas was top-scorer with 62. Chawla
failed in his comeback with only 8, Varun Kumar and Narendra Negi (both
on comebacks) got 15 and 28 respectively. A poor day overall for
Delhi, and a strange look to their side - they still arent finding room
for some players who were standouts at the junior level the past few
years (Sohail Rauf, Amit Suman, Kuldeep Rawat etc), but seem to be going
with middling-level veteran-types. 5 wickets for the Railways pacemen,
2 each for Harvinder Singh and Bangar, and 1 for Yadav. Plus 2 more
for Kulamani Parida with his offspin. Overall a very satisfactory
day for Railways, Delhi will have to fight hard to get back in this
game without their top 2 pacemen - and this is a vital game for
both sides. Coach Madan Lal's son Kunal is still there at 1* at the
end of the day.
Baroda vs Punjab:
Another game vital for both teams - and Baroda rung in the changes after
their losses in the first 2 matches. Two veterans seem to be sitting
out - Connor Williams and Tushar Arothe. Baroda opened with Rishikesh
Parab and Satyajit Parab, with Rakesh Solanki (just returned from
India U19 at #3). Rishikesh got a 50 but Baroda were 115/3, before
the veterans Jacob Martin and Nayan Mongia rescued them. Martin with
80* and Mongia with 38* - and Baroda 233/3 at the end of the day.
Not much of a day for Punjab's bowlers, 1 wicket each for VRV Singh,
Navdeep Singh and Reetinder Singh Sodhi.
And for some strange reason Yuvraj Singh isnt playing for Punjab in
this game either. He isnt going to Australia and isnt in the India-A
side - so he really ought to be playing here, unless there is an
injury we dont know about (or he's just resting that hamstring).
The Plate:
Began yesterday as well, first round. Services 182/4 at the end of
the first day vs Himachal - no big deal. But 2 interesting moves
off the field - Fazil Mohammad is playing for Services (he is a
Kerala kid who was picked up in the nets by Kapil etc and attended
the NCA, but couldnt break into the Kerala side). And the potentially
*huge* move - Manvinder Bisla, who was possibly India U19s best
batsman two years ago (and was the opening batsman too), who used to
keep wickets in school but was actually bowling a little bit for U19
and evne Ranjis... Bisla has moved to HP, and apparently is going to
keep wickets full-time!
This could be very big. If Bisla, who was a very part-time keeper
at best, could improve and turn into an actual keeper, it could be
pretty big for India. He was a regular opening batsman for India U19,
and one of the best batsmen in the country period - did very well
in U19 World Cups etc with the bat too. If he could be a reasonable
keeper even in 2 years time, that might be of great interest to the
national side.
Anyway. For the rest - Goa 208/6 at Orissa, Swapil 119*. Offie Faisal
Shaikh, who was batting #10 last year, came in at #3 and got 30!
Phadke failed, but Amit Dani is 22* at days end. Sandeep Dahad, who
did so well for Goa last year, has apparently moved again - is not
in the Goa team. The Tripura team has an S Dhad, who knows if thats
the same :-) The reason this is possible is because Tripura has
suddenly decided to go professional this season - they are being
captained by Ashish Kapoor, and have former TNers TR Arasu at
keeper and S Mahesh as fast-bowler/allrounder! They held Vidarbha
to 254/8 at the end of the first day yesterday - with Kapoor taking
4 wickets.
And finally, a disappointing day for Haryana at home - 218/6 at the
end of the day against J&K. No other news so far (from, for example,
the Maharashtra/Saurashtra game that Abhijit Kale is missing because
of his suspension).
Sadiq [ lots of games of interest in progress ] Yusuf
Samarth Shah
<snip>
> sensation Ramkumar. BTW, TN has brought back S Vidyut for this match -
Just a couple of good games yet for Ramkumar. Don't jinx him. :-)
> clearly he has returned from his Haryana soujourn. However he is
> apparently being seen as a pure batsman, because despite Bengal losing
> only 3 wickets in 68 overs, he didnt get to bowl a single ball!
He's batting in the top-order in league cricket.
TN is
> also giving a debut to E Suresh (Samarth help us know more about him -
> why is he ahead of the U19 kids who were doing so well the last year
> or two in the middle order?
The name sounds familiar, but I cannot seem to find any info on him.
None whatsoever. What team he plays for in I Div. cricket in Madras,
what his background is, what his performances are. Nothing. I thought
he might be Mambalam Mosquitoes' E. Arun's brother or something. But
no luck there either. He's probably from districts, not Madras city.
(Born in Vellore.) He will turn 20 a day after his Ranji debut. His
age and birthplace make it unlikely I know or have played against him.
The interesting thing is that a search for his name in the I Div.
scorecards from the last 2 seasons at www.tncricket.com reveals zilch.
So, if he's not competing in league cricket with his team-mates, I
wonder how he made it to the Ranji team.
I don't know much about Ganapathy, either, except what's on
www.tncricket.com. (Actually I may have heard the name from age-group
games, but I can't be sure.) He doesn't seem to have that great a
performance in I Div. games.
> The Noorul Riaz's and the rest?)
Yeah, I've heard of him, even though he's from districts. U19/U22
colleague of some guys I played with/against. Top-order bat. He's
consistently been scoring runs by the half-ton in I Div. cricket. Why
do you ask, though? Is he figuring somewhere on the Ranji circuit?
<snip>
> in the Goa team. The Tripura team has an S Dhad, who knows if thats
> the same :-)
This S. Dhad opened the bowling with Mahesh and Sandeep Dahad is an
opening bowler of pretty decent quality, by domestic standards. So it
does seem pretty likely. Does the fact that he's no more with Services
mean he's left the Navy?
The reason this is possible is because Tripura has
> suddenly decided to go professional this season - they are being
> captained by Ashish Kapoor, and have former TNers TR Arasu at
> keeper and S Mahesh as fast-bowler/allrounder!
Hehe. Tamil Nadu East II?
<snip>
-Samarth.
Ambrish Sundaram
E. Suresh recently played for Tamil Nadu in the P. Ramachandra Rao
Trophy South Zone under-22 tournament. In the match against Kerala he
scored 137 and had a partnership of 243 runs for the third wicket with
Srivasudeva Doss, who scored 134.
In the 2001 season (and possibly in the 2002 season too) he represented
Tamil Nadu in the Under-19 Ghulam Ahmed Trophy Cricket Tournament (South
Zone) and did well.
Ambrish Sundaram
Ambrish Sundaram
Links to some scorecards of Under-19 games etc. that he played in -
I am sure one can find more such scorecards with some more digging. He
hasn't really been outstanding in any of these games, except maybe the
last one where he scored 86 against Goa Under 19.
Ambrish Sundaram
Cric8wala
>news:<a374a779.03112...@posting.google.com>...
>
><snip>
>
>> sensation Ramkumar. BTW, TN has brought back S Vidyut for this match -
>
>Just a couple of good games yet for Ramkumar. Don't jinx him. :-)
>
Yes, but 2 very good games - better than any other LAS in the league, IIRC, at
least for those first couple of matches. This is the first really ordinary day
he's had all season long.
>> clearly he has returned from his Haryana soujourn. However he is
>> apparently being seen as a pure batsman, because despite Bengal losing
>> only 3 wickets in 68 overs, he didnt get to bowl a single ball!
>
>He's batting in the top-order in league cricket.
>
I get that - he was batting very high up in the order for U25 TN last year etc
as well, even at #3 a lot of the time IIRC. But really, not bowling a single
ball all day long (even the reduced day had 68 overs), when the opposition was
losing only 3 wickets all day? He wasnt the best bowler for TN U25 last year or
anything, was doing much more batting - but he was still bowling a fair bit. Is
he bowling *that* little now? Yet another TN LAS 17 year old India prospect,
who turns into a batsman by the time he's 22, following in the grand traditions
of Raman and Sriram?
>TN is
>> also giving a debut to E Suresh (Samarth help us know more about him -
>> why is he ahead of the U19 kids who were doing so well the last year
>> or two in the middle order?
>
>The name sounds familiar, but I cannot seem to find any info on him.
>None whatsoever. What team he plays for in I Div. cricket in Madras,
>what his background is, what his performances are. Nothing. I thought
>he might be Mambalam Mosquitoes' E. Arun's brother or something. But
>no luck there either. He's probably from districts, not Madras city.
>(Born in Vellore.) He will turn 20 a day after his Ranji debut. His
>age and birthplace make it unlikely I know or have played against him.
>The interesting thing is that a search for his name in the I Div.
>scorecards from the last 2 seasons at www.tncricket.com reveals zilch.
>So, if he's not competing in league cricket with his team-mates, I
>wonder how he made it to the Ranji team.
>
It sounds a very strange pick, then. I *had* heard the name barely in age-group
cricket, not totally unfamilar, but frankly knew nothing about him at all.
There were several others I had heard of much more from TN.
Looked him up now, and I dont think he's ever made the TN U25 side before in
his life! He *has* played for TN U19 for a couple of years - but not with
overwhelming success. Nowhere near the best player for TN U19 or anything of
that sort, none of the years. Bats up the order, has batted at #3 a couple of
times, down at #6 a couple of times - but doesnt seem to bowl at all either.
For example, he played U19 for TN in 2001-02. With the following results:
vs Goa: batted #4, 86 (438/7 decl)
vs Andhra: batted #8, 4 (272 ao)
vs Kerala: batted #4, 23 (188 ao)
vs Hyd: DNB
vs Kar: batted #6, 26* (189 ao)
vs UP: batted #3 58 (357 ao)
And that was the end of the season for TN, with the loss to UP.
In 2002/03, ie last season:
Missed the first 2 matches.
vs Andh: batted #7, 25* (445/5)
vs Ker: batted #6, 67* (361/4 decl)
vs Kar: batted #7 43 (332/9)
vs MP: batted #6 19 (217 ao)
batted #6 0 (215 ao)
And that was the end of the season for TN, with the loss to MP.
Thats the entire U19 record he has over the past 2 seasons. And, as I said, I
dont believe he played U25 for TN at all last year. And he doesnt bowl, at
least it doesnt seem like he ever does.
Frankly its a pretty damn strange pick, looking only at numbers. Maybe they see
something in the way he looks that convinces them he's going to be something
special, who knows. But there are many many other batsmen who Ive heard of
quite a lot more of, from TN, in the junior ranks - and none of them seem to
have made it.
>I don't know much about Ganapathy, either, except what's on
>www.tncricket.com. (Actually I may have heard the name from age-group
>games, but I can't be sure.) He doesn't seem to have that great a
>performance in I Div. games.
>
Heard of Ganapathy quite a bit from age-group cricket, TNCA seems quite high on
him. He is another of these MRF graduates - and was probably seen as TN U25's
#1 pace bowler last year. He is no longer young enough to play U19s, and hasnt
been for the past 2 seasons - but he was bowling for TN U22 two seasons ago,
and for TN U25 last year. For TN U22 in 2001-02 he was only an occasional
bowler, and often 3rd seamer when he played - because the first 2 seamers were
Balaji and Srinivas! But last year both had graduated out of U25s due to
Ranji-play - and Ganapathy was probably the #1 pacer for U25 in terms of
seniority. OTOH not sure if he's the *best* prospect - in the sense that TN's
U19 spearhead has been Tamil Kumaran, and he was also bowling in tandem with
Ganapathy at the U25 level (and, IIRC, not neccesarily doing much worse, and he
is younger obviously). But Ganapathy probably was the logical paceman to step
in, with Balaji away.
>> The Noorul Riaz's and the rest?)
>
>Yeah, I've heard of him, even though he's from districts. U19/U22
>colleague of some guys I played with/against. Top-order bat. He's
>consistently been scoring runs by the half-ton in I Div. cricket. Why
>do you ask, though? Is he figuring somewhere on the Ranji circuit?
>
Dont think so - but thought he might get a shot for TN, with a few spots
opening up now. He was opening or batting #3 most of the time for TN U25 last
season. One of TN U25's best batsmen - and TN U25 had a very strong batting
lineup (captain R Satish, Riaz, J Hariesh, Vidyut etc. And, the previous year,
Badrinath and Hemanth Kumar too - though Riaz was in that side 2 years ago as
well).
Last year there was a U25 knockout at the end of the zonals - and TN U25 was
favourite to win the whole thing, but got to the finals and lost (quite badly)
to MP U25. On the way, however, in the semis (IIRC) against Bihar U25, Noorul
Riaz got an unbeaten double century (and captain Satish got a
out-double-century in the same game too). Riaz also got a fifty in the finals
against MP U25 when everyone else failed.
Looking at those U25 results, I had sort of presumed that the very strong TN
U25 batting order guys would probably be next in line for TN spots, if any
opened up. That is, Riaz, Satish, Hariesh etc. Thought they might actually
sneak in ahead of Madanagopal etc in the team even without spots opening up!
And instead there are 2 spots open now, and *still* they dont seem to have made
it - with a name that isnt so familiar making it instead. Just seemed somewhat
strange.
><snip>
>
>> in the Goa team. The Tripura team has an S Dhad, who knows if thats
>> the same :-)
>
>This S. Dhad opened the bowling with Mahesh and Sandeep Dahad is an
>opening bowler of pretty decent quality, by domestic standards. So it
>does seem pretty likely. Does the fact that he's no more with Services
>mean he's left the Navy?
>
Sandeep Dahad is a very solid opening bowler at domestic level - but I dont
think he is the one youre thinking of :-) I know who youre thinking of, but am
blanking on the name right this second - the fastish pacer from Services who
was a Navy-man, with a similar name. He isnt who I meant (even if maybe this is
him, who knows :-)
The Sandeep Dahad I mean is a guy who played U19s for Maharasthra, and a couple
of Ranji and Ranji OD game for Bombay. Pretty quick left arm paceman - nippy
and dangerous, but somewhat wild at times. Also a very useful man down the
order with the bat, hits the ball very hard and is very aggressive. Played club
cricket in Bombay regularly but couldnt break into the Bombay Ranji side with
regularity (was hard to for a paceman, with Abey, Salil, Paras and then Agarkar
etc around). Finally, at age about 30, Dahad moved last year to Goa - and had a
pretty fine year, even being picked for Duleep Trophy games as a result (with
some very good allrounder-type results in Ranjis). He had even taken over the
main paceman role from Aware IIRC. However this season to start the year I dont
see his name in the Goa side - which I presumed meant he had moved, or at least
decided not to play for Goa anymore (though I suppose he could be injured,
too). And then, seeing S.Dhad opening the bowling for Tripura, I wondered if it
was indeed the same guy :-)
Oh, and just looked up the Services guy you meant. That's a right-handed pacer,
their fastest guy, Surendra Ghag the Navy-man - thats *not* who I meant as
having transferred to Tripura. But, of course, it is just as likely that this
S.Dhad is he - one never knows with typos in Indian domestic cricket, and Ghag
is not in the Services side for the first match either :-)
>The reason this is possible is because Tripura has
>> suddenly decided to go professional this season - they are being
>> captained by Ashish Kapoor, and have former TNers TR Arasu at
>> keeper and S Mahesh as fast-bowler/allrounder!
>
>Hehe. Tamil Nadu East II?
>
Maybe :-) But Kapoor did come from HP last year, and Punjab before that - his
TN connections are somewhat diluted :-) And if the above Dhad is actually Dahad
- he actually used to play *with* Arasu for Goa too! But Arasu had a very
crappy season with Goa, and they replaced him for a couple games with
part-timer Velaskar from Bombay - and now Goa's keeper this year is... wait for
it.. Somasekar Shiraguppi! Yes, the same former-Karnataka keeper who had, IIRC,
retired from first-class cricket (or hadnt he? He was competing with Naidu, but
then Naidu started getting most of the games all of a sudden, anyway). Also,
BTW, Tripura seems to have Arindam Das as well - and as far as I know he was a
Bengal player the last I recall, no? So they really ought not to be total
walkovers this season.
Sadiq [ too many plate games unreported on yet ] Yusuf
><snip>
>
>-Samarth.
>
>
>
>
>
>
Samarth Shah
<snip>
> Looking at those U25 results, I had sort of presumed that the very strong TN
> U25 batting order guys would probably be next in line for TN spots, if any
> opened up. That is, Riaz, Satish, Hariesh etc. Thought they might actually
Sathish is playing for Assam - made a hundred yesterday. Don't know
why J. Hariesh didn't make it. I played with/against him when he was a
kid and I was a teen. Lots of pleasant memories of net sessions on
Saturday afternoons trying to get him out, with his dad watching and
all. He was an opening bat growing up. Another player who was
prominent at all levels he represented the state in - U13, U16, U19,
all the way up. I followed his career all the way.
> sneak in ahead of Madanagopal etc in the team even without spots opening up!
<snip>
> Oh, and just looked up the Services guy you meant. That's a right-handed pacer,
> their fastest guy, Surendra Ghag the Navy-man - thats *not* who I meant as
> having transferred to Tripura. But, of course, it is just as likely that this
> S.Dhad is he - one never knows with typos in Indian domestic cricket, and Ghag
> is not in the Services side for the first match either :-)
My mistake.
> >The reason this is possible is because Tripura has
> >> suddenly decided to go professional this season - they are being
> >> captained by Ashish Kapoor, and have former TNers TR Arasu at
> >> keeper and S Mahesh as fast-bowler/allrounder!
> >
> >Hehe. Tamil Nadu East II?
> >
>
> Maybe :-) But Kapoor did come from HP last year, and Punjab before that - his
> TN connections are somewhat diluted :-) And if the above Dhad is actually
BAH! Double BAH! He's as tamilian as idlis. Grew up in Madras, played
school cricket for St. Bede's (where his father coached as recently as
the mid-90s), represented TN in every conceivable junior competition
and even started his Ranji career with TN. Moved to Punjab because
people were convinced in the early/mid-90s, with the treatment of
Sharath and Sunil Subramaniam that no TN cricketer was ever going to
play for India. Bedi sold him on the idea of moving to Punjab, and the
story goes, he promised to get him in the test team from there. He
eventually moved back to Madras for a couple of seasons, but TN has a
perpetual youth policy, whereby if you can't contend for national
honors, you may as well not play for TN. (There's exceptions, but I'm
talking in general.)
Of course, he's been playing I Div. league cricket in Madras all this
while. :-) But then, half of India's FC cricketers have played league
cricket in Madras some time or another. If I were you, I'd claim
they're all from Madras. :-)
Dahad
> - he actually used to play *with* Arasu for Goa too! But Arasu had a very
> crappy season with Goa, and they replaced him for a couple games with
> part-timer Velaskar from Bombay - and now Goa's keeper this year is... wait for
> it.. Somasekar Shiraguppi! Yes, the same former-Karnataka keeper who had, IIRC,
> retired from first-class cricket (or hadnt he? He was competing with Naidu, but
> then Naidu started getting most of the games all of a sudden, anyway). Also,
> BTW, Tripura seems to have Arindam Das as well - and as far as I know he was a
> Bengal player the last I recall, no? So they really ought not to be total
> walkovers this season.
Do you mean Arindam Sarkar? Or is it Arindam Das? BTW, my fiancee (of
all people!) was looking at the website of the Northern Calif. Cricket
Assoc. League, and we saw the name Arindam Das in one of the teams. He
played 3 games and made all of a dozen runs or so in total, so I'm
wondering. Surely not the young Bengal Ranji player?
-Samarth.
DiiVolunt
> joining the Premier Division.
>
> Premier Division:
>
> Bombay vs UP:
> A slow slow day in Kanpur. A depleted Bombay side brought back Swapnil
> Hazare as their new-ball bowler, and gave a debut to young off-spinning
> allrounder Omkar Khanvilkar (he's 21, former Bombay U19 captain - used
> to also bat #4 for them, lefty bat, and bowls pretty useful off-spin.
> Was a member of Bombay U22 last year. Will be interesting to see at
> what spot he bats here - he is replacing off-spinning allrounder Ramesh
> Powar, away with India-A).
>
>
>
>
>
> Rajasthan vs Karnataka at Jaipur:
> What they have done to the Jaipur pitch, I have no idea - suddenly, all
> year so far, its doing crazy things. And its a big-time seamer pitch
> too! Whatever they are doing to it, the rest of the country could use :-)
>
> Rajasthan's pitch is a bit too crazy however - they ended up losing
> in 2 days to TN last week, with Balaji going wild with a 10-fer.
> This one sounds like another crazy green-top - Karnataka was put in,
> and collapsed to 145 allout. And Rajasthan responded with 111/5!
If rajasthan win this one (unlikely) group B will become interesting
to say the least.
>
> Railways vs Delhi:
> A track with some green on it prompted new Railways captain Sanjay
> Bangar to put Delhi in - and he had good results on his first day
> of captaincy, with Delhi 194/8 to end the day.
>
> A very strange-looking Delhi side - Gambhir and Chopra away, Nehra
> and Bhandari away, Jadeja out with a hamstring pull. Chetan Chauhan's
> nephew opened the batting (apparently there have been several eyebrows
> raised at his selection, and Chauhan is currently president of the
> DDCA) - he hung in there for more than an hour before being LBW for 19.
Chauhan is chairman of selection committee (not involved in selections
though)
maybe that is same as title of President of DDCA, Prakash Mehra had
both in 1970s. They were going to play Varun Kumar with Pururaj
sitting out and Dahiya opening but Jadeja got injured so varun Kumar
played anyway and pururaj was back as opener.
Delhi out for 195 and railways 200/9, Kunal lal got 3 and spinners
were not given much chances. i think the new delhi pace attack was
commendable against railway line up. Now it is for batsmen to really
deliver in second innings.
>
> Baroda vs Punjab:
> Another game vital for both teams - and Baroda rung in the changes after
> their losses in the first 2 matches. Two veterans seem to be sitting
> out - Connor Williams and Tushar Arothe. Baroda opened with Rishikesh
> Parab and Satyajit Parab, with Rakesh Solanki (just returned from
> India U19 at #3). Rishikesh got a 50 but Baroda were 115/3, before
> the veterans Jacob Martin and Nayan Mongia rescued them. Martin with
> 80* and Mongia with 38* - and Baroda 233/3 at the end of the day.
> Not much of a day for Punjab's bowlers, 1 wicket each for VRV Singh,
> Navdeep Singh and Reetinder Singh Sodhi.
Navdeep 25 overs for 26/3 in final analysis. Punjab now clawing
towards 1st innings lead, lot of hard work to be done.
> The Plate:
>
> Began yesterday as well, first round. Services 182/4 at the end of
> the first day vs Himachal - no big deal. But 2 interesting moves
> off the field - Fazil Mohammad is playing for Services (he is a
> Kerala kid who was picked up in the nets by Kapil etc and attended
> the NCA, but couldnt break into the Kerala side). And the potentially
> *huge* move - Manvinder Bisla, who was possibly India U19s best
> batsman two years ago (and was the opening batsman too), who used to
> keep wickets in school but was actually bowling a little bit for U19
> and evne Ranjis... Bisla has moved to HP, and apparently is going to
> keep wickets full-time!
Deep das watch out, .. i was just going over old seasons and i read an
interesting article on arindam das, next prince of Kolkata, whatever
happened to him?
regards
PRanshu B Saxena
Amol Cricketwallah
> cricke...@hotmail.com (Amol Cricketwallah) wrote in message news:<a374a779.03112...@posting.google.com>...
> > Round Three began yesterday across India - with the Plate tournament
> > joining the Premier Division.
> >
> > Premier Division:
> >
> > Bombay vs UP:
>
Another slow day on D2, this time by Bombay. Way too slow IMHO, 126/3 in
60 overs! Partly I think the trouble was that Thakkar and Amol came
together - Thakkar is always slow, and Amol is usually slow but was
also probably trying to save his career (he failed, again, this time
only 23 - he must surely be gone now). They ended up batting together
for almost 28 overs or so, scoring less than 2/over. And by the time
Amol got out there were only 5/6 overs left, so they played for stumps.
Hopefully some Bombay batsman can make runs tomorrow - and do it a
little quicker too.
> >
> >
> >
> > Rajasthan vs Karnataka at Jaipur:
> > What they have done to the Jaipur pitch, I have no idea - suddenly, all
>
> If rajasthan win this one (unlikely) group B will become interesting
> to say the least.
>
They wont, though - needed to take a big first innings lead, with the
pitch getting a little easier on late D1 and D2, but didnt. Poor effort
on their part, but they are really outgunned by Karnataka anyway.
>
>
> >
> > Railways vs Delhi:
> > A track with some green on it prompted new Railways captain Sanjay
> > Bangar to put Delhi in - and he had good results on his first day
> > of captaincy, with Delhi 194/8 to end the day.
> >
> > A very strange-looking Delhi side - Gambhir and Chopra away, Nehra
> > and Bhandari away, Jadeja out with a hamstring pull. Chetan Chauhan's
> > nephew opened the batting (apparently there have been several eyebrows
> > raised at his selection, and Chauhan is currently president of the
> > DDCA) - he hung in there for more than an hour before being LBW for 19.
>
> Chauhan is chairman of selection committee (not involved in selections
> though)
> maybe that is same as title of President of DDCA, Prakash Mehra had
How does one stay "chairman of selection committee" but not be involved
in selections, though? Not a voting member? Surely that still has
an impact however- I mean, this is India, even the Honorary Treasurer
who is the "convener of national selectors" has an impact, or at least
did when Lele was in that position (this was when Jacob Martin was
getting a lot more breaks etc).
> both in 1970s. They were going to play Varun Kumar with Pururaj
> sitting out and Dahiya opening but Jadeja got injured so varun Kumar
> played anyway and pururaj was back as opener.
>
Iam still not sure Puru ought to be playing - he is the one who
most of the controversy is about, and Iam not sure he has even the
U19 performances for it. With Kunal Lal there isnt much of a
controversy, he might be raw and relatively unready but he has some
very fine U19 performances to his name at least. But Puru is somewhat
a different scenario IMHO.
> Delhi out for 195 and railways 200/9, Kunal lal got 3 and spinners
> were not given much chances. i think the new delhi pace attack was
> commendable against railway line up. Now it is for batsmen to really
> deliver in second innings.
>
Dinesh Chopra is actually a pretty decent reporter for TOI nowadays
IMHO, and he said that Gill was probably the best bowler again with
figures not doing him justice. Good effort by Delhi, but very poor
effort by Railways too - their batting has really been a little
complacent this season, they bat a long way down but really havent
put up the sorts of scores they used to and ought to be doing. BTW,
Dinesh Chopra also claimed that there were several interruptions to
the game, because of several different crowd invasions, for basically
no reason whatsoever (he claims Yere Gowd might have lost concentration
due to one, with little time left to play in the day, and thus lost
his wicket).
> >
> > Baroda vs Punjab:
>
> Navdeep 25 overs for 26/3 in final analysis. Punjab now clawing
> towards 1st innings lead, lot of hard work to be done.
>
Yes, good effort by Navdeep, and a pretty good fightback by Punjab.
Long way to go here though, Punjab lost 2 very early wickets and
then recovered thru Mongia and Dharmani, their 2 best bats. Very important
early part of the day tomorrow - and a very important day in general,
for both these teams.
>
> > The Plate:
> >
> > Began yesterday as well, first round. Services 182/4 at the end of
> > the first day vs Himachal - no big deal. But 2 interesting moves
> > off the field - Fazil Mohammad is playing for Services (he is a
> > Kerala kid who was picked up in the nets by Kapil etc and attended
> > the NCA, but couldnt break into the Kerala side). And the potentially
> > *huge* move - Manvinder Bisla, who was possibly India U19s best
> > batsman two years ago (and was the opening batsman too), who used to
> > keep wickets in school but was actually bowling a little bit for U19
> > and evne Ranjis... Bisla has moved to HP, and apparently is going to
> > keep wickets full-time!
>
> Deep das watch out, .. i was just going over old seasons and i read an
> interesting article on arindam das, next prince of Kolkata, whatever
> happened to him?
>
Heh. Bengal has a lot of these future-princes, that fade out :-) They
used to be so high on Haldipur that he was put into the Rest of India
side for the Irani Trophy when he was 18, without ever having played
for Bengal itself! And for the last 2 years he has been in and out of
the Bengal side itself, barely playing a couple of games. Das was
the big thing a couple of years ago, and seems to be out of the side
a lot nowadays too. Shubomoy Das was the next big thing a year ago,
and he has been sort of in-and-out in terms of form lately too.
Bengal's most interesting player right now might actually be the
paceman Subhojit Paul - he might not be great, but Bengal has a bit
of a weakish bowling lineup nowadays, and he is ending up taking
almost all the wickets every time out. His end of season stats are
going to be very very good, and he could probably earn promotion to
the India-A side at least.
BTW, Paras Mhambrey is Maharashtra's new Ranji coach - and on his
first day of Ranji coaching, he had Khirid opening the bowling for
him with Siddiqui and taking a 7-fer! And Siddiqui got a couple
as well IIRC - and after 2 days Maharashtra has about a 100-run
lead already. Not a bad first effort from his new bowling side.
Sadiq [ any individual details on MP's game so far ? ] Yusuf
> regards
> PRanshu B Saxena
Ambrish Sundaram
Cric8wala wrote:
[interesting stuff snipped]
>
> Sandeep Dahad is a very solid opening bowler at domestic level - but I dont
> think he is the one youre thinking of :-) I know who youre thinking of, but am
> blanking on the name right this second - the fastish pacer from Services who
> was a Navy-man, with a similar name. He isnt who I meant (even if maybe this is
> him, who knows :-)
>
[snipped]
> Oh, and just looked up the Services guy you meant. That's a right-handed pacer,
> their fastest guy, Surendra Ghag the Navy-man - thats *not* who I meant as
> having transferred to Tripura. But, of course, it is just as likely that this
> S.Dhad is he - one never knows with typos in Indian domestic cricket, and Ghag
> is not in the Services side for the first match either :-)
>
Don't mean to nitpick, but isn't this ***Sudhakar*** Ghag?
Another question - I was surprised to see that Faisal Shaikh batted at
number 3 for Goa in the ongoing match against Orissa and scored 30 runs.
What's he doing batting at number 3? I never thought he was an
upper-order batsman.
Ambrish Sundaram
DiiVolunt
Suhail rauf scored 31 and kuldeep rawat 32 in U-22 vs HP today.
Kuldeep also got a hattrick. delhi close to win. punjab in trouble vs
JK
devendra bundela 167* gave target of 402 for Bihar,
Bihar 103/6 Goyal 25*, hirwani 2wkts
Dhoni is injured hit by MP pacers lbw off hirwani..
regards
Pranshu B
DiiVolunt
> diiv...@hotmail.com (DiiVolunt) wrote in message news:<bbe332a3.03112...@posting.google.com>...
> > cricke...@hotmail.com (Amol Cricketwallah) wrote in message news:<a374a779.03112...@posting.google.com>...
> > > Round Three began yesterday across India - with the Plate tournament
> > > joining the Premier Division.
> > >
> > > Premier Division:
>>
>
>
from http://www.navabharat.net/20031125/2511556.htm
MP 133
Panda 17/3, Diwakar 36/4, SS Rao 25/3
1st ball Pasha lbw Panda
in 4rth over Panda got Bundela caught mahendra singh the keeper 5/2
then abbas ali bowled by panda inswinger
and soon khurasiya c driving by a great areial catch by SM Jha
soon Diwakar joined fun and got Patwardhan lbw duck to leave MP
15/5 in 6 overs
40/6 when Dholpure got out
117/7 Keeeper naman ojha scored 58
then pnadey 1, kokje 1 and hirwani 4 in 133 allout
sodhi 38*
Bihat 41/ 5 next day 85 all out..
regards
PRanshu B
Cric8wala
>Kuldeep also got a hattrick. delhi close to win. punjab in trouble vs
>JK
>
Ah, so Kuldeep is still around and playing at least. BTW, did anyone else score
big for Delhi U22 at all?
>devendra bundela 167* gave target of 402 for Bihar,
>Bihar 103/6 Goyal 25*, hirwani 2wkts
>Dhoni is injured hit by MP pacers lbw off hirwani..
>
Cool, CI is one day behind this news. No wickets for Kokje 2nd innings so far?
BTW, thanks for the news - I havent ever bothered to install Hindi stuff and so
cant read Navbharat etc. If you come across any news there, would be cool if
you can pass it on :-) I was looking for a good spot to check out decent
match-reports on the Bombay/UP game, but was spectacularly unsuccessful - PTI
reports seem all there is (and most of those I could write myself, just by
looking hard at the scorecard :-) At least TOI has the odd decent report on
Delhi games sometimes. But havent been able to get any U22, U19 news this
season at all - I know Bombay played a U19 game last week (and I got first days
news, Madkaikar ton and Kukreja 80-odd - but not a word anywhere since). BCCI
really ought to set up some site themselves for this kind of stuff.
Sadiq [ that MP pitch seems quite something ] Yusuf
>regards
>Pranshu B
>
>
Cric8wala
>
>MP 133
> Panda 17/3, Diwakar 36/4, SS Rao 25/3
>
>1st ball Pasha lbw Panda
BTW, what the heck is Mudassar Pasha doing captaining MP?? He's still a kid,
really - or was that a CI typo?
>in 4rth over Panda got Bundela caught mahendra singh the keeper 5/2
>
>then abbas ali bowled by panda inswinger
>
>and soon khurasiya c driving by a great areial catch by SM Jha
>soon Diwakar joined fun and got Patwardhan lbw duck to leave MP
>15/5 in 6 overs
>
>40/6 when Dholpure got out
>
So not that bad an innings from Dholpure, then. He's supposed to be pretty
good.
>117/7 Keeeper naman ojha scored 58
>
And Ojha is very good - was India U19 keeper for a bit IIRC, and did very well
in U19s in general. Was finally pushed aside for Karthik IIRC, but was a good
prospect. Good to see him doing well early.
>then pnadey 1, kokje 1 and hirwani 4 in 133 allout
>sodhi 38*
>
>Bihat 41/ 5 next day 85 all out..
>
CI now has the first 2 days cards, BTW. Still dont have cards on the
Maharasthra game, but still :-)
Sadiq [ Khadkikar got a ton, our offie-debutant didnt get much ] Yusuf
>regards
>PRanshu B
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Cric8wala
>
Yes, I believe it is - was actually thinknig that, but typed it wrong :-)
Havent re-checked, but Iam pretty sure its Sudhakar. He used to be pretty
nippy, apparently.
>Another question - I was surprised to see that Faisal Shaikh batted at
>number 3 for Goa in the ongoing match against Orissa and scored 30 runs.
>What's he doing batting at number 3? I never thought he was an
>upper-order batsman.
>
Dont know. He was always someone who batted well down the order, even in U19s
for Bombay etc - but he was always a very gritty customer and stayed around for
a while. Did that last year too for Goa - batted about #10, but had one or two
occasions where he spent an hour or two at the crease.
I thought they might have made the early move here because they lost an early
wicket - and so sent him in as pinch-blocker or something. Andit worked too -
he came in and made 30 in 2+ hours, and his team moved on to 118/1 or some such
IIRC. And then he got out, and they ended up sliding to about 210/6 by days
end, so they didnt really use the platform at all.
Thats what I thought to start with, anyway. But then he came out at #3 again in
the 2nd innings, with Goa needing to bat out abotu 110 overs to save the game
IIRC. And he is currently still at like 20* or so - and Goa have batted out 20
overs to date and are 40-odd for 1. He's played another usefulish hand, being
in the middle for almost 20 overs or so again. Maybe his batting has just
really improved.
Sadiq [ he didnt bowl that well this game tho ] Yusuf
>Ambrish Sundaram
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Amol Cricketwallah
> cricke...@hotmail.com (Amol Cricketwallah) wrote in message news:<a374a779.03112...@posting.google.com>...
> >
> >
> > the match how this was really their best 15, and they couldnt do
> > much about it - and he's right. The Delhi newspapers were basically
> > very upset, and they pointed out this was a side chock-full of big
> > names that lost anyway - and theyre right. I mean, Chopra, Gambhir,
> > Manhas, Jadeja, Dahiya, Bhandari, Nehra, Sarandeep, Sanghvi - thats
> > almost entirely full of internationals.
> >
>
> Almost! the buggers are all experienced international prerformers,
> other than skipper , one chap had 2 international tours, other has 5!,
> Jadeja has a chock full, Dahiya not too bad either, less said about
> rest
> the better. the point you made that all did badly is a reassuring one,
> one win will change picture dramatically. I think 13 points should be
> enough for knockout place and what with 3 wins and a innings win, it
> ispossible..
>
>
After the Bombay game, read a little thing someplace complaining about
the Delhi players etc in general. The theory basically was, they
were maybe overrated, their performances came against weak opposition
etc. This little thing said that last year the same thing happened -
the rattled up big scores and wickets against weak teams, but when
it came to the harder teams (ie Bombay and TN last year), those very
same players who were bullying the weaker sides came a cropper badly
and Delhi lost both matches easily enough.
There were dark threats this year that heads would roll, if similar
bad performances took place etc. And thats already happened to some
extent after all - Sanghvi has been dropped for youngster Abhishek
Sharma already for this match.
Delhi still has a shot at this Railways game of course - but after D3
they havent really taken control in any way. They are about 150 ahead
with 6 wickets down right now. Puru did badly after being a sort of
strange selection to start with - he will surely go out again. Good to
see Chawla come thru in the 2nd innings at least. But there well might
be some heads rolling unless Delhi does manage to win this one outright
on the last day - else, after trailing on first innings, they will
come out with 0 points from this game again, for the second game in
a row. And they really dont want to do that.
>
> Surprised about Rawat, he was on my watchlist too... maybe rauf and
> suman screwed up in DDCA league.. delhi selectors do watch that league
> preformances..
Yes, Suman has sort of faded a bit anyway - didnt do much for Delhi when
he did play the Ranjis either. Though Delhi isnt in awful shape with
their pacemen anyway - Kunal Lal did very well in U19s, and had a pretty
solid debut here. And Gill has consistently looked pretty ok supposedly
(even if he didnt get wickets here, he supposedly bowled very well).
> Angurala used to be selected just for college preformances..
> I think Kunal and Pururaj may be good enough for selection. Delhi
Kunal I agree, Puru Iam not so sure. I have records only of 2001-02
U19 season (thats year before last), but evne his U19 performances
there were pretty damn poor. Unless he really did great last season,
I wonder why he's moved up the ladder so quickly in only one year.
> > >
>
> > Yes, Punjab hasnt done that well yet - should have beaten Kerala
> > outright and didnt, and really should ahve had the first innigns
> > points against UP after being 312/3 overnight going into the last
> > day. Now its a bit of a dogfight - Kaif will return for UP too,
> > wont he?
>
> Now that UP has not fallen far without Kaif, Kaif can also propel them
> to semis. as i said, i think 13 points might be enough and UP just
> passed two big tests against North powers and now the west powers are
> next up..
>
>
Kaif as we now know isnt playing for UP after all - off with India-A
instead. Still, UP has fought well in this game. It would take a very
big effort from them to win on the last day, but they should be able to
save it.
>
> >
> > Yes, that would work very well. Also, of course, there are a fair
> > number of decent-ish players who arent playing Ranjis around the
> > country, because they didnt want to move away from club and office
> > cricket in Bombay. They would form a pretty good team all by
BTW, talking of CCI, they actually beat Singapore twice a few months
ago when Singapore toured (led by Dharmichand). And playing one of
those 2 games for CCI was... Andrew Strauss, of Middlesex and now
England :-) They were friendlies, of course, but still, sort of an
unusual name to see on a CCI scorecard :-)
Sadiq [ Punjab/Baroda in a really tight battle for first inns points] Yusuf
DiiVolunt
> >from http://www.navabharat.net/20031125/2511556.htm
> >
> >MP 133
> > Panda 17/3, Diwakar 36/4, SS Rao 25/3
> >
> >1st ball Pasha lbw Panda
>
> BTW, what the heck is Mudassar Pasha doing captaining MP?? He's still a kid,
> really - or was that a CI typo?
Panda is bihar skipper but Navbharat seems to indicate Khurasiya or
abbas as skipper.
> >in 4rth over Panda got Bundela caught mahendra singh the keeper 5/2
> So not that bad an innings from Dholpure, then. He's supposed to be pretty
> good.
>
>
> >117/7 Keeeper naman ojha scored 58
> >
>
> And Ojha is very good - was India U19 keeper for a bit IIRC, and did very well
> in U19s in general. Was finally pushed aside for Karthik IIRC, but was a good
> prospect. Good to see him doing well early.
>
>
> Sadiq [ Khadkikar got a ton, our offie-debutant didnt get much ] Yusuf
>
>
Btw
Kokje 6 for 3 in one spell in Bihar second knock...
as for U-22 happenings:
Punjab were in a spot when chasing 105 for an outright victory they
were precariously placed at 13 for 2 in their second essay against J&K
at draw of stumps on day two of a league match of the North Zone
Inter-State Cricket Tournament (u-22) played at the YPS ground here
today.
Resuming at their overnight 104 for 3, the hosts put up a pathetic
display and barring Gaurav Marwaha (49) no other batsman was able to
make his presence felt in the middle. Punjab put on a much improved
display in the bowling department and their medium pacer V.R.V Singh
ripped open the heart of the visitors batting in their second innings
by picking up four crucial wickets conceding 43 runs.
Brief scores: J&K (1st innings): 143 all out
Punjab (1st innings): 180 all out (Gaurav Marwaha 49, Sachin Sachdeva
20, S.P Singh 17, Inderjit Singh 3 for 17, Hardeep Singh 3 for 11,
Imtiaz 1 for 40, Pranab 1 for 34)
J&K (2nd innings): 126 all out (Inderjeet Singh 24, Imraz Thakur 17,
Satyajit 13, V.R.V Singh 4 for 43, Sandeep 2 for 28)
Punjab (2nd innings): 13 for 2.
Dharamsala, November 25
Himachal Pradesh failed to cash on a good batting display in the
second innings against Delhi in the under-22 match being played here.
On the second day, Delhi who were 170 for three at the close of play
yesterday, were all out for 273. Rajiv was highest scorer with 62
while Dalip T.T. made 40, Kuldeep scored 33, Agnesh scored 32 and
Suhail made 31 runs.
For Himachal Pradesh Vijay, Bhaskar, Ankit and Amit captured two
wickets each.
Himachal, on 206 for six wickets lost all the remaining wickets for
addition of no run as Kuldeep claimed a hat-trick. Vivek had captured
five wickets in the first innings, took three wickets for 43 today.
Delhi now need only 69 runs to win the tie.
PATIALA: A six-wicket haul by lanky off-spinner Charanjit Singh (six
for 73) enabled Punjab restrict Delhi to 278 on the first day of a
league match of the North Zone Inter- State Cricket Tournament (U-17)
played at the Dhruv Pandove stadium here on Tuesday. Brief scores:
Delhi: 1st innings: 278 all out (Robin Bisht 66, Shabaz Khan 63, Rajat
Gupta 60, Raman Sachdeva 43; Charanjit Singh 6 for 73, Munish Bhatia 1
for 30, Bharat Loomba 1 for 48, Sumit Kalia 1 for 52, Ankur Jund 1 for
63). Punjab: 1st innings : 26 for no loss (Sunny Sohal 21 n.o,
Ravinder Singh 5 n.o).
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20031126/sports.htm
Patiala, November 24
Fine bowling by off spinner S.P. Singh (4 for 40) and left-arm spinner
Varun Khanna (4 for 23) enabled Punjab to bundle out J&K for a meagre
158 in their first innings in a league match of the North Zone
inter-state cricket tournament (u-22) which commenced at the YPS
ground here today.
In reply, at the draw of stumps the hosts were sailing comfortably at
104 for 3 with Gaurav Marwaha batting on a well made 31.
Brief scores
J&K (1st innings) 158 all out (Pranav Kumar 39, Satyajit 32, S.P.
Singh 4 for 40, Varun Khanna 4 for 23).
Punjab (1st innings) 104 for 3 (Binwant Singh 13, S.P. Singh 17,
Amardeep Singh 15, Gaurav Marwaha 31 n.o, Sachin Sachdeva 9 n.o).
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
Amol Cricketwallah
very important results, even if not all were outright victories or
defeats.
cricke...@hotmail.com (Amol Cricketwallah) wrote in message news:<a374a779.03112...@posting.google.com>...
> Round Three began yesterday across India - with the Plate tournament
> joining the Premier Division.
>
> Premier Division:
>
> Bombay vs UP:
>
Bombay won first innings points, but could not win the match outright -
the first "draw" of the season.
On D3 Robin Morris with an aggressive 93* had given Bombay a 127 run
lead, and UP in their effort to bat out the game and deny Bombay full
points had gotten up to 22/1 in 17 overs. On D4 they lost opener Prakash
an hour into the game, bowled by Bahutule. But then captain Jyoti Yadav
and youngster Suresh Raina (freshly returned from India U19s tour of
Pakistan) ground out a long partnership of 34 overs that did much to
save UP. Yadav fell to debutant Khanvilkar after a 3-hour 41 - but
Raina continued to hold up one end with Shamshad for another 24 overs.
Finally Bahutule got Raina for 50, compiled in just under 4 hours.
Bahutule then ran thru a few wickets go make it interesting, but it
was too late - UP finally finished with 205/7 in 110 overs, with
Bahutule having fine figures of 36-17-48-6 (and thus 8/83 in the match).
Thus 2 points for Bombay, and 0 for UP - Bombay consolidate their
position at the top, and UP still have some work to do (though they
have still not lost a match outright this season, which must indicate
better things to come for them). Some interesting performances in this
match - young Suresh Raina made 93 runs in 2 innings, a good effort
against Bombay. Bombay's 4th-choice paceman Swapnil Hazare had a 3-fer
on first innings, the top wicket-taker on an unhelpful pitch. And
Bombay's debutant offie-allrounder Khanvilkar had a reasonable game
in place of Ramesh Powar - he only scored 8 which must be disappointing
to him, but his match figures with the ball were 26-10-42-3, which
are really quite reasonable for a youngster.
> TN vs Bengal:
>
After a bad collapse on first innings, TN demonstrated their batting
strength on the final day. Bengal had put up 400 on a relatively easy
track at Thirunelveli, and TN then collapsed to 188 allout to follow-on.
Seamer SS Paul, cutting a swathe thru the Ranjis this season, took
7/44 to continue his dream season. TN went back in with a day and a
half to survive yet, and went into the final day at a solid 110/2,
reasonably placed to attempt to save the game. It wasnt even close on
the last day - TN rattled up 397/4 in 120 overs by the close, with
190 for Badrinath and 101* for Sharath. Bengal seems to have nobody
capable of taking a wicket this season other than Paul (Utpal Chatterjee
has finally gotten old, it seems) - he bowled 36 overs in the TN 2nd
innings, claiming 3/103. Thus a 10-fer in the match for him, and 2
badly-needed points for Bengal and 0 for TN. Bengal had had a terrible
season until now, so they needed points desperately - getting 2 from
the TN game is more than reasonable, but they must surely be unhappy
at failing to get 4 after having TN follow-on with a full day and a
halfs play left.
> Rajasthan vs Karnataka at Jaipur:
>
An outright win for Karnataka, and 4 much-needed points. After collapsing
to 145 allout on first innings Karnataka came back and got Rajasthan
168 allout - that probably decided the game, as the life had gone out
of the pitch by then already, and Rajasthan should really have gotten
a much bigger lead. Karnataka put up 350 in their 2nd innings and had
Rajasthan at 53/4 going into the final day, almost put away. It got
worse early on D4, 68/5 - and then Rajasthan suddenly put up a fight,
taking it all the way to 200/5, 128 runs from victory (with Rahul
Kanwat blasting 84 with 13 boundaries). But then Kanwat fell and
Rajasthan slid to 223/9 before the last pair took it to 258 all out,
and a loss by 59 runs. Four points to Karnataka, 0 to Rajasthan - and
Karnataka once again very solidly placed in their group.
> Assam vs Hyderabad:
A heart-breaking game for Assam, where they might have dropped the
Elite Division. They were always going to be a team that would struggle
for points, and to stay up in the Elite Division for a second year in
a row (it was a very fine effort by Rajput's boys to avoid relegation
last season, they were under threat until a wonderful outright win in
their final game made them very safe).
Assam had put up 537/9 in the first 2 days, with Satish and SUkhvinder
Singh both getting tons. At the end of D3 they had Hyderabad at 199/4
and in trouble, but with Arjun Yadav and Reddy batting. Reddy fell
only 6 overs into the final morning, Hyderabad 224/5. But then Shivaji
Yadav and wicketkeeper Ibrahim Khaleel got together - and the Assam
fielders somehow dropped the pair a collective *six* times, as they
survived for a critical 67 overs between them! Poor Arlene Konwar
bowled his heart out, but it was too late after that- he had 65
overs, 6/141 in a marathon spell, but none of the other bowlers (and
more importantly the fielders) could support him. Finally Raju batted
out the last 5 balls of the game, and Hyderabad survived at 410/9
to end the game. Thus both teams got 0 points from the match - which
isnt great for either, of course, but is particularly devastating
to Assam, who could really have used their first 2 points of the
year in what will be their season-long struggle to avoid relegation.
>
>
> Railways vs Delhi:
>
A terrific game from the 2 Delhi-based sides, a vitally important
game - and also the first time in history Railways has actually beaten
the heavy-weight team of their own city.
Railways were in command at the end of D3, with Delhi 198/6 and only
154 ahead. And they continued to slide a bit - 246/9, a lead of 212.
But then the last pair batted a vital hour, and put on a very important
32 extra runs, before top-scorer Chawla (on his comeback) was last man
out for 82. Thus Delhi had made Railways' task much harder - Railways too
were desperate for 4 points rather than just 2, and they would now have
to chase 240 runs at almost 4/over to win.
They started badly - both Pagnis and Bangar were dismissed early, and
Railways were 9/2. TP Singh and Jai P Yadav put on 59 to steady the
ship before TP fell for 26. Shreyas Khanolkar was promoted up the
order to accelerate, but he fell for only 12 - 96/4 in 27 overs.
And then came the critical partnership, between Jai Yadav and,
ironically, Delhi-defector Verma (who captained Delhi U25 last
season) - Verma made only 38 before being runout, but the partnership
was 102 runs in 26 overs to set Railways on course, they were 198/5
when Verma fell. Jai Yadav was bowled for a tremendous 101 a while
later and keeper Wankhede fell for 1 as things got exciting again -
but by this time Railways was only 17 from victory with 3 wickets in
hand, and Yere Goud and Harvinder Singh took them home from there.
Railways ended with 244/7 in 63 overs, to win by 3 wickets - a wonderful
win for them. A very tough loss for Delhi, with small silver linings
(if you look really hard) in the performance of Chawla on comeback,
and Kunal Lal on debut (5 wickets in the match).
The bottom line, however, is 4 incredibly important points for Railways,
who are now back in contention for this tournament - and 0 for Delhi,
who are suddenly in a quite a bit of a hole if they want to go far
this season.
> Baroda vs Punjab:
>
Another vitally important game for both sides. Baroda put up 369 batting
first, and Punjab had fought uphill all the way (from 18/2) to 323/8
going into the last day. The only important thing on the last day was
the first-innings lead - 2 points desperately needed by both these
good teams, if they were to have a chance to stay in the tournament
and not dig a very deep hole for themselves. Competitve interest in
the day ended rather quickly - Baroda got a wicket within 9 runs in
the morning, and wrapped it up immediately after, Punjab 334 allout
to concede the lead of 35 runs. The rest of the day was academic,
Baroda putting up 247/6 by days end (the only slightly interesting
thing being that Shatrunjay Gaekwad recovered from his first innings
failure in only his second game by putting up 72* on the last day).
Thus 2 important points for Baroda, and 0 for Punjab.
Andhra vs Kerala:
Andhra had put up 458/7 in just under 2 days, and Kerala had responded
with 210/3 after D3, with some hopes of batting out the day to deny
Andhra any points. They couldnt come close in the end, however -
sliding to 354 allout. Thus 2 more points for the surprising Andhra
side, and 0 for Kerala.
Thus, at the end of Round 3, the all-important points table:
Group A:
Bombay 3 matches 11 points
Andhra 3 matches 6 points
Railways 3 matches 6 points
Delhi 3 matches 2 points
Kerala 3 matches 2 points
UP 3 matches 2 points
Punjab 3 matches 2 points
Baroda 3 matches 2 points
Bombay still clear at the top, but Railways with their huge win have
now joined the surprising Andhra side in 2nd place - a full game ahead
of anyone else. Baroda desperately needed the 2 points from this round
and got them - they are now joint 4th with everyone else, and their
chances havent *completely* vanished, as they well could have if Punjab
had put up another 40 runs.
Another important round coming up next week. First-place Bombay travel
to second-place Andhra, and Railways travel to UP. Baroda have a home
game against Kerala - another game they absolutely *must* get points
from, and probably full-points, if they want to have a chance to make
the knockouts. And Delhi travel to Punjab, in an old-rivalry game
with huge implications in the new format - the one that comes out
without points could suffer a possibly fatal blow to their hopes of
contending for the title this season.
Group B:
TN 3 matches 9 points
Karnataka 3 matches 6 points
Hyderabad 2 match 4 points
Gujarat 2 matches 4 points
Rajasthan 3 matches 4 points
Bengal 3 matches 2 points
Assam 2 match 0 points
A weaker and consequently less-interesting group :-) Despite TN's little
stumble they are still clear at the top. Karnataka, after a stumbling
start to the season, have finally joined them at the top and are in
second place. The only other team that, before the season began, would
have been expected to have a chance to compete with them was Hyderabad -
and they missed out by getting 0 points this round, but still have
a game in hand and thus solidly in 3rd spot at the moment. Assam's
failure to get that 1 wicket leaves them all alone in the relegation
zone - and Bengal eased possible relegation worries with their 2 points.
>
> The Plate:
>
> Began yesterday as well, first round. Services 182/4 at the end of
> the first day vs Himachal - no big deal. But 2 interesting moves
> off the field - Fazil Mohammad is playing for Services (he is a
> Kerala kid who was picked up in the nets by Kapil etc and attended
> the NCA, but couldnt break into the Kerala side). And the potentially
> *huge* move - Manvinder Bisla, who was possibly India U19s best
> batsman two years ago (and was the opening batsman too), who used to
> keep wickets in school but was actually bowling a little bit for U19
> and evne Ranjis... Bisla has moved to HP, and apparently is going to
> keep wickets full-time!
>
This game saw HP win on the last day. It looked a draw going into the
final day, but paceman Vikramjeet Malik 6/42 to set up a win for HP.
HP needed only 118 to win, but aforementioned Fazil Mohammad gave them
a fright by taking 3 wickets, before aforementioned Manvinder Bisla
led HP to a 5-wicket victory by scoring 76*. A good game for both
kids - Fazil ended up with 8 wickets in the match (Kerala selectors
must really be pretty poor, as they never did get around to picking
him, eventually, until he moved), and Bisla showed he hasnt lost his
batting by picking up the gloves.
Orissa swamped Goa by an innings (getting 5 points), as did Maharashtra
with Saurashtra (good coaching starts for 2 former Bombay players -
Balwinder Sandhu is coaching Orissa this season as they look to recover
from relegation last year, and Paras Mhambrey is the new coach of
Maharashtra). Haryana beat J&K too - but not by an innings, so they
got 4 points from their game rather than 5. Madhya Pradesh beat Bihar
for 4 points as well. Tripura got first innings points over Vidarbha,
ending with 2.
Sadiq [ next round begins December 1st ] Yusuf
Mike Holmans
Cricketwallah) tapped the keyboard and brought forth:
>Thus 2 points for Bombay, and 0 for UP - Bombay consolidate their
>position at the top, and UP still have some work to do (though they
>have still not lost a match outright this season, which must indicate
>better things to come for them).
Up, up, UP!! Go, you Pandeymen!
I'm pleased to see that Todmorden's professional has carried on his
excellent batting form and is the main reason why UP haven't yet lost,
although I also note that UP have not seen fit to make much use of his
bowling, which had put him in the top 5 wicket-takers in the League
last summer.
He is quite an admirable cricketer for someone who is the spitting
image of Bharat Rao.
Cheers,
Mike <someone will have to fill in an appropriate surname if I'm going
to become an adoptive Uttar Pradeshi>
R. Bharat Rao
> He is quite an admirable cricketer for someone who is the spitting
> image of Bharat Rao.
What, he looks like Inty Alam as well?
Bharat [there was a time when I didn't look like Inty, y'know]
Mohan Das
> to become an adoptive Uttar Pradeshi>
Mike Holmansharma will do.
Amol Cricketwallah
Or, since he was already Holmanogopal, maybe Holmanogopalsharma? After
all, Gopalsharma is a good UP name, or was in the late 80s/early 90s
(4 tests, 10 wickets at 38.30).
Meanwhile, Gyanendra Pandey isnt bowling much, mostly because he's
more of a ODI-type bowler nowadays, and UP has a couple of decent
and/or young spinners. Their off-spinner is Nikhil Chopra, who was
an India-regular for a while in ODIs and played a test too (though
he never should have), and Praveen Gupta, the left-arm orthodox
who claimed 4/79 in 33 overs against Bombay, is only 17 years old
apparently. And yet to make his debut for them (so far) is another
young leg-spinner named Piyush Chawla, who might be the best very
young long-term spinning prospect in the country, and has been
dominating U15 cricket and doing quite reasonably at U19 cricket
simultaneously.
Sadiq [ plus 2 bats, Shivakant Shukla and Suresh Raina,
are both currently members of the India U19 side ] Yusuf
Amol Cricketwallah
> >
> >
>
> out for 82. Thus Delhi had made Railways' task much harder - Railways too
> were desperate for 4 points rather than just 2, and they would now have
> to chase 240 runs at almost 4/over to win.
>
> They started badly - both Pagnis and Bangar were dismissed early, and
> Railways were 9/2. TP Singh and Jai P Yadav put on 59 to steady the
> ship before TP fell for 26. Shreyas Khanolkar was promoted up the
> order to accelerate, but he fell for only 12 - 96/4 in 27 overs.
> And then came the critical partnership, between Jai Yadav and,
> ironically, Delhi-defector Verma (who captained Delhi U25 last
> season) - Verma made only 38 before being runout, but the partnership
> was 102 runs in 26 overs to set Railways on course, they were 198/5
> when Verma fell. Jai Yadav was bowled for a tremendous 101 a while
> later and keeper Wankhede fell for 1 as things got exciting again -
> but by this time Railways was only 17 from victory with 3 wickets in
> hand, and Yere Goud and Harvinder Singh took them home from there.
> Railways ended with 244/7 in 63 overs, to win by 3 wickets - a wonderful
> win for them. A very tough loss for Delhi, with small silver linings
> (if you look really hard) in the performance of Chawla on comeback,
> and Kunal Lal on debut (5 wickets in the match).
>
BTW, this was quite a win - Railways had a little less than 2 full
sessions, to chase 240, and decided to go for it and kept going for
it even when they lost wickets.
However, an additional important point - just read in a report that
Delhi keeper Vijay Dahiya had an "off-day" (or at least an off 2
sessions). And he ended up conceding *21 byes* in those 2 sessions
of work! In a 3-wicket match and only a 60-over run chase, that is
quite an amazing number, and probably a very important factor as
well (only 2 Railways batsmen scored higher than "extras" eventually
in the run chase).
We're probably best off with Parthiv, really :-)
Sadiq [ why not play Parthiv in the next game, too? ] Yusuf
Ramakrishnan G
"Amol Cricketwallah" <cricke...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a374a779.0311...@posting.google.com...
> "Mohan Das" <mohan...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:<bq405d$1uehrb$1...@ID-201164.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> > > Mike <someone will have to fill in an appropriate surname if I'm going
> > > to become an adoptive Uttar Pradeshi>
> >
> > Mike Holmansharma will do.
>
> Or, since he was already Holmanogopal, maybe Holmanogopalsharma? After
> all, Gopalsharma is a good UP name, or was in the late 80s/early 90s
> (4 tests, 10 wickets at 38.30).
Perhaps Mike may not be amenable to the idea of calling himself HGS when he
learns that the 17-year old kid, Ritesh Yadav, has accused him of being the
chappie who asked him for Rs 50k to select him into the team.
It is learnt that Gopal Sharma is now the chief of selectors for Uttar
Pradesh.
Amol Cricketwallah
>
> Group A:
> Bombay 3 matches 11 points
> Andhra 3 matches 6 points
> Railways 3 matches 6 points
> Delhi 3 matches 2 points
> Kerala 3 matches 2 points
> UP 3 matches 2 points
> Punjab 3 matches 2 points
> Baroda 3 matches 2 points
>
Well, this is what I had by my own calculations - and it is also what
CI has.
However, Ive read recently that the rule was actually changed this
year. Just like last year, a team can get a bonus point if they
win by an innings or by 10 wickets (this is how Bombay has 11, and
not 10). However, supposedly the change this year is that the team
that loses by an innings or by 10 wickets is actually *docked* a
point!
If this is true, it changes the table - Bombay stays top on 11 points,
but now Delhi (who were beaten by 10 wickets by Bombay due to the
amazing Jaffer/Mane 185-run-chase) actually have only *1* point from
3 matches, and are firmly anchored at the bottom! Obviously this makes
things even harder for Delhi - first they have to get points and
move off the bottom (and thus conceivably move out of the relegation
zone), before even thinking of finishing in the top 2 and getting to
the semifinals this season (as they did last year). It makes their
game against Punjab starting next week of even greater importance,
if that were possible.
>
> Group B:
> TN 3 matches 9 points
> Karnataka 3 matches 6 points
> Hyderabad 2 match 4 points
> Gujarat 2 matches 4 points
> Rajasthan 3 matches 4 points
> Bengal 3 matches 2 points
> Assam 2 match 0 points
>
Same thing here as well - TN IIRC beat Rajasthan by an innings, and
so have 9 points. But, if the new rule is really in place, that pushes
Rajasthan down to 3 points from 3 games instead of 4 - and into 5th
place rather than joint-3rd.
Sadiq [ Delhi has both Rajat and Saket Bhatia in their squad ] Yusuf
Uday Rajan
elite division or whatever, do they play a league within the
group? So are there 7 group matches, and then the top two go
forward? If so, it seems like there is a lot of cricket left to
be played here. Bombay has its work cut out.
Cric8wala
Yep, same as last season - Elite Division divided into 2 groups, everybody
plays each other within the 2 groups, and 2 teams from each group go forward
into the Ranji semis.
Thus yes, 7 games per team in our group. But only 6 games in the other weaker
group - a horribly badly loaded schedule (either they really dont know how to
make schedules, or else they did it deliberately :-)
And there *is* work to be done still for Bombay - especially with a weakened
side. Last year the points system was 2 for a win, 1 for a lead - this year its
4 for a win, 2 for a lead. And last year Delhi was the 2nd team in the group to
make it, with 8 points - thus conceivably one could need as many as 16 to make
it this season. (Though actually Delhi had 2 wins and 3 leads and 1 bonus -
thats 15, actually, rather than 16 in this years system). But either way, there
is no certainty yet - Bombay needs at least one more outright win and a lead or
two, before theyre sure of going to the next round.
However one must admit that its been a better start to the season than expected
- this team is still really weak, and still has surprised. Baroda in the first
match, Delhi awayin the 2nd match - it was a very difficult early schedule,
especially with the knowledge that the entire pace attack from last year was
gone (Mhambrey retired, Agarkar away, Salvi either away or injured, the latter
as it turned out). To win those 2 games outright was a very good achievement -
I had expected a horrendous start to the season from this side, and a struggle
to stay in mid-table by this stage, and that expectation has been exceeded by a
fair bit. Still a couple of really difficult games left though - Railways,
Punjab etc will all be a handful.Second-place Andhra away is a difficult test
this week already.
Sadiq [ prob same team, another game for young Khanvilkar ] Yusuf
>
>
>
>
>
>
DiiVolunt
> End of Round 3 in the Elite Division, and Round 1 of the Plates. Some
> very important results, even if not all were outright victories or
> defeats.
Boo Hoo!!!! Boo HOo!! (i ' ll do my crying in the rain!!!) god why
did'nt it rain!
>
> >
> > Railways vs Delhi:
> >
>
> A terrific game from the 2 Delhi-based sides, a vitally important
> game - and also the first time in history Railways has actually beaten
> the heavy-weight team of their own city.
>
>
> They started badly - both Pagnis and Bangar were dismissed early, and
> Railways were 9/2. TP Singh and Jai P Yadav put on 59 to steady the
> ship before TP fell for 26. Shreyas Khanolkar was promoted up the
> order to accelerate, but he fell for only 12 - 96/4 in 27 overs.
> And then came the critical partnership, between Jai Yadav and,
> ironically, Delhi-defector Verma (who captained Delhi U25 last
Bastard!!
> win for them. A very tough loss for Delhi, with small silver linings
> (if you look really hard) in the performance of Chawla on comeback,
> and Kunal Lal on debut (5 wickets in the match).
I think the second string pace squad did its bit. and chawla did ok.
but twenty more runs could have killed them!!
Delhi will need to win all remaining matches now. punjab is next..
> Thus, at the end of Round 3, the all-important points table:
>
> Group A:
> Bombay 3 matches 11 points
> Andhra 3 matches 6 points
> Railways 3 matches 6 points
> Delhi 3 matches 2 points
delhi has 1 point, this season, if you lose by innings or 10 wickets,
you are docked a point which opposition gets!.
> Kerala 3 matches 2 points
> UP 3 matches 2 points
> Punjab 3 matches 2 points
> Baroda 3 matches 2 points
>
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
DiiVolunt
Yadav!
Amol Cricketwallah
games.
Bombay vs Andhra:
Number one vs Number Two in the division - with the game at Vijaywada.
Bombay won the toss and batted, and ended the day at 236/3.
A fair start for Bombay, 37 in almost an hour-and-a-half, before Mane
was caught behind off first-change RVC Prasad for 20. Bombay has
finally (hopefully) settled on Bhavin Thakkar at #3, an old-fashioned
grinder - and he and Jaffer got together and put on a good partnership.
Jaffer did most of the scoring as expected - 142 runs added in 49 overs
between the two, of which Thakkar made 47 before being bowled by
Shankara Rao. Then Jaffer was joined by Amol Muzumdar, and another
partnership followed, almost to the end of the day - again Muzumdar
digging in (probably trying to save his career) while Jaffer did most
of the scoring. A 56-run partnership of which Amol made 20 - Andhra
had bowled a little slow so it was already 15 minutes past the
scheduled close. Apparently bad-light was appealed for and turned
down, and Jaffer then proceeded to get himself caught at slip off
part-timer Suresh for 143, to half-waste a long days batting. Kambli
came in, and bad light was granted 2 balls later.
A fair day for Bombay, at 236/3. And a pretty good day for Jaffer too,
with 143, doing the bulk of the scoring all day long (his 2nd ton of
the season, to go with 117* vs Delhi, plus an 86* against Baroda). But
both Jaffer and Bombay probably ought to be disappointed by the way it
ended - 235/2 with a centurion still there to build on it the next day
would have been the perfect platform to put up a big score and try for
a victory tomorrow, and they came within 2 balls of it. The batting had
been slow on the first day, so there was all the more reason to save
wickets for the possible acceleration on the morrow.
Baroda vs Kerala:
A big game for both teams, especially Baroda which has a very fine record
in Ranjis the past 3 years and needs a win badly if they wish to continue
it (a title, a finals, and a semis in the last 3 years - and theyre
second from bottom of the table at the moment).
The Baroda pacemen did fairly consistent damage early on after Kerala
won the toss and batted. After a 50 run opening stand, Kerala lost
wickets regularly to the pacemen and to offspinner Arothe - they slid
to 88/5 and 131/6. But Hemant Kumar got 66 before falling (180/7), and
the tail hung in there at the end, and Kerala ended at 207/7 - a fair
recovery from 131/6 earlier in the day. Two wickets for Rakesh Patel
and 3 for Tushar Arothe.
Punjab vs Delhi:
Maybe the biggest game of the year for both teams - both of whom
desperately need a victory. The game is at Mohali on a track that
helps pacemen - Punjab has gone with 4 seamers (including Sodhi) and
1 spinner. Punjab won the toss and obviously bowled first - and had
Delhi in deep trouble early, at 6/2 and 37/4 (with Jadeja falling
for 1 - Rajat Bhatia was pushed up to open and was lbw to 4). Then
captain Manhas and Pradeep Chawla got together, and took it to 136/5.
There has been a lot of controversy lately, with allegations of nepotism
at the picking of Pururaj Singh at opener (nephew of Chetan Chauhan) -
and backup keeper Varun Kumar was dropped from the 14 after being in
the squad but not playing in the 11 after the last game. When that
happened, 2 DDCA members wrote an open letter of complaint, claiming
he had not been given a fair chance etc.
Well, something apparently happened to Vijay Dahiya, probably some kind
of injury - and Varun Kumar had to be drafted in at the last minute
anyway for yesterdays game. And he came in at 136/5 in the biggest
game of the year - and held his end up. He stayed with his captain
until the score was 249/5, at which point Manhas fell for a wonderful
captain's knock of 129. And then Varun Kumar guided the tail, to the
end of day's score of 274/7 - with Varun still there at the end with
a 3-hour 50*.
In the end, a pretty satisfactory day for Delhi, recovering from 37/4
after being put in to 274/7. Punjab's pacemen took all 7 wickets to
fall - 2 to Vineet Sharma, 3 to Gagandeep Singh and 2 to Amit Uniyal.
With Delhi's fine pace attack (Kunal Lal, Gill and Negi) backed up
by an international spinner (Sarandeep), they must be pretty satisfied
with their effort on the first day.
UP vs Railways:
Railways is tied for 2nd place in the division with Andhra going into
this game - and must have been hoping to be alone in 2nd after it.
Another hope game for UP - but this time they decided to play it in
Varanasi. And the pitch appears quite spiteful.
Railways won the toss and batted, and battled their way to 116/3 in
63 difficult overs. And then a total collapse set in, sparked by
part-timer Shivakant Shukla (at least I think its him, CI doesnt make
it clear) and young LAS Gupta. Railways slid to 137 allout, with
Gupta claiming 3/36 in 21 overs, and Shukla 3/12 in 7 overs (Gyan
Pandey had 0/23 in 17 overs). UP responded with 16/2 in 15 overs
of batting at the end of the day - with off-spinner Parida coming
on 6 overs into the innings, and bowling 4 overs, 1/1.
UP must surely be in control having dismissed Railways for only 137
on the first day pitch - but it does appear a quite spiteful pitch,
where strange things could happen. There will surely be a result
too, so whoever comes out of this game will be in pretty fair position
in the division at the end of this match.
Bengal vs Assam:
Assam won the toss at Eden Gardnens and put Bengal in. And they got
the usual early-morning help for the pacemen, and reduced Bengal
to 22/3 at the start, with paceman Gautam Dutta claiming all 3
wickets. Haldipur hung in there with 69 however, and Shukla played
his typical aggressive innings from 22/3 (scoring 82 in 132 balls),
and Bengal recovered to 246 allout. 3/36 for Dutta, and 2/48 for
his opening partner Mark Ingty, and 3/30 for spinner Konwar. Assam
were 33/1 at the end of the day, losing a wicket in the final over
of the day at which point the game was called for the day. The wicket,
unsurprisingly, went to Paul - still the only Bengal bowler who looks
capable of getting wickets (3 others were tried in 10.4 overs yesterday).
Gujarat vs TN:
TN won the toss and batted - opening the batting with India U19 keeper
Dinesh Kaarthik and S Suresh. They got 31 from Karthik and 35 from
Badrinath, but nobody really got going for a while - and TN slid to
153/5. At which point Sharath and Vidyut got together and put on 87
very valuable runs, before Vidyut fell for 50. Sharath was still there
at 97* at the end of the day, however, and TN had recovered to 252/6.
All 6 wickets to Gujarat's pacemen, 2 each to Lalit Patel, Majumder
and Shymal Bhatt (Gujarat's #1 paceman, Siddharth Trivedi, is 12th
man for India-A at Pune at the moment - a great pity there is no
tradition of Indian fc players playing matches when left out of "higher
level games", since travelling from Pune to Ahmedabad in 2 days wouldnt
have been that hard, really).
Hyderabad vs Karnataka:
A difficult pitch at the Gymkhana Grounds in Hyderabad, a bouncy
track (as had been the case a couple of times last season as well).
Hyderabad won the toss and batted, and struggled on the pitch against
Karnataka's 3-pronged pace attack (Prasad, Ganesh, and Aiyappa - coming
in for Udit Patel). Hyderabad were 8/2, then 41/4, then 72/6 - with
all the wickets going to pacemen. But Vinay Kumar hung in there with
65, and Shivaji Yadav had an aggressive 39 (hitting Aiyappa for 3
consecutive fours and having him removed from the attack). Ganesh
came back and got Yadav - and then paceman/tailender Vishnuvardhan
promptly hooked Ganesh for 6, and followed it up with consecutive
fours, taking 18 off the over and having *him* taken off. With the
little wag of the tail Hyderabad recovered to 177 allout - not bad
from 72/6 earlier in the day. The wickets were shared - 2 for Ganesh,
2 for Prasad, 3 for Aiyappa, 1 for Binny, and 2 for Joshi.
Karnataka came in and saw off the first spells of the new ball bowlers
in adding 28 for the opening wicket. But then first-change Faiz
Ahmed got both Arun Kumar and Robin Uthappa (batting at #3), and
medium-pacer Daniel Manohar picked up Vijay Bharadwaj. Karnataka ended
the day at 64/3, with Rowland holding the fort with a 2-hour 25*,
and nightwatchman Prasad on 2*. (BTW, a very different team for
Karnataka in this match - both #3 Sudhindhra Shinde and #4 Chougule
have been dropped, and Uthappa and C.Raghu have come in; also Aiyappa
for Udit Patel as mentioned earlier).
Sadiq [ 2 or 3 very big games this round ] Yusuf
Cric8wala
And Day Two...
>Bombay vs Andhra:
>Number one vs Number Two in the division - with the game at Vijaywada.
>Bombay won the toss and batted, and ended the day at 236/3.
>
...
>Shankara Rao. Then Jaffer was joined by Amol Muzumdar, and another
>partnership followed, almost to the end of the day - again Muzumdar
>digging in (probably trying to save his career) while Jaffer did most
>of the scoring. A 56-run partnership of which Amol made 20 - Andhra
A thrilling day, where my man Amol *did* save his career :-) His career
average, over 70 for the first few years, had dropped all the way down to 50
after he was dropped by Bombay - and came back and couldnt buy a run. He played
the entire season last year and couldnt average 20, not making a single 50 all
year long (with a high of 37). Somehow coach Pandit stuck with him. The same
happened this year too - he got to 20 in pretty much every innings of the first
3 matches, but couldnt even reach 30 in any innings. His career looked pretty
much done - yesterday he hung in there for an hour and a half scoring 20*,
while Jaffer got the runs at the other end.
Finally, on the 2nd morning of a flat track against Andhra, he managed to get
*some* runs again. Batted very slowly at one end with Kambli (Kambli scored 86
before being runout, out of a partnership of 133). Then Bahutule got 21, before
Amol was finally out for 115 - his first century in more than 2 years, made in
over 6-and-a-half hours of painstaking batting. Morris then blasted a quick 48*
and Khanvilkar was 9*, and Bombay declared at 504/6. A very flat track and an
Andhra attack - but its the first time Bombay has made anywhere near 500
against *anyone* in at least a year and a half IIRC.
Andhra were 15/0 in 14 overs of batting at the end of the day. On this flat a
track they ought to play out things easily enough - but will have to score 500
to take first innings points. For some reason Bombay has left out Swapnil
Hazare for Usman Malvi in the pace department - lets see how he does tomorrow.
>
>Baroda vs Kerala:
>the tail hung in there at the end, and Kerala ended at 207/7 - a fair
Kerala finally managed 231 allout, 4-fers each for Arothe and Rakesh Patel.
Baroda in reply had their young opener Rishikesh Parab score a century (this is
not Satyajit Parab, who did so well in his first season 2/3 years ago - this is
Rishikesh, in his debut season). Martin got 42, an Baroda ended the day 196/4
in reply with Mongia and Shatrunjay Gaekwad at the crease. They ought to take
the lead tomorrow - but need to look for much more, with 2 days to go still,
they ought to be looknig for enough of a lead to try and get full points from
this game. So far, on a pretty helpful pace track usually, the all-potential
Kerala opening attack of Yohannan and Santh have taken only 1 wicket (that to
Santh, 1/52 in 14 overs; Yohannan disappointed again, 13 overs, 0/37 with 13 no
balls!)
>
>Punjab vs Delhi:
>Maybe the biggest game of the year for both teams - both of whom
>desperately need a victory. The game is at Mohali on a track that
...
>
>In the end, a pretty satisfactory day for Delhi, recovering from 37/4
>after being put in to 274/7. Punjab's pacemen took all 7 wickets to
More troubles for Delhi- and another entrant in the "Future Indian test opener"
stakes? :-)
Delhi extended their first innings total to 310 allout, with Gagandeep taking
the remaining wickets to fall to end up with 5/55. Then Punjab opened its
batting with... Ravneet Singh Ricky and Yuvraj Singh! And this at Mohali, on a
track supposedly quite helpful to pacemen (Punjab pacemen took all 10 wickets
to fall).
Ricky went for 25, LBW to paceman Negi. Dinesh Mongia followed - LBW to Negi
for 4. And then Yuvraj and Pankaj Dharmani batted till the end of the day -
ending the day at 224/2 in 68 overs! Yuvraj 106*, Dharmani 73*!
A wonderful return to first-class cricket for Yuvraj, and at opener at that. An
innings that has set Punjab up well for tomorrow, even though they still have
work to do - their middle order has been very fragile this season before now.
And Delhi has a *lot* of work to do tomorrow - being bottom of the table, they
badly need some kind of points from this match.
>
>UP vs Railways:
>Varanasi. And the pitch appears quite spiteful.
>
>it clear) and young LAS Gupta. Railways slid to 137 allout, with
> UP responded with 16/2 in 15 overs
The pitch continued its incredibly spiteful ways - I really wonder why we play
Ranjis on pitches like these. Either its a useless flat track with no result,
or else its a pitch like this where all you have to do is bowl up and down
medium pace to get wickets by the bagful.
In reply to Railways' 137 allout, UP were 71 all out in 54 overs of batting.
Only 2 batsmen managed double figures - Jyoti Yadav with 28, and Gyanendra
Pandey with 22. Kulamani Parida had 20 overs, 5/18.
In their 2nd innings, Railways could afford to attack a little, and ended with
145/6 in 55 overs. And they did it by contributions all the way down the line,
the only way to get a total on this track - highest 37 from Jai Yadav, 22 from
Goud, 19 from TP Singh, 18 from Bangar, 17 from Pagnis etc. A lead of over 200
going into the 3rd day for Railways, with 4 wickets in hand.
>
>Bengal vs Assam:
Bengal were 246 allout overnight, Assam 33/1. Assam got a century from Sarvanan
(123), and 77* in the lower order from Sukhvinder Singh, and ended the day
288/8 and the first innings lead. Still 2 full days left in this match, though
- and 5/89 in 21 overs from Paul already, again the only Bengal bowler capable
of taking wickets. Assam were 101/5 when Sarvanan and Sukhvinder got together -
and took it to 282 before Sarvanan fell, at which point 3 wickets went down for
6 runs. Assam will need to build on their lead tomorrow morning if they are to
be sure of getting their first points of the season.
.
>
>Gujarat vs TN:
TN had recovered from 153/5 to 252/6 yesterday, with 50 from Vidyut and 97*
from Sharath. Sharath went on to 155 by the end, and tailender Ganapathy
chipped in 43* as well. TN ended up 372 allout and in command. Gujarat at day's
end were 67/3 in 41 overs of batting - out of which opener Akash Christian is
50* .
>
>Hyderabad vs Karnataka:
>A difficult pitch at the Gymkhana Grounds in Hyderabad, a bouncy
>track (as had been the case a couple of times last season as well).
>fours, taking 18 off the over and having *him* taken off. With the
>little wag of the tail Hyderabad recovered to 177 allout - not bad
>medium-pacer Daniel Manohar picked up Vijay Bharadwaj. Karnataka ended
>the day at 64/3, with Rowland holding the fort with a 2-hour 25*,
This is a nicely grassed pitch at Gymkhana Grounds - sort of like the
Hyderabad/Bombay game last year (which was described as one of the best
pace-bowlers pitches seen in domestic cricket in many a year by some Bombay
players). Last year against Bombay, NP Singh destroyed Bombay on the first
innings, dismissing them for 97 allout - before Salvi responded (dismissing
Hyderabad for about 120), and Bombay won the game outright eventually.
Here Hyderabad put up 177 on the first day after recovering from 73/6. And then
NP Singh failed to do any damage, and the first-change bowlers had to do the
work yesterday, with Karnataka reaching 64/3 and NP Singh failing to pick up a
wicket on his favourite turf - he had 9-2-12-0 as his figures.
Today, he made up for all that, by rippnig thru the Karnataka batting lineup
from the start, from the morning itself.
First to go was nightwatchman Prasad - clean bowled on NP Singh's 4th ball of
the morning. Two overs later, Thilak Naidu was LBW to NP Singh for 3. NP's next
over, Barrington Rowland was caught behind having added 3 to his overnight
score of 25. In the same over, Stuart Binny was caught by Raju for 1. And in
his next over, Joshi was caught by Yadav for 0! NP Singh had single-handedly
reduced Karnataka from 64/3 overnight, to 72/8 within his first 5 overs of the
day!
Karnataka then had a mini-recovery, but NP Singh kept bowling at one end.
Eventually Ganesh was runout, and then NP Singh clean bowled Aiyappa for 1 to
end it all - Karnataka 100 allout.
On the 2nd morning, NP Singh bowled continuously from one end. He bowled on the
trot, with no rest - and in one unbroken spell he had figures of 10.4-4-19-6.
Granted an unexpected lead of 77, Hyderabad's batsmen decided to be aggressive
in their 2nd innings, trying to extend the lead as far as they could. Daniel
Manohar sat on the splice at one end (scoring 57 in 4-and-a-quarter hours of
batting) - but the batsmen made merry at the other end. Nand Kishore hit 6
fours in 38, Vinay Kumar 5 fours and 1 six in his 33. Hyderabad finally ended
the day 187/6 - a lead of 264, with 2 days of play left, not bad, but not a
put-away, with the pitch probably slowing as the game goes on.
A wonderful rivalry game, as all rivalry games are (Punjab vs Delhi is pretty
good too - maybe we'll see a Delhi fightback tomorrow). Should be an
interesting last couple of days.
Sadiq [ most thrilled for Amol, even though its a mediocre innings ] Yusuf
>
>
>
>
DiiVolunt
> Round Four of the Ranjis began yesterday, with a few very important
> games.
>
> Bombay vs Andhra:
> Number one vs Number Two in the division - with the game at Vijaywada.
> Bombay won the toss and batted, and ended the day at 236/3.
>
> partnership followed, almost to the end of the day - again Muzumdar
> digging in (probably trying to save his career) while Jaffer did most
> of the scoring. A 56-run partnership of which Amol made 20 - Andhra
Seriously Sadiq, do you think there are enough telented bats in mumbai
to replace muzumdar?. He scored a century today and kambli 84 and
morris a quickfire fifty to take mumbai to 504/6 decl... looks like
andhra will have to bat out the match now...
> Baroda vs Kerala:
> A big game for both teams, especially Baroda which has a very fine record
> in Ranjis the past 3 years and needs a win badly if they wish to continue
> it (a title, a finals, and a semis in the last 3 years - and theyre
> second from bottom of the table at the moment).
>
> The Baroda pacemen did fairly consistent damage early on after Kerala
> won the toss and batted. After a 50 run opening stand, Kerala lost
> wickets regularly to the pacemen and to offspinner Arothe - they slid
> to 88/5 and 131/6. But Hemant Kumar got 66 before falling (180/7), and
> the tail hung in there at the end, and Kerala ended at 207/7 - a fair
> recovery from 131/6 earlier in the day. Two wickets for Rakesh Patel
> and 3 for Tushar Arothe.
Missed latest on this, but baroda has almost got 1st innings lead,
Parab not that one the other one scored a ton and JJ helped... Gaekwad
and mongia need to scored 36 to get 2 points and then 200 more to
ensure 2 more...
> Punjab vs Delhi:
> Maybe the biggest game of the year for both teams - both of whom
> desperately need a victory. The game is at Mohali on a track that
> helps pacemen - Punjab has gone with 4 seamers (including Sodhi) and
> 1 spinner. Punjab won the toss and obviously bowled first - and had
> Delhi in deep trouble early, at 6/2 and 37/4 (with Jadeja falling
> for 1 - Rajat Bhatia was pushed up to open and was lbw to 4). Then
> captain Manhas and Pradeep Chawla got together, and took it to 136/5.
Bhatia opened for TN couple of years back... Punjab did a good job but
i think Manhas got a very bad decision... well i told you, manhas is
like old silver ghost, takes time starting up.... Hopefully, Gambhir
is not selected for SAARC cup and helps us escape demotion... Punjab
will deffo get 2 points from looks of it but 80 runs still separate
sides and i am an optimist and Mongia is gone!
Punjab batting has had of demolishing itself next day! Hoping that
Jadeja runs into form soon...
> In the end, a pretty satisfactory day for Delhi, recovering from 37/4
> after being put in to 274/7. Punjab's pacemen took all 7 wickets to
> fall - 2 to Vineet Sharma, 3 to Gagandeep Singh and 2 to Amit Uniyal.
> With Delhi's fine pace attack (Kunal Lal, Gill and Negi) backed up
> by an international spinner (Sarandeep), they must be pretty satisfied
> with their effort on the first day.
Punjab 224/2 with Yuvi 106*....opening eh!, new facet to Yuvraj's
quiver with chandal chaukari of SRT, Dravid, Gangs and VVS occupying
the middle..
so much for new delhi attack..basket bhandari taking lankan wickets,
why can't he bowl badly then he will be back in delhi pronto instead
of going to brabourne...if they are serious about rotation in A then
release bhandari and play trivedi..
you might have written about it but i did not pay attention but yes HP
has had manvinder Bisla opening and keeping.. If he keeps it up (no
pun intended)
then we might have an option for future... last 2 U-19 captains who
kept made to national side viz ratra and patel...hopefully, HP
cricketing problems sort out, we need rajiv nayyar for duleeps man!
> UP vs Railways:
> Railways is tied for 2nd place in the division with Andhra going into
> this game - and must have been hoping to be alone in 2nd after it.
> Another hope game for UP - but this time they decided to play it in
> Varanasi. And the pitch appears quite spiteful.
>
> Railways won the toss and batted, and battled their way to 116/3 in
> 63 difficult overs. And then a total collapse set in, sparked by
> part-timer Shivakant Shukla (at least I think its him, CI doesnt make
it is shivkant as he opens too. saurabh shukla is not playing this
year and he generally bats in middle order....
anyway 12 wickets on day 1 and 14 on day 2... Chucker Parida got 5,
Railways will probably set a target for 250 and win by 150 by tea
tommrrow.. Railways with back to back wins are now in serious
contention for semi space...but UP has had a knack of sticking it in
and if target is under 250, anything is possible ...
>
> Bengal vs Assam:
> Assam won the toss at Eden Gardnens and put Bengal in. And they got
> the usual early-morning help for the pacemen, and reduced Bengal
Bengal is bad this season and without Junior G it is even worse...
assam was 5/101 chasing up when Sarvanan and veteran sukhwinder took
them to 282/6 , they finish at 288/8 paul strikes again..
I think using paul in SAARC would be a good idea if only to give this
hardworking younster a filip... before this season he had played a
dozen matches for couple of dozen wickets only now he bowling like
videocone sale, you get one wicket, another comes free...
assam gets 2 points and bengal will need to bat well so paul can do
the trick in second knock...
> Gujarat vs TN:
> TN won the toss and batted - opening the batting with India U19 keeper
> Dinesh Kaarthik and S Suresh. They got 31 from Karthik and 35 from
> Badrinath, but nobody really got going for a while - and TN slid to
> 153/5. At which point Sharath and Vidyut got together and put on 87
> very valuable runs, before Vidyut fell for 50. Sharath was still there
> at 97* at the end of the day, however, and TN had recovered to 252/6.
> All 6 wickets to Gujarat's pacemen, 2 each to Lalit Patel, Majumder
> and Shymal Bhatt (Gujarat's #1 paceman, Siddharth Trivedi, is 12th
> man for India-A at Pune at the moment - a great pity there is no
> tradition of Indian fc players playing matches when left out of "higher
> level games", since travelling from Pune to Ahmedabad in 2 days wouldnt
> have been that hard, really).
TN makes it good on 2nd day, Sharath makes his 19th count and gujju
bolwers wilt, plus a sone pe suhaga for them with 3 bats already out
for 67..
Hitesh Majmudar is the spelling right for him? Majumdar used to be a
british adoption of ancient administrative position..that is why you
would find Majumdars in bengal (brahmin, kayasthas and even lower
castes) or Muzumdars and Majumdars in West (again across the caste
gamut..first time saw as Majmudar, they are prob. Gujarati nagar
brahmins and hence the spelling difference)
anyway in second innings Gujarat has 67/3 but look closely and it is
67 off 41 overs!! or half a day... Akash Christian is 50* of
those...TN may need to get few quickly to have a 4 pointer chance else
they can bat out the day...
> Hyderabad vs Karnataka:
>>
> Karnataka came in and saw off the first spells of the new ball bowlers
> in adding 28 for the opening wicket. But then first-change Faiz
> Ahmed got both Arun Kumar and Robin Uthappa (batting at #3), and
> medium-pacer Daniel Manohar picked up Vijay Bharadwaj. Karnataka ended
> the day at 64/3, with Rowland holding the fort with a 2-hour 25*,
> and nightwatchman Prasad on 2*. (BTW, a very different team for
> Karnataka in this match - both #3 Sudhindhra Shinde and #4 Chougule
> have been dropped, and Uthappa and C.Raghu have come in; also Aiyappa
> for Udit Patel as mentioned earlier).
Chougule dropped!! that chap has promise... Aiyappa is same guy who
won the pace challenge? anyway, Narendra pal singh wrecked karnataka
batting (serves them right for dropping Chougule) for 100 only rowland
scoring 28...Then Hyderabad batted .. manohar with 57 in 3 hours and
Vinay kumar with 33 in 36 balls, 5 fours and 1 six... took Hyderabad
to 187/6 and relative security...
aiyappa and ganesh took 2 wkts each...
Long challenge for karnataka....
Plate wise:
Maharasthra destroyed by Mohnaty for 77; Mohanty taking 5 for 24...
only 3 oriyas got into double figures but 2 of them Parida and behera
matched Maharashtra's score... Orissa 204 with Siddiqi 65/5 and khirid
54/4
Maharashtra 161/2 with jadhav unbeaten on 81...
anybody s game.. if maharshtra scores another 200 tommorrow, orissa
will be in trouble...
Haryana scored 466/6, of 8 bats, 6 including Mr extras scored 50s,
Gnada topped with 95.... tripura is 41/1 and
Vidabha lead by deshpande and captain naidu 's tons scored 387,....
the depth in indian cricket was seen that spinner to get most wickets
today in domestic tounrnies was certain Mr. Hirwani who is already 6
years past his sellby date..
keeper opener Ojha scored 79 in 151/3 in MP reply whose skipper is
confirmed to be khurasiya now!
Services scored 212 against Goa and then dismissed Goa for 142 with
the navy guy Ghag making waves with 6/34...then services fought a
rearguard action scoring 15 runs for loss of one wicket in 16 overs!
the match will have a result depends on how long Yashpal singh plays
tommorrow...
Bihar keeper opener scored 64 in 172 all out (lot of these keeper
openers around now!) the shahid khan terrorized kashmiris into 115 all
out witha 7/25
..shahid is a legspinner i think...if 15 wickets fell on day 1, 16
fell on day 2 as Bihar fell on 159 with offspineer khajuria taking
4...
Chasing 216, Jammu and K were 28/1 with shahid khan opening the
bowling and taking one wicket to fall....
i would say Bihar has won this one unless veterans like ashwini gupta
do something...
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
Ambrish Sundaram
DiiVolunt wrote:
> Bihar keeper opener scored 64 in 172 all out (lot of these keeper
> openers around now!) the shahid khan terrorized kashmiris into 115 all
> out witha 7/25
Bihar wicketkeeper-opener Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been a consistent
performer in recent years. Playing for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy in
the 2002-2003 season, he performed decently. Here is a summary of his
performances in the Duleep Trophy for East Zone last season -
Against West Zone - Held 4 catches in West Zone's innings of 173 for 9.
Scored 55 not out (97 balls 1x4 1x6) and along with Debang Gandhi (109
in 112 balls) helped East Zone to an upset victory.
Against North Zone - 1 catch and 1 stumping in North's score of 238 for
5. Failed when East Zone batted and scored 1 run.
Against South Zone - No catches or stumpings when South scored 261.
Batted at #4 and scored 71 (87 balls 7x4 2x6) in a losing effort when
East Zone fell short by 10 runs. Was the highest scorer for East Zone.
Against Central Zone - Game called off due to overnight rain.
Overall, he had the second best numbers in terms of fielding dismissals,
second only to Ajay Ratra. While Ratra had 9 dismissals (5 catches 4
stumpings), Dhoni had 6 (5 catches and 1 stumping). South Zone keeper
Thilak Naidu also had 6 dismissals, all catches.
His batting average of 63.50 (strike rate of 68.27) was the best among
all wicketkeepers in the tournament, and fifth best overall. A snippet -
The best batting average (82.50) was held by one Abhijit Kale. :-) He
was followed by Akash Chopra, Sriram, and Debang Gandhi.
> ..shahid is a legspinner i think...if 15 wickets fell on day 1, 16
Shahid Khan is a slow left-arm orthodox spinner.
Ambrish Sundaram
Cric8wala
>to replace muzumdar?. He scored a
If there was one quarter of the depth in Bombay that there used to be, Amol
would have been gone ages ago. As it is, all he has done is lowered his career
average more and more - but he knows he has no chance of internationals for the
past 3/4 years, so thats not really surprising.
I cannot remember any specialist batsman in Bombay history who had as awful a
season as Amol did last year, and still managed to survive. He was godawful,
didnt manage a fifty all year, and ended up averaging less than 20. Except
everyone did awfully, so he wasnt that glaring - only everyone else had at
least 1 or 2 good innings and the rest failures, while he had all failures
without a single good knock.
Last year itself, towards the later part of the year, people thought his career
was over - there were even articles to that effect in newspapers (Mid Day had
one I recall). He himself said that he was still young, and though he had
played horribly he wouldnt retire (people had actually suggested publicly that
he should, and he wasnt even 30 :-) Pandit insisted on picking him though,
saying he was a classy bat and a veteran, and would come thru - but he never
did.
Before this season, he went to England for leagues as usual, and put up big
runs for his club as a pro, also as usual. But
to start this season, his chances were almost gone - he was dropped from the
team for the Irani Trophy this season, dropped from the 16. The other bats
failed in the Iranis however, and Amol went and scored runs again in Times
Shield and so he made his way back.
But once again he couldnt do it - he kept getting 20s, got 20s in all 3
matches, but couldnt get past 20. His career was surely on the line in this
match - after averaging 20 last year and not getting past 20 in 3 matches this
year, not even a fifty in 1.5 years, it *must* have been. The only way he had
survived is because Bombay won, and because Pandit somehow found the guts to
hang in with him, and give him chance after chance.
As for depth - probably not. But look at it this way - season before last, the
U22s, the middle-order contenders. Two of them, captain Pushkaraj Jadhav, and
Bhavin Thakkar. Their scores, batting next to each other against the same
opposition, were as follows:
Thakkar: 0, 6*, 42, 3*, 21, 36
Jadhav: 131, 71, 5, 2, 67, 109*
It is clear from the above who was the guy first in line, no? And when a spot
opened up last year, Pushkaraj was the first in line for it, as expected from
above. But he got injured, so Thakkar had to be forced in (Thakkar wasnt
greatly liked by anyone, he is slow and dour, and also has a very unorthodox
technique, his stance has his shoulder almost facing cover etc). And Thakkar
*has* been painfully slow while batting for Bombay - but he has played critical
"painfully slow" innings that won us matches! Had a 70 in a low-scoring semis
against Baroda (Zaheer et al), had a 70* in the finals when we needed runs on
2nd innings (against TN, Balaji et al). Had another 70 and 80 in the first
couple of games this season too (against Baroda and Delhi IIRC). Currently he
has played 6 games for Bombay, and has not yet made a century - but still
manages to average 55.33, with 4 fifties in 6 completed innings to date. So how
can you drop him?
So Pushkaraj Jadhav is still sitting in the wings - he is in the 14 for this
match too, but hasnt gotten a match yet. If Amol had done badly, surely they
would have *had* to give him a match, he would have been the obvious choice.
And maybe this wouldnt have been a bad thing overall, with a younger guy
getting a chance etc.
But personally, even if its not great for Bombay long-term, Iam over the moon
at Amol's century (I actually yelled when I saw the scorecard this morning :-)
But I'd love to see Pushkaraj get a debut sometime - its not fair, with him
having earned a spot over Thakkar but only falling back thru minor injury for a
week, and not able to get back in front again. The best hope is for Bombay to
win a couple more games outright I think - then in the last game or two of the
leagues we can experiment a bit, and give Pushkaraj his debut and rest someone.
century today and kambli 84 and
>morris a quickfire fifty to take mumbai to 504/6 decl... looks like
>andhra will have to bat out the match now...
>
Very flat track, which is why Amol's ton isnt that big at all, really - 3/4
years ago I would have been disappointed at anything less than 150 from Amol on
this track, the kind of batsman he was. It was only big given the context of
the past year plus. Andhra will probably bat this out fairly easily - but as
long as Bombay gets 2 points, they cant be too dissatisfied on this track,
IMHO.
>
>Bhatia opened for TN couple of years
Yes, but he was batting #6 for Delhi only 2 games ago, and was then left out.
And then brought back, and made to open on his comeback! Strange stuff going on
there.
back... Punjab did a good job but
>i think Manhas got a very bad decision... well i told you, manhas is
>like old silver ghost, takes time starting up.... Hopefully, Gambhir
>is not selected for SAARC cup and helps us escape demotion... Punjab
>will deffo get 2 points from looks of it but 80 runs still separate
>sides and i am an optimist and Mongia is gone!
>Punjab batting has had of demolishing itself next day! Hoping that
>Jadeja runs into form soon...
>
Punjabs middle order has repeatedly collapsed all season long. On ability they
should easily get 80 runs - with Yuvraj and Dharmani still there, and Sodhi,
Kakkar and Madan still to come. But they have failed to do it time and again
this season so far, so there is still some hope for Delhi.
> Punjab 224/2 with Yuvi 106*....opening eh!, new facet to Yuvraj's
>quiver with chandal chaukari of SRT, Dravid, Gangs and VVS occupying
>the middle..
>so much for new delhi attack..basket bhandari taking lankan wickets,
>why can't he bowl badly then he will be back in delhi pronto instead
>of going to brabourne...if they are serious about rotation in A then
>release bhandari and play trivedi..
>
They keep saying that Gill is really good for Delhi, but he doesnt seem to take
that many wickets - maybe he is just unlucky. Kunal was good in U19 level, but
its a step up at this level - it will probably take him a while to get
consistently good one would think. Where is Rakesh Raman Jha, BTW? Playing U22s
for Delhi this year, with Suman?
>you might have written about it but i did not pay attention but yes HP
>has had manvinder Bisla opening and keeping.. If he keeps it up (no
>pun intended)
>then we might have an option for future... last 2 U-19 captains who
>kept made to national side viz ratra and patel...hopefully, HP
>cricketing problems sort out, we need rajiv nayyar for duleeps man!
>
Yes, Bisla had a decent innings last time too, a 70+ not out in the 2nd
innings. Lots of byes though - it'll probably take him a while to get good with
the gloves (he used to be a keeper in school IIRC, but he was not one after
that, and was even bowling quite regularly for U19 for a while).
>
>> part-timer Shivakant Shukla (at least I think its him, CI doesnt make
>
>it is shivkant as he opens too. saurabh shukla is not playing this
>year and he generally bats in middle order....
Yes, except when I clicked on the S SHukla on CI to make sure, they took me to
like Anand Shukla or someting :-) That must be wrong, its got to be Shivakant -
know him well from the younger agegroups. Shivakant, Ravikant and Raina were
all part of UP U16 that beat Bombay U16 in the finals of the U16 title a few
years ago - and then basically the same Bombay boys had their revenge, beating
all 3 for UP U19 in the U19 finals a year ago :-) Also people like Tahir Abbas
were in those sides, IIRC, and Piyush Chawla too (even though he's very young
still).
>anyway 12 wickets on day 1 and 14 on day 2... Chucker Parida got 5,
>Railways will probably set a target for 250 and win by 150 by tea
>tommrrow.. Railways with back to back wins are now in serious
>contention for semi space...but UP has had a knack of sticking it in
>and if target is under 250, anything is possible ...
>
With this kind of pitch, who knows - maybe the pitch will get slower and easier
to bat on with time, you never know. Railways probably cant be too unhappy with
their current situation, but they will probably want a few more runs at least.
Khanolkar is still there at the moment. BTW, who is this new Railways player?
>
>I think using paul in SAARC would be a good idea if only to give this
>hardworking younster a filip... before this season he had played a
>dozen matches for couple of dozen wickets only now he bowling like
>videocone sale, you get one wicket, another comes free...
>
Yes, he must be a certainty for SAARC, probably. Or very likely, at any rate -
clearly the #1 contender from anyone currently not in the national side or the
A-team (other than Salvi, who is still injured - dont know if he'll be fit in
time for SAARC).
>assam gets 2 points and bengal will need to bat well so paul can do
>the trick in second knock...
>
Still a long time to go in this match, 2 full days and only 2 wickets in hand
for Assam at the moment. Bengal can still win this one.
>Hitesh Majmudar is the spelling right for him? Majumdar used to be a
>british adoption of ancient administrative position..that is why you
>would find Majumdars in bengal (brahmin, kayasthas and even lower
>castes) or Muzumdars and Majumdars in West (again across the caste
>gamut..first time saw as Majmudar, they are prob. Gujarati nagar
>brahmins and hence the spelling difference)
>
It is Majmudar - and Iam surprised its so new, never thought of it that way.
Seen the name often before, even went to school with a Gujrati Majmundar (with
an n in there, IIRC). And have seen Gujarati Majmudars more than once in
Bombay. This is Hitesh Akash Majmudar from Ahmedabad.
>
>
>> Hyderabad vs Karnataka:
>>>
>> Karnataka in this match - both #3 Sudhindhra Shinde and #4 Chougule
>> have been dropped, and Uthappa and C.Raghu have come in; also Aiyappa
>> for Udit Patel as mentioned earlier).
>
>Chougule dropped!! that chap has
I probably spoke too soon. Both Shinde and Chougule were in the last few games
at #3 and #4, and arent in this game - but Deccan Herald at least seemed to say
"indisposed" for Chougule yesterday after I wrote the above (though I dont
think they said anything like that for Shinde). Seeing both of them (neither of
whom had done very well this year) left out simultaneously I had presumed 2
drops - but apparently it might be 1 drop and 1 indisposed.
>promise... Aiyappa is same guy who
>won the pace challenge? anyway,
Yep. Back in the Ranji side (maybe because of it :-)
Narendra pal singh wrecked karnataka
>batting (serves them right for dropping Chougule) for 100 only rowland
>scoring 28...Then Hyderabad batted .. manohar with 57 in 3 hours and
>Vinay kumar with 33 in 36 balls, 5 fours and 1 six... took Hyderabad
>to 187/6 and relative security...
>aiyappa and ganesh took 2 wkts each...
>Long challenge for karnataka....
>
Pitch might be getting easier however - apparently some bad batting on D2. Lots
of silly shots etc. NP Singh was keeping a great line and length, and Karnataka
just folded to him in the morning. Then Karnataka came in and apparently
totally lost their heads, trying to bowl fast instead of a good line, and
bowling short and wide and getting smashed around. Still kept getting chances,
but kept putting them down too. Supposedly Uthappa dropped a sitter a point,
and 2 easy catches went down in the slips as well, and Thilak Naidu also muffed
one.
>Plate wise:
>
>Maharasthra destroyed by Mohnaty for 77; Mohanty taking 5 for 24...
>only 3 oriyas got into double figures but 2 of them Parida and behera
>matched Maharashtra's score... Orissa 204 with Siddiqi 65/5 and khirid
>54/4
>Maharashtra 161/2 with jadhav unbeaten on 81...
>anybody s game.. if maharshtra scores another 200 tommorrow, orissa
>will be in trouble...
>
Maharashtra's batting is quite weak with Kale, they dont have *that* much good
batting to come. The 77 allout on first morning will probably cost them the
match.
>Vidabha lead by deshpande and captain naidu 's tons scored 387,....
>the depth in indian cricket was seen that spinner to get most wickets
>today in domestic tounrnies was certain Mr. Hirwani who is already 6
>years past his sellby date..
>
Still takes wickets, however. Is keeping out a pretty good leggie for MP
already, Yogesh Golwalkar who has done well in U19s and U22s. At least
off-spinner Amal Kokje got into the side, though.
>keeper opener Ojha scored 79 in 151/3 in MP reply whose skipper is
>confirmed to be khurasiya now!
>
>Services scored 212 against Goa and then dismissed Goa for 142 with
>the navy guy Ghag making waves with 6/34...then services fought a
>rearguard action scoring 15 runs for loss of one wicket in 16 overs!
>the match will have a result depends on how long Yashpal singh plays
>tommorrow...
>
Yes, Ghag missed the last game - and Fazil Mohammad got 8 in the game IIRC.
This match Ghag came back and immediately got 6/34! Not a bad attack, that
might be, really.
Sadiq [ Joglekar isnt playing for anyone anymore IIRC ] Yusuf
>
>regards
>
>Pranshu B Saxena
>
>
>
>
>
>
Cric8wala
And Day Three.. a couple of matches seeing results already.
>
>>Bombay vs Andhra:
Overnight Bombay 504/6 declared on a nice flat track, and Andhra 15/0 in 14
overs.
Well, Andhra batted thru the entire day, and lost only 3 wickets - and they
scored a grand total of 147 runs:-)
A whole new definition to the word stonewalling - if India does indeed want to
draw in Australia, maybe we should send the entire Andhra batting lineup
(though, of course, they would then get bouncy tracks and get out, rather than
slow tracks where they could stonewall for ever :-)
But India could probably use MSK Prasad -he captains and keeps wickets for
Andhra now, and also opens the batting. He batted thru the entire day yesterday
- and made 59 runs! He has now batted 7 hours and 8 minutes for his 68*.
At the end of D3, Andhra are 162/3, with MSK Prasad and Watekar batting. There
is no chance of them actually getting first innings points one would think -
that would require another 350 runs on the last day. But they can probably bat
out the last day quite easily, and so both sides will get 0 points from this
game.
>>
>>Baroda vs Kerala:
>
Overnight Kerala 231, Baroda 196/4
Baroda batted on into D3 for a long while, with contributions down the line.
Mongia 31, Shatrunjay Gaekwad 43, Arothe 49, Rakesh Patel 67. Eventually Baroda
were 411 allout, a lead of 180.
Kerala thus has to bat out 4 sessions to deny Baroda an outright win. They made
an excellent start, 95/1 at the end of D3, with Somasunar 57*. Thus they are
only 85 behind now, with a day to go - if they can even bat till a little after
tea and add 200 or so more, they could be safe. Baroda will push hard for a win
though because they badly need the extra 2 points.
>
>>
>>Punjab vs Delhi:
Overnight Delhi 310, Punjab 224/2 (Yuvraj 106*, Dharmani 71*)
Punjab suffered its typical middle-order collapse on D3, but it was not enough
for Delhi. From 240/3 (when Dharmani fell for 79), to 280/5 (when Yuvraj fell
for 138) before they took the lead. But then went from 319/5 to 385 allout, a
lead of only 75. Four wickets each for Gill and Negi, and a poor 2nd game for
Kunal Lal (0/79 in 21 overs - apparently he was hit for 2 fours off the first 2
balls of the innings by Yuvraj opening the batting yesterday).
Delhi trailed by 75 but had 25 overs of batting to end the day - one would have
expected them to come out blazing, because they badly need points from this
game and are currently in line for none after trailing on first innings. But
they scored only 72/0 in 25 overs, and still trail by 3 going into the last
day. They should be able to draw the game pretty easily, but that doesnt do
them much good - surprising they arent being more pro-active about a result.
>>
>>UP vs Railways:
>
Overnight Railways 137, UP 71, Railways148/6.
The pitch continued to be very spiteful - and Railways did a very good job of
playign team-cricket again.
From 148/6, Railways continued to get vital contributoins with the bat down the
line. Khanolkar 30, Wankhede 23, Harvinder 16*. Railways got 208, setting UP an
impossible 275 to win on this track. UP started positively with 59/0 for the
first wicket, but then the collapse set in as it was always going to - and they
were 122 allout to lose by a mile. 5/47 for Parida (and 10 overs, 1/12 for
Bangar).
>
>
>>
>>Bengal vs Assam:
>
Overnight Bengal 246, Assam 288/8 (Sukhvinder 77*)
Sukhvinder continued hitting on D3, doing all the scoring. Assam went from 288
to 347 allout,with the tail scoring 13 of those runs - Sukhvinder 115* by the
end. Thus Assam had a 101 run lead halfway thru D3.
Bengal came in batting veryvery slowly - Haldipur was the first wicket to fall,
at 44/1 scored in 31 overs! Then Devang Gandhi came in at #3 and started
playing shots right away, hitting 7 fours before falling for 36 (Bengal's first
50 took 34 overs, their 2nd fifty took only 9 overs). At the end of the day,
Bengal were 111/3 with Das and Shukla holding fort.
Thus a 10 run lead for Bengal going into the last day, with 7 wickets in hand.
Assam is probably in fair shape to pick up 2 points from this match - and if
Bengal happen to collapse, they might even have a chance of getting 4. Shukla
has been in very good form this season however, probably Bengal's best batsman,
so there is a ways to go for that.
>>
>>Gujarat vs TN:
>
Overnight TN 372, Gujarat 61/3 in 41 overs.
A surprisingly good fightback by Gujarat on D3. Akash Christian and Mukund
Parmar had come together at 42/3, and they stayed together till 182, for a
140-run partnership before Christian fell for 112. Damani failed again (192/5),
and then Parmar finally fell for 82 (231/6) and Gujarat looked buried. But
their spinners Timil Patel and Bhavin Mehta ground it out for the last 25 overs
of the day, adding another 42 with some gritty batting - and Gujarat ended the
day 273/6.
Thus this match looks almost certain to be a draw. However, Gujarat is 99
behind on first innings going into the last day - and even though it has only
tailenders left, may still harbour some small hope of squeezing out a lead and
stealing away 2 points (along with the prestigous trophy that comes from
winning the Samarth Harish Shah Bowl).
>>
>>Hyderabad vs Karnataka:
Overnight Hyderabad 177, Karnataka 100, Hyderabad 187/6.
A quite horrendous performance from Karnataka in this match, after the first
morning session. They had Hyderabad on the ropes at 72/6 the first morning, and
let them get away to 177. Then they collapsed to 100 allout themselves, and
gave up 187/6 yesterday with some overaggressive and short-and-wide bowling on
a helpful track.
They continued their poor show with the ball on D3 - the first wicket didnt
fall till 238/7, the next till 278/8 (this latter 40 run partnership coming in
6 overs!!) They even gave up a 28-run stand to the last pair, with Venkatapathy
Raju making merry with a four and a six, before Hyderabad were 309 allout. This
set Karnataka 387 to win.
And Karnataka came out and totally collapsed in the face of that score -
falling to 89 allout in only 32 overs of batting. NP Singh, who destroyed
Karnataka in the first innings, only started the slide this time - he got the
first wicket, but ended with 8 overs, 1/16.
This time Karnataka collapsed to the medium-pace of first-change bowler Faiz
Ahmed! Faiz Ahmed is a left-arm 25 year old medium pacer - he isnt a great
bowler by any stretch, but has pretensions as an allrounder. In 8 career Ranji
games to date, he had taken 11 wickets at an average of 65 - but had also
averaged 27 with the bat to keep himself in the team.
Faiz Ahmed came on first-change here, and bowled 10 overs on the trot - and
claimed 6/29! His previous best had been 3/73 - and in this match he had
match-figures of 8/47!
On a grassy pitch where NP Singh said yesterday that all he really had to do
was pitch it up and swing it, the vaunted Karnataka attack did a poor job,
getting overaggressive and bowling fast and short (in the 2nd innings Prasad
had 3/98, Ganesh 3/74 - and Aiyappa went for 4/over while claiming 2/79). And
this in a game where NP Singh had match figures of 7/47, and Faiz Ahmed had
figures of 8/47!
Karnataka fell for 100 and 89 in their 2 innings, and lost to their traditional
rivals by a whopping 297 runs. Theyre lucky they didnt bat first, else it might
have given Hyderabad a bonus point (and cost them a docked point as well). As
it is, despite this crushing loss, they are still in fair shape for the
knockouts if they can recover - they are still in a contest with Hyderabad, and
Hyderabad still has to play TN, the top team in the league. But this must
surely rank as Karnataka's worst Ranji loss in a long, long time - I cant
remember a bigger one myself.
Sadiq [ Srinath ought to play for them if he recovers, would help their side
greatly ] Yusuf
Lenin Maran
"Cric8wala" <cric...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20031203112905...@mb-m14.aol.com...
> >>Hyderabad vs Karnataka:
>
> Karnataka fell for 100 and 89 in their 2 innings, and lost to their
traditional
> rivals by a whopping 297 runs. Theyre lucky they didnt bat first, else it
might
> have given Hyderabad a bonus point (and cost them a docked point as well).
As
> it is, despite this crushing loss, they are still in fair shape for the
> knockouts if they can recover - they are still in a contest with
Hyderabad, and
> Hyderabad still has to play TN, the top team in the league. But this must
> surely rank as Karnataka's worst Ranji loss in a long, long time - I cant
> remember a bigger one myself.
Dec 1996 against Kerala they were bowled out for 74 in the second innings
which caused a spot in the SuperLeagues.
I am sure there are others.
>
>
> Sadiq [ Srinath ought to play for them if he recovers, would help their
side
> greatly ] Yusuf
Nope, it won't help. It is the batting they need.
Other than Rowland, Arun Kumar and Bharadwaj they have no one.
Peace,
Lenin
DiiVolunt
> >Seriously Sadiq, do you think there are enough telented bats in mumbai
> >to replace muzumdar?. He scored a
>
> If there was one quarter of the depth in Bombay that there used to be, Amol
> would have been gone ages ago. As it is, all he has done is lowered his career
> average more and more - but he knows he has no chance of internationals for the
> past 3/4 years, so thats not really surprising.
>
> U22s, the middle-order contenders. Two of them, captain Pushkaraj Jadhav, and
> Bhavin Thakkar. Their scores, batting next to each other against the same
> opposition, were as follows:
>
> Thakkar: 0, 6*, 42, 3*, 21, 36
> Jadhav: 131, 71, 5, 2, 67, 109*
>
> years ago I would have been disappointed at anything less than 150 from Amol on
> this track, the kind of batsman he was. It was only big given the context of
> the past year plus. Andhra will probably bat this out fairly easily - but as
> long as Bombay gets 2 points, they cant be too dissatisfied on this track,
> IMHO.
Poor Jhadav... but maybe when mumbai is sure of 1st place, they can
try their reserves... Anyway Andhra drew the match with solid batting
down the line...
MSK reminds one of Nayyar in his halycon days of mid ninties...
> >Bhatia opened for TN couple of years
>
> Yes, but he was batting #6 for Delhi only 2 games ago, and was then left out.
> And then brought back, and made to open on his comeback! Strange stuff going > on there.
In the friendlies before the seaoson started when we had services all
out for 30 oddd... bhatia opened in them as did puru raj in one of
them... because of stink raised about him, Bhatia who rightly dropped
came back by default...
>
> Punjabs middle order has repeatedly collapsed all season long. On ability they
> should easily get 80 runs - with Yuvraj and Dharmani still there, and Sodhi,
> Kakkar and Madan still to come. But they have failed to do it time and again
> this season so far, so there is still some hope for Delhi.
They did! but Negi and Gill took 4 wickets each to brighten the gloom
and
also Jadeja ran into modicum of form... i think delhi is now out of
running unless they get 3 5 pointers!! let us hope they avoid
relegation....
Imagine bengal and delhi in such crises...
> consistently good one would think. Where is Rakesh Raman Jha, BTW? Playing U22s
> for Delhi this year, with Suman?
Most probably, btw he is Kirti Azad 's nephew or cousin.. so even if
he makes it :-))
I have appended north zone U-22/U-17 stuff in the article later....
> >> part-timer Shivakant Shukla (at least I think its him, CI doesnt make
> >
> >it is shivkant as he opens too. saurabh shukla is not playing this
> >year and he generally bats in middle order....
>
> Yes, except when I clicked on the S SHukla on CI to make sure, they took me to
> like Anand Shukla or someting :-) That must be wrong, its got to be > Shivakant -
Anand Shukla was a player in late 60s and 70s, good solid ranji
preformer, he ended up national selector back in 90s and is father of
Saurabh shukla..his brother Rakesh played test cricket in 1982... but
most i remember this clan for Rakesh shukla 's solid batting at #10
winning the ranji with unbeaten 120 run stand with Peter chasing 705
by Karnataka in under 3 hours... got to be world record for 1st class
1st innings lead after chasing that much.......
> With this kind of pitch, who knows - maybe the pitch will get slower and easier
> to bat on with time, you never know. Railways probably cant be too unhappy with
> their current situation, but they will probably want a few more runs at least.
> Khanolkar is still there at the moment. BTW, who is this new Railways player?
You are asking about Khanolkar, Sadiq!! is'nt he ex-mumbai India u-19
player or you are asking about Sidhharth verma... ex delhi and u-25
skipper and son of sahib singh verma or Madan yadav the new railways
prodigy, took 5/101 on debut ve kerela...i have no idea where he came
from...
> Yes, he must be a certainty for SAARC, probably. Or very likely, at
any rate -
> clearly the #1 contender from anyone currently not in the national side or the
> A-team (other than Salvi, who is still injured - dont know if he'll be fit in
> time for SAARC).
Assam cheated out of win!! paul takes 3 of assam 130/4 in 25 overs
bolwed in 156 minutes!!!!!
> >Chougule dropped!! that chap has
>
> I probably spoke too soon. Both Shinde and Chougule were in the last few games
> at #3 and #4, and arent in this game - but Deccan Herald at least seemed to say
> "indisposed" for Chougule yesterday after I wrote the above (though I dont
> think they said anything like that for Shinde). Seeing both of them (neither of
> whom had done very well this year) left out simultaneously I had presumed 2
> drops - but apparently it might be 1 drop and 1 indisposed.
>
Karnataka 89... so shinde and chougule wern't that bad at 3 and 4
atleast karnataka as team was scoring three figures then:-)
for karnataka....
> >
>
> Pitch might be getting easier however - apparently some bad batting on D2. Lots
> of silly shots etc. NP Singh was keeping a great line and length, and Karnataka
very very bad battingg on day 3 then :-)
>
> >Plate wise:
> >
>
> Maharashtra's batting is quite weak with Kale, they dont have *that* much good
> batting to come. The 77 allout on first morning will probably cost them the
> match.
>
It cost them just 2 points though they missed 4 by a whisker, Parida
drew with orissa 219/9...
> Still takes wickets, however. Is keeping out a pretty good leggie for MP
> already, Yogesh Golwalkar who has done well in U19s and U22s. At least
> off-spinner Amal Kokje got into the side, though.
what happened there. cricinfo did not update that..
>
> >keeper opener Ojha scored 79 in 151/3 in MP reply whose skipper is
> >confirmed to be khurasiya now!
> >
> >Services scored 212 against Goa and then dismissed Goa for 142 with
> >the navy guy Ghag making waves with 6/34...then services fought a
> >rearguard action scoring 15 runs for loss of one wicket in 16 overs!
> >the match will have a result depends on how long Yashpal singh plays
> >tommorrow...
> >
>
> Yes, Ghag missed the last game - and Fazil Mohammad got 8 in the game IIRC.
> This match Ghag came back and immediately got 6/34! Not a bad attack, that
> might be, really.
>
Gia ghagged again... Services win 4 points...
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
DiiVolunt
> >Services scored 212 against Goa and then dismissed Goa for 142 with
> >the navy guy Ghag making waves with 6/34...then services fought a
> >rearguard action scoring 15 runs for loss of one wicket in 16 overs!
> >the match will have a result depends on how long Yashpal singh plays
> >tommorrow...
> >
>
> Yes, Ghag missed the last game - and Fazil Mohammad got 8 in the game IIRC.
> This match Ghag came back and immediately got 6/34! Not a bad attack, that
> might be, really.
>
Goa Ghagged again...
> Sadiq [ Joglekar isnt playing for anyone anymore IIRC ] Yusuf
Dharamsala, November 30
Punjab (u-22) defeated Himachal Cricket team by an innings and 146
runs in the three-day match at cricket stadium here. Himachal started
poorly and were bowled out for just 73 runs yesterday.
Punjab went on to pile up a huge score of 383 for four before
declaring the innings. The captain of Punjab team S.P. Singh scored
187 runs and was supported by Bilwant Singh who scored 110 runs.
Himachal facing a deficit of 310 runs could not meet the challenge and
were bowled out for 164 in 47.2 overs. For hosts Rahul scored 52,
Sobers 39 and
Bhaskar 26. Varun Khanna claimed 5 wickets for 34 runs while Sandeep
got 3 for 43. This is second consecutive defeat for Himachal in the
championship.
!!!!!!!!!!!!Watch out Himachal has a Sobers in their ranks!!!!
Punjab U-19 team beats Haryana by seven wickets
Our Sports Reporters
Ludhiana, December 1
An inspired batting performance by the skipper Gaurav Gupta who
remained unbeaten on 52 and matching display by Rupeetinder Singh (45
n.o), helped hosts Punjab rout Haryana by seven wickets in the one-day
match of the North Zone Inter-State Cricket Tournament (U-19) at the
Punjab Agricultural University ground here today. By achieving the
target within 40 overs, Punjab lads have secured three points,
including a bonus point, taking their tally to six points.
Haryana captain Mandeep Singh decided to bat first after winning the
toss. They were restricted to a modest 157 runs in 30 overs.
Only, skipper Mandeep Singh played a sensible innings of 51 runs.
Other batsemen who could reach the double figure mark were opener
Ankit Rawat (19), Sandeep (22) and Sorabh Bali (14).
For Punjab, Naresh took three wickets.
Punjab began their reply on a sedate note with the openers Vishwas
Bhalla and Karan Goel putting 30 on the board before being separated.
Then Gaurav Gupta and Rupeetinder Singh added 88 runs for the fourth
wicket and in the process steered their team to a comfortable victory
by seven wickets.
Brief scores:
Haryana 157 all out in 30 overs (Ankit Rawat 19, Jaideep Chaudhary 5,
Mandeep Singh 51, Sandeep 22, Sunny Kucheria 6, Sourabh Bali 14 n.o;
Hardaminder 1 for 36, Bharat Sharma 2 for 33, Karan Goel 1 for 26 and
Naresh 3 for 24).
Punjab 158 for 3 in 38.1 overs (Vishwas Bhalla 13, Karan Goel 17, Uday
Kaul 13, Gaurav Gupta 52 n.o, Rupeetinder Singh 45 n.o; Vhander Pal
Singh 2 for 30 and Sunny Kurechia 1 for 14).
Delhi win
PATIALA: Part-time spinner Abhinav Bali (5 for 16) helped Delhi carve
out a comfortable 75-run victory over Himachal Pradesh played at the
YPS grounds here today.
Brief scores:
Delhi: 239 for 8 in 50 overs (Gaurav Chabbra 76, Mayank Trehan 82,
Shikhar Dhawan 18, Puneet Bisht 18, Mohinder Sharma 2 for 37, Kapoor
Singh 1 for 31, Pankaj Kumar 1 for 13).
HP: 164 all out in 45.5 overs (Ankur Bassi 54, Paras Dogra 38, Sanjay
15, Saurav Rattan 15, Abhinav Bali 5 for 16, Wilkin Victor 2 for 33,
Ankur Garg 2 for 25).
Punjab juniors pile up huge total
Our Sports Reporter
Patiala, December 1
Punjab piled up a formidable 207 for four and inched close to taking
the vital first innings lead against Haryana in a league match of the
North Zone Inter-State Cricket Tournament (U-17) played at the Dhruv
Pandove stadium here today.
For the hosts, the spotlight was on opener Sunny Sohal (60), who has
been in fine nick this season, and one-down batsman Gurkirat Singh
(60). After the visitors got rid of Ravinder Mehra cheaply, both Sunny
and Gurkirat were engaged in a 71-run partnership for the second
wicket. While flamboyant Sunny looked more assured against both the
spinners and the medium pacers, Gurkirat cut out all the frills and
batted with grit.
At the draw of stumps on the second day, Sumit Sharma was batting on a
well-made 53 while wicketkeeper batsman Sarabjit Singh was on 10. For
Haryana, wicketkeeper Vishal Goel was in tremendous nick and had a
hand in all the four dismissals.
Scores: Haryana: 1st innings: 238 all out.
Punjab: 1st innings: 207 for 4 (Sunny Sohal 60, Gurkirat Singh 60,
Sumit Sharma 53 n.o, Prem Partik 1 for 74, Deepak Chowdhury 1 for 16,
Imran Khan 1 for 26).
Punjab, Haryana settle for draw
Our Sports Reporter
Patiala, December 2
Punjab and Haryana settled for a tame draw in a league match of the
North Zone Inter-State Cricket Tournament (u-17) which concluded at
the Dhruv Pandove Stadium here today.
The hosts managed to score 348 in their first essay. The highlights of
today's play was a fine 75 by middle order batsman Sumit Sharma and
supporting knocks played by allrounders Charanjit Singh (26) and
Munish Bhatia (25) and wicketkeeper Sarabjit Singh (24).
Brief scores:
Haryana (1st innings): 238 all out.
Punjab (1st innings): 348 all out (Sumit Sharma 75, Sunny Sohal 60,
Gurkirat Singh 60, Munish Bhatia 25, Charanjit Singh 26, Sarabjit
Singh 24, Deepak Chowdhury 2 for 61, Sunny Chowdhury 2 for 07, Imran
Khan 1 for 48, Aditya Chauhan 1 for 75).
Haryana (2nd innings): 36 for no loss (Sant Kumar 27 n.o).
Punjab won a cliffhanger of a contest by registering an enthralling
four-wicket win against Delhi in a one day league match of the North
Zone Inter-State Cricket Tournament (u-19) played at the Dhruv Pandove
Stadium here today. Earlier, medium pacer V.R.V. Singh bowled a fiery
spell and rattled the top order with a four wicket burst. Only Mayank
Tehlan played with responsibility to score a sedate 61.
Scores: Delhi: 215 for 9 in 50 overs (Mayank Tehlan 61, Kuldeep Rawat
36, Wilkins Victor 36, V.R.V Singh 4 for 28, Asim Gupta 2 for 28,
Hardavinder Singh 1 for 34, Bharat Sharma 1 for 34).
this VRV of U-19 fame and Kuldeep rawat of RSC fame....
Punjab: 219 for 6 in 49.4 overs (Gaurav Gupta 71 n.o, Shiv Karan Singh
27, Bharat Sharma 30 n.o, Rupeetinder Singh 20, Uday Kaul 27, Deepak
Rai 1 for 19, Wilkins Victor 1 for 32, Ankur Garg 1 for 31).
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
Amol Cricketwallah
A travesty of a cricket match. If there is any integrity left in the
BCCI, this is a first-class match that *must* be investigated, and the
guilty brought to book. Newspapers have described it as "a humiliation
of the game of cricket" - and this was a Bengal newspaper! - and they
are IMHO totally correct.
First, the background. Assam and Bengal are both struggling this season,
and one of them might well be demoted to the 2nd division. Assam had 0
points this season, and Bengal had only 2, going into this match.
Bengal were 246 allout on first innings. Assam made 347 in reply yesterday,
a lead of 101 (and 2 points assured due to first innings lead). However,
if Assam won the match outright, they'd have 4 points - and Bengal would
be in *deep* trouble in their fight to stave off demotion to Divsion
Two, a serious humiliation for a historically strong assication that
has always dominated their neighbours out east, and have always
considered themselves a domestic power.
Bengal yesterday were 111/3 in 50 overs - only 10 runs ahead, and
struggling badly, with a negative frame of mind (it took them 40
overs to make their first 50 runs).
On the last morning, Bengal came back and got deeper into trouble,
losing their first wicket 2 overs into the day. Then there was a
partnership of 60 runs - but then a collapse set in. Bengal slid to
250 allout, 57 overs into the day. With time still left to be made
up from the previous days, the match had begun early - thus the
Bengal innings ended only 1 hour after lunch. This left Assam plenty
of time to try and make 150 to win, 46 overs in all still scheduled
to be played when they came in to bat.
Assam lost 2 early wickets and were 19/2 - then recovered and coasted
towards victory. They coasted along to 130/4 within 25 overs, only 20
runs from victory with more than *20 overs* of play left in the day.
Bengal had tried their utmost in time-delaying tactics - they had
bowled only 25 overs in 156 minutes of play, more than 2.5 hours,
that is, about 10 overs per hour. But even that had not worked, it
was only 4:13 pm now, and only 20 more were needed, and the Assam
batsmen were coasting home.
And then, at 4:13 pm, the umpires K. Murali and SV. Ramani decided
to walk off the field and suspend the game. The Assam boys asked for
the game to continue, but the umpires ran for their room. The Match Referee
came out and claimed that the reason they left the field was that they
were fearful of injury to the batsmen if the game continued - but the
batsmen had not asked for bad-light, and were in fact keen for the
game to continue (it was only 4:13 pm, and even in Calcutta it isnt
*that* dark by 4:13 presumably). When the match referree was asked
if Bengal would be penalized at all for incredible time-wasting (25
overs in 2.5 hours, after all), he said they wouldnt - because, he
said, "Eden Gardens is a big ground, so it takes a lot of time for
the ball to be brought back when it goes past the ropes" !!
One of the umpires, BTW, is K. Murali - who was manager of the Indian
side during the recently concluded tri-series ODI tournament (this
is a post which is of some value monetarily of course - and it is a
post that is given to officials/administrators on the largesse of
the President of the BCCI, one Jaggu Dalmiya. No prizes for guessing
which association he belongs to).
An utter travesty of a cricket match, making a mockery of Indian
domestic cricket. Assam has said its association will lodge a protest
with the BCCI - I'll bet it wont be handled half as promptly as the
Abhijit Kale bribery allegation was.
Thus, at the end of this game, Assam has only 2 points instead of 4 -
and are only tied with Bengal instead of leaving them trailing in
their wake. A disgusting situation.
Meanwhile, in other news,
> >
> >>Bombay vs Andhra:
> Overnight Bombay 504/6 declared on a nice flat track, and Andhra 15/0 in 14
> overs.
>
> Well, Andhra batted thru the entire day, and lost only 3 wickets - and they
> scored a grand total of 147 runs:-)
>
> At the end of D3, Andhra are 162/3, with MSK Prasad and Watekar batting. There
> is no chance of them actually getting first innings points one would think -
> that would require another 350 runs on the last day. But they can probably bat
> out the last day quite easily, and so both sides will get 0 points from this
> game.
>
Well, the first innings *did* end after all!
MSK Prasad was run out 5 overs into the last day - a big blow. But then
Andhra settled right back in to try and bat out the day, and batted
out 31 overs more without being separated.
And the breakthru was made by.. Amol Muzumdar! Bombay had turned to
part-timers in desperation, to make the break - and he did, by having
Watekar caught.
He was then quickly taken off and the proper bowlers brought back on.
And Morris did the job - he clean bowled Srinivas 5 overs later, got
RVC Prasad LBW off the very first ball, and had Shankara Rao clean
bowled 10 overs later to reduce Andhra to 8-down. Kulkarni and Bahutule
then finished it off, and Andhra were 298 allout in 169 overs of batting.
3 for Morris, 2 each for Bahutule and Kulkarni, and 1 for Malvi (1/30
in 21 overs, not a bad comeback). Bombay came back in for the last
hour and a bit and scored 25/0 for a dull draw - but for 2 points,
while Andhra got 0.
> >>
> >>Baroda vs Kerala:
> >
>
Overnight a lead of 180 for Baroda, with Kerala 95/1 going into the last
day. Baroda couldnt get a wicket for 25 overs into the final day, by
which time Kerala already was at 150/1. But then Baroda made one last
desperate push for full points, and had a chance - they reduced Kerala
to 262/7, 62 overs into the day. That meant 28 overs still to go, and
Kerala only 82 ahead - a solid chance for Baroda if they could wrap up
the tail. But allrounder Sreekumar Nair was still there, and he proved
the bugbear - he scored 86, and by the time he was out Kerala was 336/9
with only about 10 overs left in the day. Kerala declared, and both
sides agreed to a draw at that point - Baroda 2 points, Kerala 0.
>
>
> >
> >>
> >>Punjab vs Delhi:
>
Overnight Delhi 310, Punjab 385, Delhi 72/0. Thus Delhi were 3 runs
behind overnight, with 10 wickets in hand - and all the onus on them
if they wanted to make any sort of running.
But it was a very boring and inconsequential day - Delhi decided it wasnt
worth going out and trying to get points, while risking that Punjab could
add to their tally and get 4 instead of 2. Instead Delhi used the last
day for batting practice, ending at 262/5 (with Bhatia 75, thus ensuring
his spot for the next match, and Jadeja 54*, his first fifty of his
comeback season). 2 points to Punjab, 0 to Delhi - and with this
decision Delhi almost certainly bids farewell to their Ranji hopes, they
have almost no chance of reaching the semis now. They will most likely
have to battle to get points to stay out of the relegation zone.
> >>
> >>UP vs Railways:
> >
>
Ended yesterday, with an outright win for Railways.
>
> >>
> >>Gujarat vs TN:
> >
>
The Samarth Harish Shah bowl stays with TN. Gujarat were 99 behind with
4 wickets in hand overnight on first innings, but folded and trailed by
50 runs when their innings ended. TN took some batting practice for
the rest of the day, and came away with 2 points to Gujarat's 0.
> >>
> >>Hyderabad vs Karnataka:
An outright win for Hyderabad yesterday.
Thus at the end of Round Four, the table is as follows (CI's table
is wrong again):
Group A:
Bombay 4 games, 13 points
Railways 4 games, 10 points
Andhra 4 games, 6 points
Punjab 4 games, 4 points
Baroda 4 games, 4 points
UP 4 games, 2 points
Kerala 4 games, 2 points
Delhi 4 games, 1 point
Railways moves solidly into 2nd place, with Andhra still stuck on 6
points (for the past 2 rounds now). Punjab and Baroda still have a
chance, but have a lot of work to do - and need outright wins to have
a chance. Delhi is in trouble with only 1 point, and need a few good
games to get out of the relegation zone.
Group B:
Tamil Nadu 4 games, 11 points
Hyderabad 3 games, 8 points
Karnataka 4 games, 6 points
Rajasthan 3 games, 4 points
Gujarat 3 games, 4 points
Assam 3 games, 2 points
Cheats 4 games, 2 points
Hyderabad beat Karnataka badly and move solidly into 2nd place - only
a little ahead of Karnataka, but with a full game in hand. Assam is
only tied with the cheats in the relegation zone, but they do have
a game in hand - so maybe Divine Justice could still be done after all.
Fifth round next week, from the 9th. Bombay returns home to take on
Kerala, probably needing an outright victory (after 2 consecutive
draws) to make sure of a semi-final spot. Railways try to retain their
hold on 2nd spot by taking on a desperate Punjab side at home. An even
more desperate Delhi travel to Baroda, where both teams badly need
points - Delhi to get out of the relegation zone, and Baroda if they
want to have any chance whatsoever of getting to the semis again (the
least theyve done for 3 consecutive years). And UP stays home to take
on Andhra, with Andhra trying to regain 2nd spot.
In Group B Gujarat travels to Rajasthan, TN returns home to take on
Assam, and Hyderabad travels to Calcutta (Go Blues!). Karnataka has a
bye this round.
Sadiq [ who hopes both umpires get banned ] Yusuf
Amol Cricketwallah
> "Cric8wala" <cric...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20031203112905...@mb-m14.aol.com...
> > >>Hyderabad vs Karnataka:
>
> >
> > Karnataka fell for 100 and 89 in their 2 innings, and lost to their
> traditional
> > rivals by a whopping 297 runs. Theyre lucky they didnt bat first, else it
> might
> > have given Hyderabad a bonus point (and cost them a docked point as well).
> As
> > it is, despite this crushing loss, they are still in fair shape for the
> > knockouts if they can recover - they are still in a contest with
> Hyderabad, and
> > Hyderabad still has to play TN, the top team in the league. But this must
> > surely rank as Karnataka's worst Ranji loss in a long, long time - I cant
> > remember a bigger one myself.
> Dec 1996 against Kerala they were bowled out for 74 in the second innings
> which caused a spot in the SuperLeagues.
> I am sure there are others.
>
Yes, but that wasnt quite as bad a loss, really. I mean, this was a loss
by 297 runs! Iam sure Karnataka has lost by that amount before, they
used to be a very poor team in the 50s and 60s etc (though it was
"Mysore" then rather than "Karnataka"). But I cant remember a loss
by such a whopping margin in quite a long time.
> >
> >
> > Sadiq [ Srinath ought to play for them if he recovers, would help their
> side
> > greatly ] Yusuf
> Nope, it won't help. It is the batting they need.
> Other than Rowland, Arun Kumar and Bharadwaj they have no one.
>
In this match the bowlig was pretty poor too, given the conditions.
I mean, on this kind of pitch, where NP Singh gets 7/47 and Faiz
Ahmed gets 8/47, Prasad getting 3/98 is really quite poor. You need
to get wickets a lot more often than that.
More than that, though, I think Srinath would offer spirit. Just the
presence of a guy who is good enough to play internationals and do
really well at the moment is a big fillip to domestic sides. Helps
them greatly. I mean, even the occasional presence of Agarkar hugely
helps the entire Bombay team, when he shows up.
As for the batting - Arun Kumar and Bharadwaj havent done much in the
past couple fo years either, really. Bharadwaj IIRC averaged like
30s last year, and hasnt done a whole lot this year either. Lots of
reputation stuff there.
Karnataka has some ok bats who are younger - their U25 side had both
Chougule and Shinde, and both did solidly well thruout. I wouldnt
be averse to plugging them both in and letting them work it out
for themselves, without as much pressure as theyve had (partly
because Karnataka's expectations this season have been probably a
little too high). Then there is Uthappa as well - but Iam not sure
yet if he's ready to do it at fc level, a little loose still in
his strokeplay probably. You can get away with that easily at U19s,
but not so easily at fc level - especially without too much exposure
at the U25s before now.
Sadiq [ and forget those Udit Patel controversies for a while, too ] Yusuf
> Peace,
> Lenin
Cric8wala
>try their reserves... Anyway Andhra drew the match with solid batting
>down the line...
Pretty dull draw - but for a while I thought it would be 0 points each, which
would have put Railways only 1 point behind Bombay in the table. Instead Bombay
got 2 points here, and are still 3 ahead - but have now drawn 2 in a row, while
Railways have won 2 in a row.
As for Jadhav - kind of difficult for him. He would originally have gotten a
chance ahead of Thakkar, and had the opportunity to establish himself, if he
took it. But he got injured, and Thakkar established himself instead. Now with
Kambli back and with Amol now getting a century, Jadhav will have to wait. The
other option for him is if Bombay decides to actually play real batsmen in
their team - but we dont anymore, we have just allrounders. Only 5 batsmen at
the moment in this side, and no more coming either. Bahutule, Morris, Powar etc
all allrounders - and when Powar went off, the selectors picked Khanvilkar, not
a pure batsman or pure bowler. Khanvilkar is young, was Bombay U19 captain 2
years ago when Bombay U19 won the Cooch Behar Trophy. He used to bat about #5
for the side, and was also probably the 2nd best spinner of that side - bowls
offspin. From U25 results one would expect Jadhav over him as a pure batsman
(Khanvilkar has played more U19 than U25, he's younger). But he was replacing
Powar, and so was picked as 3rd spinner I suppose, and also bats (he is batting
ahead of Vinayak Samant in the order, but thats still down at #8 or whatever
for Bombay). So far he hasnt done anything great or anything bad - tight
bowling, only 2 wickets, but avg probably 20 or so so far. And batting, only 2
innings - and once not out, total about 30-odd runs. Not much of an opportunity
to date. Will get at least one more game, with Powar playing for India-A still.
>In the friendlies before the seaoson started when we had services all
>out for 30 oddd... bhatia opened in them as did puru raj in one of
>them... because of stink raised about him, Bhatia who rightly dropped
>came back by default...
Yes. I know you dont agree, but I *still* dont see how Puru made it - and I
think it was very probably nepotism. I dont have his U25 results from last
year, but am going on his U25 results from the year before last - and I just
cant see how he was even considered.
Two years ago, Puru was a nothing player at U22 level. Forget opener, he was
more of a bowler! And he was batting well down the order for Delhi U22! The
following was his record:
vs HP: 9 (batting at #8); 2/33 and 2/22
vs Punjab: 2 & 5 (batting #10); 2/97
vs J&K: 25* & 12* (batting #8); 0/28, 1/33
Those are the only 3 cards I have - but as you see, he is batting #8 and #10,
for Delhi U25! And this was less than 2 years ago. I find it stunning to think
he's shown enough to be a pure opener for a Delhi Ranji Trophy side already.
> i think delhi is now out of
>running unless they get 3 5 pointers!! let us hope they avoid
>relegation....
>
Ys, very hard to make the semis now. Three "normal" wins will only tie them
with Bombay at 13 now - and thats if Bombay gets 0 points in their next 3
games. Railways is at 10 right now, realistically they can get 2 to 4 more at
least, so even to get ahead of them Delhi will need great performances and
maybe some luck. I still think they ought ot save the relegation easily enough,
if they play properly - but theyve played less than properly a few times
lately.
>Imagine bengal and delhi in such crises...
>
Yes, well, I would have agreed yesterday - Ive always sort of liked Bengal a
bit in Ranjis. But after yesterday I think it would serve them right if they
were relegated. That was shameful.
>but
>most i remember this clan for Rakesh shukla 's solid batting at #10
>winning the ranji with unbeaten 120 run stand with Peter chasing 705
>by Karnataka in under 3 hours... got to be world record for 1st class
>1st innings lead after chasing that much.......
>
Yes, I remember that well, also remember Rakesh pretty well. Didnt realize he
was the uncle of Saurabh. Are Shivakant/Ravikant also related?
And it must be an fc record - also a record for going into a 6th day to settle
a first-innings result, of course :-) A good old Sitaram special.
>BTW, who is this new Railways player?
>
>You are asking about Khanolkar, Sadiq!! is'nt he ex-mumbai India u-19
>player or you are asking about Sidhharth verma... ex delhi and u-25
>skipper and son of sahib singh verma or Madan yadav the new railways
>prodigy, took 5/101 on debut ve kerela...i have no idea where he came
>from...
Heh. Not about Khanolkar - know him well, old Shivaji Park Gymkhana boy. Still
plays for them in Kanga League, and Police Shield etc. In fact, the Railways 11
that played their 2 Ranji finals, had not only 3 Bombayites, but 3 guys who all
play together for SPG in Kanga League - including both of SPG's openers. And
all 3 actually played the Ranji finals wearing the regulation white flannel
shirts - but with an SPG logo over the heart (ie the same shirts they wear for
SPG in the Kanga's :-) The bald DDI TV commentator, blanking on his name, was
not particularly pleased about it, nor was Gaekwad.
>> Pitch might be getting easier however - apparently some bad batting on D2.
>Lots
>> of silly shots etc. NP Singh was keeping a great line and length, and
>Karnataka
>
>very very bad battingg on day 3 then :-)
Yes, very poor indeed - basically they gave up when they saw they needed 380 on
that track. Actualy seemed to give up earlier, when bowling itself, when the
target crossed near 300 - after that NP Singh hit them around, Raju hit a four
and six etc, all enjoying themselves. The entire 4th innings for Karnataka
lasted 32 overs - and even that was more than expected, they were like 70/9
before Ganesh got them to 89.
>> Maharashtra's batting is quite weak with Kale, they dont have *that* much
>good
>> batting to come. The 77 allout on first morning will probably cost them the
>> match.
>>
>
>It cost them just 2 points though they missed 4 by a whisker, Parida
>drew with orissa 219/9...
Yes, last pair batted out 5 overs. Horrible thing for Maharashtra, would have
almost ensured them of the semis - instead they get 0 points. They should have
declared earlier - they set Orissa 330 or something, and only about 5 overs
more than 1 day. Orissa finally ended 219/9, not even close to the target.
Maharashtra could have given themselves 1 more hour (and 30-40 less runs) at
least, no problem, and then might have won.
>for MP
>> already, Yogesh Golwalkar who has done well in U19s and U22s. At least
>> off-spinner Amal Kokje got into the side, though.
>
>
>what happened there. cricinfo did not update that..
>
They did - draw, 2 points for Vidarbha. An excellent and better-than-expected
result for them against MP.
>Gia ghagged again... Services win 4 points...
Yes, 10-fer the match for Ghag. Seems a pretty good bowler, wonder why he's
never gotten a BPXI type game.
Sadiq [ Saurashtra won outright too, chasing 230 on 4th innings ] Yusuf
Srinivasan
and Debang Gandhi
I seriously wish that these Bengali rascals and the cheap toady
umpires are given their due of punishment, even though that seems more
impossible than possible.
I have always pathologically hated the Bengal team, mostly because
they are a team of exports (Arun Lal, Srikant Kalyani, Ashok Malhotra,
Rohan Gavaskar etc)..and mostly because they are owned by Jaggu
Dalmiya, which makes it easier for their players to come under focus
and selection...
Look at the players who have made it from Bengal apart from Saurav
Ganguly in the recent past: They are mostly liabilities or never
deserved selections or were past their best and common to all them
(including Ganguly) is that they are all miserable fielders:
Utpal Chatterjee, the lumbering oldie, who could have been the worst
fielder ever to play for India.
Partially Blind Saba Karim, who gave among the worst performances
(albeit due to his deformity) as our keeper in the sole test in
B'desh.
The Bungling Bangla Dasgupta, who is the worst wicketkeeper ever to
don India's wk gloves.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla who was blooded well before he reached any kind of
maturity.
Debang Gandhi, who is a disgrace to his surname...(this is in jest:).
Let this team go to Plate Hell, I pray !.
cricke...@hotmail.com (Amol Cricketwallah) wrote in message news:<a374a779.03120...@posting.google.com>...
Samarth Shah
<snip>
> And then, at 4:13 pm, the umpires K. Murali and SV. Ramani decided
> to walk off the field and suspend the game. The Assam boys asked for
> the game to continue, but the umpires ran for their room. The Match Referee
> came out and claimed that the reason they left the field was that they
> were fearful of injury to the batsmen if the game continued - but the
> batsmen had not asked for bad-light, and were in fact keen for the
> game to continue (it was only 4:13 pm, and even in Calcutta it isnt
> *that* dark by 4:13 presumably). When the match referree was asked
> if Bengal would be penalized at all for incredible time-wasting (25
> overs in 2.5 hours, after all), he said they wouldnt - because, he
> said, "Eden Gardens is a big ground, so it takes a lot of time for
> the ball to be brought back when it goes past the ropes" !!
>
> One of the umpires, BTW, is K. Murali - who was manager of the Indian
> side during the recently concluded tri-series ODI tournament (this
> is a post which is of some value monetarily of course - and it is a
> post that is given to officials/administrators on the largesse of
> the President of the BCCI, one Jaggu Dalmiya. No prizes for guessing
> which association he belongs to).
Are both of the umps from Tamil Nadu? Who was the match-referee? BTW,
K. Murali was also one of the umpires who went "unrated" by the BCCI's
ranking system by which captains rate umpires. (That is he is worse
than all the ranked umpires.) And yet is an international umpire while
several of the ranked ones are not!
-Samarth.
Cricketislife!
wrote:
>I seriously wish that these Bengali rascals and the cheap toady
>umpires are given their due of punishment, even though that seems more
>impossible than possible.
>
>I have always pathologically hated the Bengal team, mostly because
>they are a team of exports (Arun Lal, Srikant Kalyani, Ashok Malhotra,
>Rohan Gavaskar etc)..and mostly because they are owned by Jaggu
>Dalmiya, which makes it easier for their players to come under focus
>and selection
Hmmm cant understand ur anger there... Hope u get transferred to
Kolkata and say this in the Chai Addas there...
Arjun Pandit
>
> Look at the players who have made it from Bengal apart from Saurav
> Ganguly in the recent past: They are mostly liabilities or never
> deserved selections or were past their best and common to all them
> (including Ganguly) is that they are all miserable fielders:
>
> Utpal Chatterjee, the lumbering oldie, who could have been the worst
> fielder ever to play for India.
> Partially Blind Saba Karim, who gave among the worst performances
> (albeit due to his deformity) as our keeper in the sole test in
> B'desh.
> The Bungling Bangla Dasgupta, who is the worst wicketkeeper ever to
> don India's wk gloves.
> Laxmi Ratan Shukla who was blooded well before he reached any kind of
> maturity.
> Debang Gandhi, who is a disgrace to his surname...(this is in jest:).
>
> Let this team go to Plate Hell, I pray !.
Excellent post. I dont know about achievements of Bangla cricketers.
But here is a list of excellent Chennai cricketers who have played for
India and their non-debatable feats playing for India.
Venkataraghavan [mostly crap, now is becoming a crap umpire too]
Srikkanth [crap cricketer, crap commentator, crap analyst]
Robin Singh [crap cricketer, crap commentator]
Sivramankrishnan [crap cricketer, boring commentator]
S Ramesh [largely crap]
Raman [Crap]
Chandrashekar [Crap]
Thiru Kumaran [Crap]
T Shekhar [Crap]
L Balaji [Total Crap, Even Chennaites seem to have lost hope from him
which is surprising given that they are known to pimp for useless
cricketers like TES]
H Badani [Hopefully he will do better than the other crap, besides he
is not your typical CC]
*******New additions (thanks to Afzal Khan)*******
Coimbatarao Gopinath (Crap)
Kripal Singh (Crap)
Milkha Singh (Crap)
VV (Vaman) Kumar (Crap)
Seems like ZERO contribution in the last 50 years. But Chennaites give
an impression that they produce the best cricketers and go about
bashing the contributions of other states. Am I missing somebody?
Thanks
-AP
[A student of Chennai cricket]
DiiVolunt
> and Debang Gandhi
>
> I seriously wish that these Bengali rascals and the cheap toady
> umpires are given their due of punishment, even though that seems more
> impossible than possible.
> I have always pathologically hated the Bengal team, mostly because
> they are a team of exports (Arun Lal, Srikant Kalyani, Ashok Malhotra,
> Rohan Gavaskar etc)..and mostly because they are owned by Jaggu
Same here but because arun lal was delhi traitor but i liked kalyani
and malhotra who took jobs in calcutta for their families sake...
I hate bengal still for that fixed ranji final of 1989.. the damp
spots on wickets which appeared when bengal was ahead on that stupid
run quotient rule!!!
only reason i hated saurav back in 1991 was because he stayed around
to ensure karnataka disqualification in 1991 season.. remember
Karnataka 791/6 decl and bengal 576/9 then 591/9 to end match and
because of 4 overs slow rate or so equal to 652/9 decl.. Bengal
runrate 3.26 (after penalty runs) and Karnataka 3.17!!! man i hated
indian cricket then for such lousy results! and see which team
benefitted the rules in both seasons -- the Cheats!!
> Utpal Chatterjee, the lumbering oldie, who could have been the worst
> fielder ever to play for India.
> Partially Blind Saba Karim, who gave among the worst performances
> (albeit due to his deformity) as our keeper in the sole test in
> B'desh.
eh leave Chatterjee and saba out of this, they were honest and
dedicated preformers..
> Debang Gandhi, who is a disgrace to his surname...(this is in jest:).
and let's not even go there...
Assam should be immidiatley credited with 4 points instead of 2 and
bengal docked 2 for this match..... Assam pulled of a marvellous
preformance and deserved full points while Bengal should be docked 2
points....Bengal captain banned for season....Bengal bowlers (except
Paul) be banned for 2 games each...Paul be sent to Delhi....Bengal
fielders fined their miniscule match earnings...bengal manager
arrested for fraud...bengal selector's phones to be taken away and
bengal president to be jailed for life....bengalis on the rsc not
allowed to post for one day...palash sen to sing next three songs on
Brahmaputra river.....Aparna sen to direct next movie and set it in
assam... and RSc boycotts Rahul Bose's next movie... Rohan gavaskar is
also to be exiled for his bengali connections and sent to australia...
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
DiiVolunt
> all allrounders - and when Powar went off, the selectors picked Khanvilkar, not
> a pure batsman or pure bowler. Khanvilkar is young, was Bombay U19 captain 2
> years ago when Bombay U19 won the Cooch Behar Trophy. He used to bat about #5
> for the side, and was also probably the 2nd best spinner of that side - bowls
> offspin. From U25 results one would expect Jadhav over him as a pure batsman
> (Khanvilkar has played more U19 than U25, he's younger). But he was replacing
> Powar, and so was picked as 3rd spinner I suppose, and also bats (he is batting
> ahead of Vinayak Samant in the order, but thats still down at #8 or whatever
> for Bombay). So far he hasnt done anything great or anything bad - tight
> bowling, only 2 wickets, but avg probably 20 or so so far. And batting, only 2
> innings - and once not out, total about 30-odd runs. Not much of an opportunity
> to date. Will get at least one more game, with Powar playing for India-A still.
Just like to mention does anyone remember old Ranjit Khanwillkar from
mid 80s.. talented player... died very young at age of 28 only back in
1988... saw him play on DD couple of times and he represented India
U-25 against foreign teams... Just out of name recognition for young
KhanVillkar...
> >In the friendlies before the seaoson started when we had services all
> >out for 30 oddd... bhatia opened in them as did puru raj in one of
> >them... because of stink raised about him, Bhatia who rightly dropped
> >came back by default...
>
> Yes. I know you dont agree, but I *still* dont see how Puru made it - and I
> think it was very probably nepotism. I dont have his U25 results from last
> year, but am going on his U25 results from the year before last - and I just
> cant see how he was even considered.
>
> Two years ago, Puru was a nothing player at U22 level. Forget opener, he was
> more of a bowler! And he was batting well down the order for Delhi U22! The
> following was his record:
>
> vs HP: 9 (batting at #8); 2/33 and 2/22
> vs Punjab: 2 & 5 (batting #10); 2/97
> vs J&K: 25* & 12* (batting #8); 0/28, 1/33
>
> Those are the only 3 cards I have - but as you see, he is batting #8 and #10,
> for Delhi U25! And this was less than 2 years ago. I find it stunning to think
> he's shown enough to be a pure opener for a Delhi Ranji Trophy side already.
See, I agree Pururaj was a bolt from blue but he came from karnataka
or hyderabad or andhra u-22 and U-25 and not delhi ... that is
different puru singh... i may be mistaken.. but i heard puru the
opener was from from one of the southern sides not kerela or tamil
nad...maybe vidarbha...
will confirm that... i agree his appointment was fishy and could be
done by officials seeking favors with Chauhan but see delhi cricket is
in hands of Sunil Dev (who is Sheila Dixit the congress CM 's nephew
and hence also related to the Gandhis!)and Pururaj is nephew to Chetan
Chauhan, a long time BJP honcho...maybe rivalry in politics does not
extend to family favors...afterall, it was Vijay merchant to gave
chances to rival lala 's sons.. of course, Vijay merchant 's mother
used to cook special sweets not for her son but for lala whenever he
came visiting... Lala Amarnath used to toss with a coin given by rival
Vizzy who turned a huge favor 20 years later...Merchant used to hang
out with Pataudi Jr despite big differences with his father and later
between a selector and national captain...so who knows!!
In our times... Azhar and Jadeja were both accused of match fixing and
they cannot stand each other 's company to extent of captain and Vice
captain communicating via third person on playing field but several
one day international partnership records have their joint names on
it...
> > i think delhi is now out of
> >running unless they get 3 5 pointers!! let us hope they avoid
> >relegation....
> >
>
> Ys, very hard to make the semis now. Three "normal" wins will only tie them
> with Bombay at 13 now - and thats if Bombay gets 0 points in their next 3
> games. Railways is at 10 right now, realistically they can get 2 to 4 more at
> least, so even to get ahead of them Delhi will need great performances and
> maybe some luck. I still think they ought ot save the relegation easily enough,
> if they play properly - but theyve played less than properly a few times
> lately.
>
I am now only hoping to save relegation!! hope kerela nukes itself out
or UP loses big from now on...
> >Imagine bengal and delhi in such crises...
> >
>
> Yes, well, I would have agreed yesterday - Ive always sort of liked Bengal a
> bit in Ranjis. But after yesterday I think it would serve them right if they
> were relegated. That was shameful.
Bengal should be relegated forthwith.. and group 2 should be punished
for associating with begal by having both relegations from that group
only :-)
> >but
> >most i remember this clan for Rakesh shukla 's solid batting at #10
> >winning the ranji with unbeaten 120 run stand with Peter chasing 705
> >by Karnataka in under 3 hours... got to be world record for 1st class
> >1st innings lead after chasing that much.......
> >
>
> Yes, I remember that well, also remember Rakesh pretty well. Didnt realize he
> was the uncle of Saurabh. Are Shivakant/Ravikant also related?
real Brothers! I think they are twins also as they both were in same
class but one of them could be a bad student :-)
In north, generally, first cousins are called and treated as
siblings...so they can be first cousins born in the same year...but
they are definately related...dainik ujala uses term bhai for them
which also was term used for first cousins...
Shivkant was born on republic day, 1986....
another thing, Shivkant's real name is Mayank..dainik ujala listed him
as shiva shukla only at times and once as mayank shukla... which might
mean two things, he is called mayank at home (but we all know it now)
and shivakant outside or he could be an adoptee... atleast he is not
called Pappu at home:-)
> And it must be an fc record - also a record for going into a 6th day to settle
> a first-innings result, of course :-) A good old Sitaram special.
>
> >BTW, who is this new Railways player?
> >
> >You are asking about Khanolkar, Sadiq!! is'nt he ex-mumbai India u-19
> >player or you are asking about Sidhharth verma... ex delhi and u-25
> >skipper and son of sahib singh verma or Madan yadav the new railways
> >prodigy, took 5/101 on debut ve kerela...i have no idea where he came
> >from...
>
> Heh. Not about Khanolkar - know him well, old Shivaji Park Gymkhana boy. Still
> plays for them in Kanga League, and Police Shield etc. In fact, the Railways
Yeah, i was wondering sadiq slipping up on bombay guys while naming
each one one of hardanahalli boys high school XI perfectly... railways
has a good setup in the capital and unearth good guys on regular
basis... with an employee pool of 17 lakhs and can recruit all over
the country, that helps probably...
> that played their 2 Ranji finals, had not only 3 Bombayites, but 3 guys who all
> play together for SPG in Kanga League - including both of SPG's openers. And
> all 3 actually played the Ranji finals wearing the regulation white flannel
> shirts - but with an SPG logo over the heart (ie the same shirts they wear for
> SPG in the Kanga's :-) The bald DDI TV commentator, blanking on his name, was
> not particularly pleased about it, nor was Gaekwad.
>
> >> Maharashtra's batting is quite weak with Kale, they dont have *that* much
> good
> >> batting to come. The 77 allout on first morning will probably cost them the
> >> match.
> >>
> >
> >It cost them just 2 points though they missed 4 by a whisker, Parida
> >drew with orissa 219/9...
>
> Yes, last pair batted out 5 overs. Horrible thing for Maharashtra, would have
> almost ensured them of the semis - instead they get 0 points. They should have
> declared earlier - they set Orissa 330 or something, and only about 5 overs
> more than 1 day. Orissa finally ended 219/9, not even close to the target.
> Maharashtra could have given themselves 1 more hour (and 30-40 less runs) at
> least, no problem, and then might have won.
from news reports, orissa was well on way to win under 2nd wicket
stand it seems and then the deluge came and parida alone battled...
maybe a lesser target may have turned the tables...you never know..oh
btw that was east zone newspaper....
> >for MP
> >> already, Yogesh Golwalkar who has done well in U19s and U22s. At least
> >> off-spinner Amal Kokje got into the side, though.
> >
> >
> >what happened there. cricinfo did not update that..
> >
>
> They did - draw, 2 points for Vidarbha. An excellent and better-than-expected
> result for them against MP.
> >Gia ghagged again... Services win 4 points...
>
> Yes, 10-fer the match for Ghag. Seems a pretty good bowler, wonder why he's
> never gotten a BPXI type game.
he plays for services in should not be seen should not be heard league
except if your mom offers a million to a selector.....
>
> Sadiq [ Saurashtra won outright too, chasing 230 on 4th innings ] Yusuf
Cool! i like saurashtra batsmen... they do yeoman's service year after
year,,, never got a good bowler...
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
DiiVolunt
> Yes. I know you dont agree, but I *still* dont see how Puru made it - and I
> think it was very probably nepotism. I dont have his U25 results from last
> year, but am going on his U25 results from the year before last - and I just
> cant see how he was even considered.
>
> Two years ago, Puru was a nothing player at U22 level. Forget opener, he was
> more of a bowler! And he was batting well down the order for Delhi U22! The
> following was his record:
>
> vs HP: 9 (batting at #8); 2/33 and 2/22
> vs Punjab: 2 & 5 (batting #10); 2/97
> vs J&K: 25* & 12* (batting #8); 0/28, 1/33
>
> Those are the only 3 cards I have - but as you see, he is batting #8 and #10,
> for Delhi U25! And this was less than 2 years ago. I find it stunning to think
> he's shown enough to be a pure opener for a Delhi Ranji Trophy side already.
>
This Puru singh is ex stephenian (btw Siddharth Verma 's close friend)
and employed by food corporation of India and plays for Malviya Club
as off spinner along with rajiv rathore...
Pururaj singh is Central Bank employee who plays along side Bantoo
singh. he is opener but also bowls sometimes as does bantoo for that
matter... they being better players than their office colleagues...
Pururaj plays for NIIT club i think..
pururaj was in karnataka sides last couple of years back...
btw,
confirmed titles:
DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan and sports secretary Sunil Dev
as DDCA Veep Chauhan is honorary chairman of selection commmittee and
as
Secretary Sunil Dev is convenor of selection commitee..
another scorecard look at percentage if runs by this youngster...
New Delhi, November 19
Virat Kohli scored a century in the first innings and hit 95 in the
second innings as the North Zone Polly Imrigar Under-15 Cricket
Tournament match between Delhi and Haryana ended in a draw at the
Gurgaon stadium.
Scores: Delhi (1st innings): 192 all out (Virat Kohli 117, Neeraj
Bansal 21, Vijay Kharab 6 for 55). Second innings: 186 for 6 declared
(Virat Kohli 95, Karan Rai 35 n o, Pawan Bharadwaj 3 for 40).
Haryana (1st innings): 170 all out (Nitin Saini 58, Manan Sharma 3 for
26, Rushil Bhaskar 3 for 9). Second innings: 198 for 2 (Nitin Saini
89, Narender Sharma 65, Manish Dhillon 37 n o).
Delhi gained two points from the match, to take their total to 12
points from three matches.
hope their betters match the youngsters!
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
Cric8wala
>and Debang Gandhi
>
Agree entirely.
>I seriously wish that these Bengali rascals and the cheap toady
>umpires are given their due of punishment, even though that seems more
>impossible than possible.
>
Also agree.
>I have always pathologically hated the Bengal team, mostly because
>they are a team of exports (Arun Lal, Srikant Kalyani, Ashok Malhotra,
>Rohan Gavaskar etc)..and mostly because they are owned by Jaggu
>Dalmiya, which makes it easier for their players to come under focus
>and selection...
>
Dont disagree about the last part - but Ive never disliked them much as a team
myself. But they always get a pretty decent push into selection, usually, since
Dalmiya has been around - people like Prashant Vaidya were far better bowlers
earlier in their career when playing for other teams and never got any chances,
but got chances as soon as they moved to Bengal.
>Look at the players who have made it from Bengal apart from Saurav
>Ganguly in the recent past: They are mostly liabilities or never
>deserved selections or were past their best and common to all them
>(including Ganguly) is that they are all miserable fielders:
>
Disagree.
>Utpal Chatterjee, the lumbering oldie, who could have been the worst
>fielder ever to play for India.
Totally disagree - Utpal wasnt that bad a fielder at all, IMHO probably better
than Raju (who he replaced for 2 ODIs). And Utpal was a bowler who was
ill-treated by captain Azhar, rather than receiving favoured treatment (maybe
not unrelated to the fact that he was in direct competition with Raju, who was
Azhar's Hyderabadi team-mate).
And Utpal was certainly not too old when he was picked - he was not even 30,
and he was fit enough so that he is actually *still* playing and doing very
well even now, at age 39. His longevity has already proved much better than
Raju, who doesnt do half as well as Utpal.
For example, even 2 years ago at age 37 - Utpal had 39 wickets in 7 Ranji games
at 18.08. Just by those figures alone he might still have been among the top
couple of LAS in the country - maybe even the best. If he had been treated
better he could have been a long-serving ODI bowler IMHO - he was a nice tight
LAS who would have done a pretty good job (and did a pretty good job in the 2
ODIs he got).
>Partially Blind Saba Karim, who gave among the worst performances
>(albeit due to his deformity) as our keeper in the sole test in
>B'desh.
Dont disagree. Saba Karim was a fine player, a fair keeper and a very good
batsman - today he would be a certainty in the Indian side if he was in his
younger days. And he was ill-treated for a while (when he was with Bihar) - he
finally moved to Bengal and got a few chances in ODIs, which were quite
deserved. But his test chance came too late and he was injured and gone by then
- he had injured himself in an ODI for India, and then been out all summer,
only playing some league cricket in England. He was clearly not quite the same
after his eye injury. But in Ganguly's first test as captain he went back to
what he knew - and Saba Karim clearly couldnt handle it by then. He was dropped
immediately after, and retired from first-class cricket after 2/3 more games,
as he realized his eye wouldnt let him be a good keeper anymore.
>The Bungling Bangla Dasgupta, who is the worst wicketkeeper ever to
>don India's wk gloves.
Dont disagree - was plucked out of nowhere to go to RSA in the first place. But
then kept his job by batting well.
>Laxmi Ratan Shukla who was blooded well before he reached any kind of
>maturity.
They ruined Shukla by picking him too early. He was a fine U19 prospect, who
was considered a terrific future allrounder prospect for India. The Bengal
selectors pushed him too early and he was nowhere near ready - and he went
backwards after that. Now he's having a decent season this year - but its by
batting aggressively at #5 or so, and by being 3rd seamer for Bengal (who
hardly takes any wickets even in Ranji cricket). There is little chance of his
being a bowling-allrounder for India like there was early on.
>Debang Gandhi, who is a disgrace to his surname...(this is in jest:).
>
Should never have been picked in teh first place. Even for the tests in India.
He was picked for India-A on the basis of a fine season, and then had a couple
good games there and got into the national side (at the same time as Ramesh).
But he was probably not as good as Haldipur, who had been better for 2 seasons
straight as opener (and was also younger).
>Let this team go to Plate Hell, I pray !.
After yesterday, I dont disagree. Before that I was sort of neutral, I do like
Assam a bit but Bengal has always been a pretty decent side too. Unless
yesterday's game is rectified, I hope justice is done and they end up behind
Assam.
Sadiq [ Bengal papers have been very harsh on the game too ] Yusuf
Cric8wala
Dont know, didnt think of it actually. But the names do sound like they both
could be, no?
> Who was the match-referee? BTW,
Shirish Buch (though I hear he sometimes spells his name Shishar). His
explanation for why Bengal took so long to bowl their overs was a true classic.
BTW, Ghavri is the coach of Bengal, and he dashed away without talking to the
press. However that story also goes back a couple days.
Apparently Ghavri had been very free and frank with the press - used to stand
around chatting with people every day of the Ranjis after the games ended, and
was very willing to share his opinions, how some guys were playing horribly,
others were playing good etc, some deserved to be dropped etc. With the way
Bengal has been playing, he was mostly very critical of a few players.
The story leaked a couple days ago (end of D3 IIRC) that 2 Bengal players were
to be dropped for the next match - not sure if it came from Ghavri, but still.
Anyway, after that, some CAB official came out (on D3) and told the press that
Ghavri had basically been "gagged" - that the coach would not be talking to the
journos every day anymore, but would only talk to them the day before a Ranji
game, and after it ended, and theyd be formal things (not standingn around
chatting apparently). Ghavri himself didnt come out and tell them this, some
CAB official did - and Ghavri was gagged on D3 itself :-)
>K. Murali was also one of the umpires who went "unrated" by the BCCI's
>ranking system by which captains rate umpires. (That is he is worse
>than all the ranked umpires.) And yet is an international umpire while
>several of the ranked ones are not!
>
Heh. Didnt realize he was one of the unrated ones. Mustbe pretty bad - in
Indian cricket (where nothing is a secret) apparently the really bad umpires
arent given a rating at all by captains, who know that if the umpire finds out,
their team will get horrible decisions the next time around. So the worst ones
are never rated at all - Murali must be really terrible.
But he does seem to be very connected, I mean, he got to be manager of the
Indian team during the Tri-Series just concluded! Only really connected guys
get that sort of gig, surely.
Sadiq [ must be Dalmiya's man in the umpiring community ] Yusuf
>-Samarth.
>
>
>
>
>
>
Cric8wala
>mid 80s.. talented player... died very young at age of 28 only back in
>1988... saw him play on DD couple of times and he represented India
>U-25 against foreign teams... Just out of name recognition for young
>KhanVillkar...
>
>
Yes, remember him quite well. Didnt actually remember that he died so early
though.
This young guy with Bombay is Omkar Khanvilkar, or Onkar. And it also appears
that he might not play for Bombay again after all - talk is that Ramesh Powar
and Munaf Patel may both be rested from India-A's test to be played in Bombay
(at the Brabourne - how stupid is that, to rest home guys in the home test?).
If that happens, apparently BCA will ask permission of the Board for them to
leave the India-A side (since this is the last test), and play for Bombay
against Kerala starting a couple days later. That is also a home match,
probably at Wankhede - so they'll have to travel all of 10 minutes walk to play
instead of sitting in the pavilion. Hopefully the BCCI has the sense to say
yes.
>See, I agree Pururaj was a bolt from blue but he came from karnataka
>or hyderabad or andhra u-22 and U-25 and not delhi ... that is
>different puru singh...
Ok, that puts a whole different complexion on things, had no idea this was a
different Puru Singh. Will look up this one sometime, then :-)
>> Yes, I remember that well, also remember Rakesh pretty well. Didnt realize
>he
>> was the uncle of Saurabh. Are Shivakant/Ravikant also related?
>
>real Brothers! I think they are twins also as they both were in same
>class but one of them could be a bad student :-)
>
No, no, I know that :-) I always knew Ravikant and Shivakant were brothers (or
at least always thought they were). My question was, since you brought up
Rakesh and Anand Shukla, if both of these guys were related to *those*
Shukla's. Didnt know if they were - but sinceyou mentioned the 2 older Shukla's
in this context, wondered if they were uncles or something of these kids too.
> railways
>has a good setup in the capital and unearth good guys on regular
>basis... with an employee pool of 17 lakhs and can recruit all over
>the country, that helps probably...
>
Probably - they also pick people from all over, especially Bombay lately, and
also have not been giving NOC's to people to play for other teams for the past
couple of years. That has caused a lot of trouble around the country (poor
Santosh Saxena lost his job and his spot and had all kinds of trouble for a
season or two because of it). Right now they have both Saxena and Kunal More
from Bombay on the bench IIRC, and havent been playing them - I think Saxena is
better than Zakir Hussain and should be their #2 paceman myself, and Kunal More
is really a pretty terrific bat (and useful LAS too), we could use him in our
Ranji side if Railways doesnt want him.
BTW, my question was about Madan Yadav - didnt know of him at all in the past,
and then he showed up in the Ranjis for Railways. Do you konw anything about
him at all?
Also, not sure I know anything about UP's Ali Hamid - also a new name IIRC. And
UP is stacked with good young players who arent making it right now anyway.
Sadiq [ verygood young U19 class in UP last couple years ] Yusuf
Shishir Pathak
<snip>
> Shirish Buch (though I hear he sometimes spells his name Shishar).
LOL. It's about time you guys learnt to get these things right:
Shishir: Name of a season (one out of six, other five being Sharad, Vasant,
Grishm, Hemant and Varsha) in the Indian calendar that roughly coincides
with autumn in the Gregorian calendar.
Sisir: Same as Shishir above, except that the Rascal Bengalis (Copyright
2003, Diivolunt and Cric8wallah) as usual manage to get their spellings all
screwed up.
Shishar: Full-time poster to rsc, and part-time cricket administrator.
Ex-ICC chief, and currently the chieftain of world's most corrupt cricket
board.
Shirish: [I used to know the meaning, but escapes me now. Can some chappie
fill this up?]
Sachin: Someone who carries the burden of expectations of 1 billion corrupt
people. Also means 'Flat Track Bully'.
HTH,
Autumn Reader
<snip>
Srinivasan
The discussion above was as to how owing (Purportedly) to Dalmiya
ruling the roost over Indian Cricket Administration, cricketers in
Bengal have got a sort of a short cut kind of route to get into focus
and into the minds of selection, besides the fact that their zone is
the weakest in Indian domestic cricket.
My Post included only those players who have made it into the Indian
team only during the past decade and wasn't in any way indictive of
the state of Bengal's contribution to cricket as a whole for a
umpteenly long time (which seems to be your frame of reference).
Within the past 10 years, there have been certain players selected to
play for India,and other than Saurav Ganguly,the others didn't
actually deserve to be selected, either at the time of their selection
(Saba Karim and L.R.Shukla) or not at all (Utpal Chatterjee, Deep
Dasgupta[now]) and even Saurav Ganguly for the England Tour.
Plus the presence of a Mumbaiite, Rohan Gavaskar,who has indisputably
made it into India reckoning *only*(stress) because of playing for
Bengal..(he couldn't have made it to the Mumbai team initially and he
took the above mentioned easy route.
Now shifting the focus to cricketers from Tamil Nadu, your brilliant
analysis says about you for itself..By no means was Venkatraghavan a
crap cricketer nor a crap umpire,..yet..the fact that he has been the
best cricketer from the TN stables, indicts a lack of world class
quality yet to have played for TN,I can admit that..But...There have
been a few handful performers who though have not set the Yarra River
on Fire, have of course been major contributors..in Srikkanth, Ramesh
and Hemang Badani(already). And they have always justified their
selection and though it is a point of debate if they were
discriminated against by selectors, they certainly were not blue eyed
boys ever..which is the case with Bengal and their association the
past decade..
Also looking at some records of players, anyone with a modicum of
cricketing knowledge can say that there has been a positive
discrimination against certain cricketers..the ones that come to mind
early are S.Sharath, AG Ram Singh and Robin Singh,early into his
career.
Keep up with your analysis and study of other states/teams in India
too,you would find that there is a lot of crap around everywhere
except for maybe Mumbai and of late Karnataka..
--A Genuine follower with a better repertoire of Indian cricketing
knowledge than Shri Pandit.
Samarth Shah
<snip>
>
> Just like to mention does anyone remember old Ranjit Khanwillkar from
> mid 80s.. talented player... died very young at age of 28 only back in
> 1988... saw him play on DD couple of times and he represented India
> U-25 against foreign teams... Just out of name recognition for young
> KhanVillkar...
Yeah, remember Khanvilkar. He played in that famous U25 game of 84-5
alongside Azharuddin, Srikkanth, Shastri (c), S. Viswanath, Maninder,
L. Siva, C. Sharma, R. Madhavan, etc., etc. Now that you mention it, I
also recall he died very early.
-Samarth.
Samarth Shah
> >Just like to mention does anyone remember old Ranjit Khanwillkar from
> >mid 80s.. talented player... died very young at age of 28 only back in
> >1988... saw him play on DD couple of times and he represented India
> >U-25 against foreign teams... Just out of name recognition for young
> >KhanVillkar...
> >
> >
>
> Yes, remember him quite well. Didnt actually remember that he died so early
> though.
>
> This young guy with Bombay is Omkar Khanvilkar, or Onkar. And it also appears
> that he might not play for Bombay again after all - talk is that Ramesh Powar
BTW, didn't Ranjit Khanvilkar play for Maharashtra?
-Samarth.
Samarth Shah
> >Are both of the umps from Tamil Nadu?
>
> Dont know, didnt think of it actually. But the names do sound like they both
> could be, no?
It's possible and even likely, of course, but the *-sounding theory
(tm?) is a dangerous one as has been proven repeatedly on RSC, no? :-)
The more famous Murali K. in Indian cricket is not affiliated with the
TNCA after all. :-) You said "no prizes for guessing" where the umps
were from, so I thought you knew for sure.
-Samarth.
h r i p a t h i k a m a t h @hotmail.com Shripathi Kamath
"Samarth Shah" <arb...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:41031dcf.0312...@posting.google.com...
I remember him playing for Karnataka. He was one of the centurions in that
two 700+innings match--the Delhi-Karnataka Ranji final in the early 80s.
--
Shripathi Kamath
Srinivasan
> and malhotra who took jobs in calcutta for their families sake...
> I hate bengal still for that fixed ranji final of 1989.. the damp
> spots on wickets which appeared when bengal was ahead on that stupid
> run quotient rule!!!
> only reason i hated saurav back in 1991 was because he stayed around
> to ensure karnataka disqualification in 1991 season.. remember
> Karnataka 791/6 decl and bengal 576/9 then 591/9 to end match and
> because of 4 overs slow rate or so equal to 652/9 decl.. Bengal
> runrate 3.26 (after penalty runs) and Karnataka 3.17!!! man i hated
> indian cricket then for such lousy results! and see which team
> benefitted the rules in both seasons -- the Cheats!!
Ahh.!..I think I remember that game too..I was in Calcutta at that
time and this game was covered heavily in the Telegraph and
Statesman...IIRC,Kirmani was Karnataka's captain in this game...and
there was really a bad feeling after this game.
> > Utpal Chatterjee, the lumbering oldie, who could have been the worst
> > fielder ever to play for India.
> > Partially Blind Saba Karim, who gave among the worst performances
> > (albeit due to his deformity) as our keeper in the sole test in
> > B'desh.
>
> eh leave Chatterjee and saba out of this, they were honest and
> dedicated preformers..
Now, I just over-reacted vis-a-vis Utpal and Karim, I guess..As Sadiq
mentioned,I remember Karim performing manfully for Bihar,but never
being in any sort of contention before he did the "chaalu thing" of
transferring to Bengal...(Subroto Banerjee also played for Bihar
initially,IIRC)...
But I still remember UChaterjee's bungling with the ball in the field
and his visible slow pace on the field in one game that I saw him
play..( think itwas Ind vs NZ).
> Assam should be immidiatley credited with 4 points instead of 2 and
> bengal docked 2 for this match..... Assam pulled of a marvellous
> preformance and deserved full points while Bengal should be docked 2
> points....Bengal captain banned for season....Bengal bowlers (except
> Paul) be banned for 2 games each...Paul be sent to Delhi....Bengal
> fielders fined their miniscule match earnings...bengal manager
> arrested for fraud...bengal selector's phones to be taken away and
> bengal president to be jailed for life....bengalis on the rsc not
> allowed to post for one day...palash sen to sing next three songs on
> Brahmaputra river.....Aparna sen to direct next movie and set it in
> assam... and RSc boycotts Rahul Bose's next movie... Rohan gavaskar is
> also to be exiled for his bengali connections and sent to australia...
>
Telegraph reported today that CAB was condemning the umpires for the
shoddy way the match was concluded yesterday affirming that the
incident had brought disrepute for their association.....or were they
just trying to find scapegoats?
Yesterday some Assam cricketer was also quoted as saying that the
Assamese players (and the imports...tells you the level of East Zone
Cricket).. were running around the boundary line to pick the ball and
throw it back into the playground, because the Bengal cricketers were
making a rather tiring charade of that activity.
This incident is,I guess, the biggest controversial episode in the
Ranjis after the "Pitch Digging" episode in the TN vs Delhi game not
long ago.
>
> regards
> Pranshu B Saxena
Ambrish Sundaram
Shripathi Kamath wrote:
> "Samarth Shah" <arb...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:41031dcf.0312...@posting.google.com...
>
>>>>mid 80s.. talented player... died very young at age of 28 only back in
>>>>1988... saw him play on DD couple of times and he represented India
>>>>U-25 against foreign teams... Just out of name recognition for young
>>>>KhanVillkar...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>Yes, remember him quite well. Didnt actually remember that he died so
>
> early
>
>>>though.
>>>
>>>This young guy with Bombay is Omkar Khanvilkar, or Onkar. And it also
>
> appears
>
>>>that he might not play for Bombay again after all - talk is that Ramesh
>
> Powar
>
>>BTW, didn't Ranjit Khanvilkar play for Maharashtra?
>>
>
>
>
> I remember him playing for Karnataka. He was one of the centurions in that
> two 700+innings match--the Delhi-Karnataka Ranji final in the early 80s.
>
Khanvilkar played for Karnataka early on in his career and for Railways
later in his career. Was a decent all-rounder, who bowled medium-pace
and batted in the middle-order.
He died in a train accident when he was only 28.
Ambrish
Cric8wala
>TNCA after all. :-)
Ah, but he is heritage-wise, no? He just moved to Delhi when he was young (and
thus stayed an LAS and became a decent LAS - if he had stayed in TN presumably
he would have started batting at #3 by now and given up bowling mostly :-)
>You said "no prizes for guessing" where the umps
>were from, so I thought you knew for sure.
>
Nono. I said K.Murali was appointed to the manager's post of the Indian side -
which is a post of some monetary value. And people are appointed to those kinds
of posts on the largesse of the President of the BCCI, one Jaggu Dalmiya. And
no prizes for guessing which association *he* is from :-) That is, the very
same one tha got the benefit of the umpire's decisions here.
BTW, the CAB committee met yesterday and condemned the actions of the umpires
to end the game, and said it brought their association into disrepute. But they
didnt offer to punish their own captain for his timewasting (we should have the
same 1 match ban that Ganguly might get in domestic cricket too), nor did they
offer to concede the game and give up the 4 points that they would have lost.
They also requested Jaggu Dalmiya to conduct an inquiry into the reason for the
poor performance of the Bengal Ranji team this season to date :-)
Sadiq [ Assam should be handed 4 points, still ] Yusuf
>-Samarth.
Arjun Pandit
>
> analysis says about you for itself..By no means was Venkatraghavan a
> crap cricketer nor a crap umpire,..yet..the fact that he has been the
> best cricketer from the TN stables, indicts a lack of world class
> quality yet to have played for TN,I can admit that..But...There have
> been a few handful performers who though have not set the Yarra River
> on Fire, have of course been major contributors..in Srikkanth, Ramesh
> and Hemang Badani(already).
FYI ... Contribution of Ganguly to Indian cricket >>> Sum total of all
the names you mention. Not many will disagree. So before you bash
cricketers from some other state, look in your own backyard.
>
> --A Genuine follower with a better repertoire of Indian cricketing
> knowledge than Shri Pandit.
>
Good for you.
Hawkeye
"Arjun Pandit" <arjunpa...@indya.com> wrote in message
news:246f4bf5.0312...@posting.google.com...
>
> FYI ... Contribution of Ganguly to Indian cricket >>> Sum total of all
> the names you mention. Not many will disagree. So before you bash
> cricketers from some other state, look in your own backyard.
Pot. kettle. black
DiiVolunt
> "Cric8wala" <cric...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20031205174338...@mb-m01.aol.com...
>
> <snip>
>
> > Shirish Buch (though I hear he sometimes spells his name Shishar).
>
> LOL. It's about time you guys learnt to get these things right:
>
> Shishir: Name of a season (one out of six, other five being Sharad, Vasant,
> Grishm, Hemant and Varsha) in the Indian calendar that roughly coincides
> with autumn in the Gregorian calendar.
Shishir is used in poetry and sometimes denotes a colder sharad! with
sharad denoting a warmer shishir and vice versa... it was invented by
a maithili poet i believe or maybe that was hemant...
anyway shishir in nalanda transaltion is frosty season or a frosty
"rascal bengali" poster :-)
> Sisir: Same as Shishir above, except that the Rascal Bengalis (Copyright
> 2003, Diivolunt and Cric8wallah) as usual manage to get their spellings all
> screwed up.
>
> Shirish: [I used to know the meaning, but escapes me now. Can some chappie
> fill this up?]
It is either a tree which blooms in rains or a flower which blooms in
rain and if we do viccheda ---> Shir-Isha (head of gods) or Lord
Shiva..
> Sachin: Someone who carries the burden of expectations of 1 billion corrupt
> people. Also means 'Flat Track Bully'.
Lord Indra!
Regards
Pranshu ["Persian Cyrus...iranian father of agriculture...107th name
of Vishnu...Sanskrit "The High One:-)"] Behari ["one who dwells in"
or "one who experiences"]
Saxena ["The king of shakas" or poetically "Chief of Indras" or "Indra
among kings" or "The Chief unorthodox believer:-)" ]
DiiVolunt
> No, no, I know that :-) I always knew Ravikant and Shivakant were brothers (or
> at least always thought they were). My question was, since you brought up
> Rakesh and Anand Shukla, if both of these guys were related to *those*
> Shukla's. Didnt know if they were - but sinceyou mentioned the 2 older Shukla's
> in this context, wondered if they were uncles or something of these kids too.
Nope! i brought older shuklas up in context with saurabh shukla..
though SK and RK has either a dad or an uncle in UP cricket
administration....
> Probably - they also pick people from all over, especially Bombay lately, and
> also have not been giving NOC's to people to play for other teams for the past
> couple of years. That has caused a lot of trouble around the country (poor
> Santosh Saxena lost his job and his spot and had all kinds of trouble for a
> season or two because of it). Right now they have both Saxena and Kunal More
> from Bombay on the bench IIRC, and havent been playing them - I think Saxena is
> better than Zakir Hussain and should be their #2 paceman myself, and Kunal More
> is really a pretty terrific bat (and useful LAS too), we could use him in our
> Ranji side if Railways doesnt want him.
>
> BTW, my question was about Madan Yadav - didnt know of him at all in the past,
> and then he showed up in the Ranjis for Railways. Do you konw anything about
> him at all?
Madan Yadav was in MP Ranji side for last year, did'nt get a chance to
play...
noting that both Madan and yadav are common names... they could be 2
different people...remember puru and pururaj:-)
> Also, not sure I know anything about UP's Ali Hamid - also a new name IIRC. And
> UP is stacked with good young players who arent making it right now anyway.
>
Ali hamid was best UP bowler in u-16 finals win in 1997 vs Gujarat...
He started batting up the order in u-19s.. UP lost u-19 schools to
delhi with Hamid then topscoring in that match.. and in few one day
matches he has played for UP, he did not bowl...he is now sub.. and
seeing that chap has 4 first class catches with no first class
matches, looks like agood fielder.
He is employed by Sahara along with zaidi, khoda, kumaran et all.
He is not among the UP junior five named by Vengsarakar:
they were and i am quoting Vengsarkar
" The likes of Piyush Chawla, Avinash Kumar, Ali Murtuza, Ravikant and
Shivkant Shukla who are India material are likely to go out of the
game the same way as their predecessors did. These boys, talent wise,
are above all. They are mentally tougher too, and willing to work
hard. But the danger here is that, unfortunately, the guidance they
get in their own state may not be as progressive as they would get in
other cities.
They are part of the National Cricket Academy and are well looked
after till they are there. But once they go back, there is hardly
anybody worthy enough to guide them and monitor their progress. "
regards
PRanshu B [ very good young U19 class in UP this year too..]
> Sadiq [ verygood young U19 class in UP last couple years ] Yusuf
p.s. and all are Khandkar 's boys and paid 50,000 for the spot:-)
Amol Cricketwallah
> > also have not been giving NOC's to people to play for other teams for the past
> > couple of years. That has caused a lot of trouble around the country (poor
> > Santosh Saxena lost his job and his spot and had all kinds of trouble for a
> > season or two because of it). Right now they have both Saxena and Kunal More
> > from Bombay on the bench IIRC, and havent been playing them - I think Saxena is
> > better than Zakir Hussain and should be their #2 paceman myself, and Kunal More
> > is really a pretty terrific bat (and useful LAS too), we could use him in our
> > Ranji side if Railways doesnt want him.
> >
> > BTW, my question was about Madan Yadav - didnt know of him at all in the past,
> > and then he showed up in the Ranjis for Railways. Do you konw anything about
> > him at all?
>
> Madan Yadav was in MP Ranji side for last year, did'nt get a chance to
> play...
> noting that both Madan and yadav are common names... they could be 2
> different people...remember puru and pururaj:-)
>
Ah ok, hadnt seen him for Railways before at all.
BTW, are you sure Pururaj was in Karnataka U25, and 2/3 years ago? Because
I looked, and couldnt find him. I dont have the cards for Karnataka from
last year, but both 2 and 3 years ago he wasnt around. Most of the
Karnataka U25 names from 2 years ago were pretty familiar anyway
(Shyam Ponappa, Rowland, Shinde captain, Chougule, Raghu, Aiyappa,
Lazarus, Devraj Patil, Mahesh etc). Three years ago most of those guys
were also there, plus Dharmichand, Chaitra , Rajashekhar Shanbal etc.
How old is Pururaj supposed to be, anyway?
> > Also, not sure I know anything about UP's Ali Hamid - also a new name IIRC. And
> > UP is stacked with good young players who arent making it right now anyway.
> >
>
> Ali hamid was best UP bowler in u-16 finals win in 1997 vs Gujarat...
> He started batting up the order in u-19s.. UP lost u-19 schools to
> delhi with Hamid then topscoring in that match.. and in few one day
> matches he has played for UP, he did not bowl...he is now sub.. and
> seeing that chap has 4 first class catches with no first class
> matches, looks like agood fielder.
>
> He is employed by Sahara along with zaidi, khoda, kumaran et all.
>
Ah ok. So he is early 20s now, then? The name was sort of familiar,
but UP has a lot of decent U16/U19 guys who just fade away really
quickly (at least some of it has to do with being older than said
age-group too, though :-)
> He is not among the UP junior five named by Vengsarakar:
>
> they were and i am quoting Vengsarkar
>
> " The likes of Piyush Chawla, Avinash Kumar, Ali Murtuza, Ravikant and
> Shivkant Shukla who are India material are likely to go out of the
> game the same way as their predecessors did. These boys, talent wise,
> are above all. They are mentally tougher too, and willing to work
> hard. But the danger here is that, unfortunately, the guidance they
> get in their own state may not be as progressive as they would get in
> other cities.
>
> They are part of the National Cricket Academy and are well looked
> after till they are there. But once they go back, there is hardly
> anybody worthy enough to guide them and monitor their progress. "
>
Pretty accurate IMHO. Also a few others, he probably didnt bother to
mention them all, since it was probably just a casual thing. For
example he didnt even list Praveen Gupta or Suresh Raina among the
above - both doing quite well at the Ranji level at age 18 already.
What UP probably needs to do is hire an old Bombay-hand away :-) Just
like MP did for so long with Patil, and then with Pandit - both of
those guys helped that side immeasurably, especially the young guys,
who are carrying on since. Same with Vidarbha - they hired away
Rajput as player/coach for a while, and he greatly helped their young
players, bringing them over to play and be coached in Bombay in
camps etc. Vidarbha is doing much better now than it used to, much
more competitive - they handled their 2nd Ranji game last week really
well, and are a pretty young side.
UP could probably use that sort of thing for a couple of years - might
even help them not be so up-and-down in the Ranjis. If they do and
fix their consistency thing, they could be a real Ranji power within
a year or two - and once they manage that, things will take care of
themselves from that point onwards. Once you get 2/3 Ranji semis or
so in a row, everything pretty much takes care of itself, the
experience comes automatically etc.
> regards
>
> PRanshu B [ very good young U19 class in UP this year too..]
>
Well, I havent seen their U19 stuff this year - hardly seen any U19
stuff this year. But a lot of the players above are qualified for
U19 still, after doing well the last couple of years. Raina, the
Shukla's, Gupta, Piyush Chawla etc are all still U19. As are
RP Singh etc for pace.
Sadiq [ we beat UP U19 by 1 run in the semis, 2 years ago :-) ] Yusuf
P.S. Onkar Khanvilkar was the captain of that Bombay U19 side, which
went on the win the title, 2 years ago. It was a first-innings battle,
and Bombay U19 scored 316 and UP were allout at the end of the match
for 315. A lot of the players mentioned above were playing - Shivakant,
Raina, Avinash Yadav, Pravin Gupta etc.
Amol Cricketwallah
>
>
> play for India,and other than Saurav Ganguly,the others didn't
> actually deserve to be selected, either at the time of their selection
> (Saba Karim and L.R.Shukla) or not at all (Utpal Chatterjee, Deep
> Dasgupta[now]) and even Saurav Ganguly for the England Tour.
>
First, they havent been the only ones - there have been a few players
selected who didnt deserve it on domestic performance. Quite a few.
And most of them are not from Bengal anyway. (Note people like
Parthiv Patel, who made it without even playing a Ranji game. Or
Yohannan - picked on looks, not performance. Even Thiru Kumaran
etc didnt have long records of great performances before they were
picked).
Also, I disagree with a lot of the above. Saba Karim was in contention
before anyone else - he was India's #2 keeper as far back as 1989, on
the tour of WI. And then he vanished entirely. He came back in
contention late - but he came back for ODIs, went to RSA with Tendulkar's
side in 1997. And he did very well in ODIs there, he showed quite a
lot with the bat. He was even in the ODI side in 1999/2000 - thats
how he got injured, he got hit by a Kumble ball in an ODI game.
His injury (while playing for India) was pretty much the last cricket
India played, before a few months break - and then Ganguly led India
in the test match in Bangladesh. Saba Karim wasnt a total out of the
blue pick there - only he had not played fc cricket or anything to
prove he was back from injury (but basically nobody had played fc
cricket, because the Bdesh game was at the start of the season, prior
to the Ranji's starting). It is just that they shoudl nto have picked
Karim because they should have made him prove he was fit post-injury -
but then India doesnt have a huge tradition of that either (both Zaheer
and Nehra were picked for the Indian tour of RSA a year ago coming
back from injuries, and without ever playing an fc game to prove
fitness in India prior to their selections).
Uptal Chatterjee - on what basis do you think he didnt deserve to be
picked? He had produced hugely in the Ranjis, time and again - for
a long time he was always among the top bowlers in the Ranji Trophy.
He once took a 7/70-odd in a Ranji finals against Bombay (this was
in 1994 IIRC, only a year or so before he was picked). He was picked
for the Challengers, and comprehensively outperformed Raju head to
head, right before the ODI team was selected to Sharjah - and thats
when he was picked for that Sharjah squad ahead of Raju. And he
actually bowled very well in Sharjah too, but was ill-treated by
the captain Azhar, and dropped immediately afterwards for basically
no reason.
Shukla - should not have been picked that early, was picked way too
early (another Indian tradition). But he was clearly a huge U19
prospect, Srikkant (the U19 manager) had talked of him as possibly
a Kapil-type player in the future. And he scored an amazing century
in the Wills Trophy when pushed up to open the batting - a very fast
century. That put him in contention for the selectors (though it
obviously shouldnt have), and he was picked for tour matches against
Pakistan.
Against Pakistan, he played for India-A with Ganesh. Their respective
figures were: Shukla 2/89 and 4/38; Ganesh 2/67 and 4/78. Then Shukla
played for BPXI against Pakistan, along with Mohanty. And their
respective figures were: Shukla 3/55 and 1/32; Mohanty 2/32 and 1/23.
Thus Shukla, while promoted too early, was given a couple of 3-day games
against the visiting Pakistanis - and did as well at least as the
other "veteran contenders" who were considered. (Of course, the bowler
who *should* have been picked at this time was still Kuruvilla, who had
taken a 4-fer in a test match only a few months earlier. But he was
not even being considered for tour matches anymore for some reason).
And Agarkar was injured. So, when the chance came to pick pacemen for
a test in Sri Lanka for example, the selectors chose Shukla and Nehra
(who had even less performances, hadnt been picked for either of the
3-dayers against Pakistan for example).
> Plus the presence of a Mumbaiite, Rohan Gavaskar,who has indisputably
> made it into India reckoning *only*(stress) because of playing for
> Bengal..(he couldn't have made it to the Mumbai team initially and he
> took the above mentioned easy route.
>
So what? Amre did the same thing - couldnt make the Bombay side, went
off to Railways, and made his way into the Indian national side. And
promptly scored a test century debut in RSA against Donald and company.
Zaheer too couldnt break into the Bombay side when he was young, and
chose to move to Baroda to find an easier route - and within a year
and a few months he was playing international cricket for India.
Rohan hasnt made it into Indian contention merely because he is a
Bengal player - he has also been a *good* player for Bengal, and done
quite well. And he has now scored 4 centuries at India-A level, which
is far better than a lot of other contenders have done - so at the
moment he probably deserves to be in contention more than most.
> Now shifting the focus to cricketers from Tamil Nadu, your brilliant
> analysis says about you for itself..By no means was Venkatraghavan a
> crap cricketer nor a crap umpire,..yet..the fact that he has been the
> best cricketer from the TN stables, indicts a lack of world class
> quality yet to have played for TN,I can admit that..But...There have
> been a few handful performers who though have not set the Yarra River
> on Fire, have of course been major contributors..in Srikkanth, Ramesh
> and Hemang Badani(already). And they have always justified their
> selection and though it is a point of debate if they were
> discriminated against by selectors, they certainly were not blue eyed
> boys ever..which is the case with Bengal and their association the
> past decade..
>
Always justified their selection is a bit of a stretch, surely? If
one can say that Bengal cricketers have not justified their selections,
surely one cant say *that* much better of the TN ones listed above
either. Ganguly is a whole different ballgame - he has done better than
anyone listed above, so he is in a different league. But if you want
to look at Bengal cricketers over the years - people like Dilip Doshi
et al have probably bigger contributions than Srikkant/Ramesh/Badani
IMHO. Srikkant, after all, got about 40 tests and had 2 centuries
and averaged under 30 - was someone like Arun Lal a whole lot worse?
> Also looking at some records of players, anyone with a modicum of
> cricketing knowledge can say that there has been a positive
> discrimination against certain cricketers..the ones that come to mind
> early are S.Sharath, AG Ram Singh and Robin Singh,early into his
> career.
>
Debatable about the "positive discrimination" bit, at the very least.
I think Sharath was a heck of a player, and should have gotten more
India-A chances - but when they were both contenders in their younger
days, IMHO there is little doubt that Amol Muzumdar put up stronger
performances, and he never got that many India-A type chances either.
There was quite a bit of competition - VVSL, Dravid, Ganguly, then
Amre, Paranjpe, Muzumdar, Sharath etc.
I wouldnt agree either with the suggestion that AG Ram Singh was
discriminated against. He was a fine player, but the spot he would
have wanted was already owned by Vinoo Mankad - and I doubt if AGRS
himself would ever have claimed to be a better cricketer. Sage
critics considered Vinoo to be the finest LAS in the world of his
time - and probably the best allrounder as well. It would be a stretch
to claim AGRS could have done similar things at international level,
even if he had gotten the opportunity.
And as for Robin Singh - he is much more from our time, so I *know*
that in my opinion he was never discriminated against either :-) He
was never a good enough bowler to play for India anyway - and his
batting was never good enough to be among the best batsmen in the
country. His only hope was as allrounder for the ODI side - but in
his younger days India had Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar,
Ravi Shastri et al. At least 3 of the above were good enough to play
for India as pure pacemen alone - and also qualified as allrounders
due to their batting ability. There was absolutely no need to
select another medium-pacer who was not good enough as a pure bowler,
simply because he could bat a bit - there was no need to try and
lengthen the tail in that way, because the tail was more than long
enough as it is. When Kapil Dev retired and Chetan Sharma fell out
of favour (despite being young enough) and Manoj Prabhakar was on
his last legs, and India had Srinath and Prasad etc (who didnt possess
the same batting skills as Prabhakar/Kapil/Chetan), only then was
a need felt to have a bits-and-pieces guy who could bowl a few overs
and also contribute with the bat - and when that need was felt,
Robin got his callup.
> Keep up with your analysis and study of other states/teams in India
> too,you would find that there is a lot of crap around everywhere
> except for maybe Mumbai and of late Karnataka..
>
And Delhi too, if you consider Ranji sides - the players might be
more from Punjab than Delhi, but they played for Delhi after all
(MAmarnath, SAmarnath, BBedi etc). Even currently Delhi had 3 players
in this Indian XI (and also had 2 players who did pretty well in the
recently concluded India-A series).
> --A Genuine follower with a better repertoire of Indian cricketing
> knowledge than Shri Pandit.
>
>
> > Excellent post. I dont know about achievements of Bangla cricketers.
Arun Lal, Pankaj and Pranob Roy, Shute and Subroto Bannerjee, Dilip Doshi,
Saba Karim, Probir Sen, Ambar Roy etc. Prior to Ganguly, a relatively
ordinary list but with a few pretty decent contributors (Doshi,
Pankajda especially).
> > But here is a list of excellent Chennai cricketers who have played for
> > India and their non-debatable feats playing for India.
> >
> >
> > *******New additions (thanks to Afzal Khan)*******
> > Coimbatarao Gopinath (Crap)
> > Kripal Singh (Crap)
> > Milkha Singh (Crap)
> > VV (Vaman) Kumar (Crap)
> >
There are many others - Gopalan, Ramaswami etc in the old days, Bharat
Reddy, Venkatramana etc (who went unmentioned) in the later days. There
have almost always been TN players in contention for India, right
from the start, going back to 1936. Sort of like Baroda in a way,
which has also almost always had some sort of contender or the other
around the national side.
Sadiq [ 2 Baroda, 2 TN on the current squad ] Yusuf
MB_newsgroup
>>Same here but because arun lal was delhi traitor but i liked kalyani
>>and malhotra who took jobs in calcutta for their families sake...
>>I hate bengal still for that fixed ranji final of 1989.. the damp
>>spots on wickets which appeared when bengal was ahead on that stupid
>>run quotient rule!!!
>>only reason i hated saurav back in 1991 was because he stayed around
>>to ensure karnataka disqualification in 1991 season.. remember
>>Karnataka 791/6 decl and bengal 576/9 then 591/9 to end match and
>>because of 4 overs slow rate or so equal to 652/9 decl.. Bengal
>>runrate 3.26 (after penalty runs) and Karnataka 3.17!!! man i hated
>>indian cricket then for such lousy results! and see which team
>>benefitted the rules in both seasons -- the Cheats!!
>
<snipped>
It wasn't Saurav who stayed around to ensure Karnataka's
disqualification. It was his elder brother Snehasish. It was one of the
gutsiest innings I have ever SEEN. Snehasish played with a injured left
leg for most of the innings and defended against three future India
bowlers who left their mark in international cricket.
viz:
Srinath 46 11 98 4
Prasad 40 5 119 3
Kumble 59 8 215 2
Mainak
MB_newsgroup
> Ahh..Thanks for your biting sarcasm and the excellent riposte..
>
> The discussion above was as to how owing (Purportedly) to Dalmiya
> ruling the roost over Indian Cricket Administration, cricketers in
> Bengal have got a sort of a short cut kind of route to get into focus
> and into the minds of selection, besides the fact that their zone is
> the weakest in Indian domestic cricket.
>
> My Post included only those players who have made it into the Indian
> team only during the past decade and wasn't in any way indictive of
> the state of Bengal's contribution to cricket as a whole for a
> umpteenly long time (which seems to be your frame of reference).
>
> Within the past 10 years, there have been certain players selected to
> play for India,and other than Saurav Ganguly,the others didn't
> actually deserve to be selected, either at the time of their selection
> (Saba Karim and L.R.Shukla) or not at all (Utpal Chatterjee, Deep
> Dasgupta[now]) and even Saurav Ganguly for the England Tour.
>
> Plus the presence of a Mumbaiite, Rohan Gavaskar,who has indisputably
> made it into India reckoning *only*(stress) because of playing for
> Bengal..(he couldn't have made it to the Mumbai team initially and he
> took the above mentioned easy route.
>
<snipped>
BTW you missed another player from Bengal. Remember Saradindu Mukherjee
who took a hatrick in his debut against Hyd in Ranji Semis 1989-90.
Played 3 ODI during Asia Cup 1990-91 and got rid of someone named
Aravinda deSilva twice.
Sadiq can you please tell what happened to this guy ? Though 1st divn.
cricketers from Calcutta don't hold him in high esteem. I remember
people talking about his attitude problem.
Mainak
Parag Kale
NORTH INDIANS . YOU SICK ANTI INDIAN TAMILS HAVE LONG DIRTIED MUMBAI
AND NORTH INDIA . AND YOU TALK ABT BENGAL WHICH IS ONE OF THE CLASS
STATES OF INDIA ...WHICH DOES NOT HAVE BLACKIES LIKE YOU ... WE
INDIANS ARE ALL PROUD OF BENGAL AND ITS CRICKET AND EVERYTHING ...YOU
LTTE DOG GO AND GET YOUR MOM SCREWED BY A NIGGER ... JUST SHUT THE
FUCK UP AND NEVER SPEAK AGAINST NORTH INDIAN STATES . AND GET YOUR
TAMIL BREED OUT OF MUMBAI AND LIVE IN A GUTTER WORTH FOR YOU.
sriniv...@rediffmail.com (Srinivasan) wrote in message news:<fc2aea36.03120...@posting.google.com>...
> Shame..!.Shame..!.. Fie be upon the likes of Dalmiya, Murali, Ramani
> and Debang Gandhi
>
> I seriously wish that these Bengali rascals and the cheap toady
> umpires are given their due of punishment, even though that seems more
> impossible than possible.
>
> I have always pathologically hated the Bengal team, mostly because
> they are a team of exports (Arun Lal, Srikant Kalyani, Ashok Malhotra,
> Rohan Gavaskar etc)..and mostly because they are owned by Jaggu
> Dalmiya, which makes it easier for their players to come under focus
> and selection...
>
> Look at the players who have made it from Bengal apart from Saurav
> Ganguly in the recent past: They are mostly liabilities or never
> deserved selections or were past their best and common to all them
> (including Ganguly) is that they are all miserable fielders:
>
> Utpal Chatterjee, the lumbering oldie, who could have been the worst
> fielder ever to play for India.
> Partially Blind Saba Karim, who gave among the worst performances
> (albeit due to his deformity) as our keeper in the sole test in
> B'desh.
> The Bungling Bangla Dasgupta, who is the worst wicketkeeper ever to
> don India's wk gloves.
> Laxmi Ratan Shukla who was blooded well before he reached any kind of
> maturity.
> Debang Gandhi, who is a disgrace to his surname...(this is in jest:).
>
> Let this team go to Plate Hell, I pray !.
>
> cricke...@hotmail.com (Amol Cricketwallah) wrote in message news:<a374a779.03120...@posting.google.com>...
> > Bengal vs Assam:
> >
> > A travesty of a cricket match. If there is any integrity left in the
> > BCCI, this is a first-class match that *must* be investigated, and the
> > guilty brought to book. Newspapers have described it as "a humiliation
> > of the game of cricket" - and this was a Bengal newspaper! - and they
> > are IMHO totally correct.
> >
> > First, the background. Assam and Bengal are both struggling this season,
> > and one of them might well be demoted to the 2nd division. Assam had 0
> > points this season, and Bengal had only 2, going into this match.
> >
> > Bengal were 246 allout on first innings. Assam made 347 in reply yesterday,
> > a lead of 101 (and 2 points assured due to first innings lead). However,
> > if Assam won the match outright, they'd have 4 points - and Bengal would
> > be in *deep* trouble in their fight to stave off demotion to Divsion
> > Two, a serious humiliation for a historically strong assication that
> > has always dominated their neighbours out east, and have always
> > considered themselves a domestic power.
> >
> > Bengal yesterday were 111/3 in 50 overs - only 10 runs ahead, and
> > struggling badly, with a negative frame of mind (it took them 40
> > overs to make their first 50 runs).
> >
> > On the last morning, Bengal came back and got deeper into trouble,
> > losing their first wicket 2 overs into the day. Then there was a
> > partnership of 60 runs - but then a collapse set in. Bengal slid to
> > 250 allout, 57 overs into the day. With time still left to be made
> > up from the previous days, the match had begun early - thus the
> > Bengal innings ended only 1 hour after lunch. This left Assam plenty
> > of time to try and make 150 to win, 46 overs in all still scheduled
> > to be played when they came in to bat.
> >
> > Assam lost 2 early wickets and were 19/2 - then recovered and coasted
> > towards victory. They coasted along to 130/4 within 25 overs, only 20
> > runs from victory with more than *20 overs* of play left in the day.
> > Bengal had tried their utmost in time-delaying tactics - they had
> > bowled only 25 overs in 156 minutes of play, more than 2.5 hours,
> > that is, about 10 overs per hour. But even that had not worked, it
> > was only 4:13 pm now, and only 20 more were needed, and the Assam
> > batsmen were coasting home.
> >
> > And then, at 4:13 pm, the umpires K. Murali and SV. Ramani decided
> > to walk off the field and suspend the game. The Assam boys asked for
> > the game to continue, but the umpires ran for their room. The Match Referee
> > came out and claimed that the reason they left the field was that they
> > were fearful of injury to the batsmen if the game continued - but the
> > batsmen had not asked for bad-light, and were in fact keen for the
> > game to continue (it was only 4:13 pm, and even in Calcutta it isnt
> > *that* dark by 4:13 presumably). When the match referree was asked
> > if Bengal would be penalized at all for incredible time-wasting (25
> > overs in 2.5 hours, after all), he said they wouldnt - because, he
> > said, "Eden Gardens is a big ground, so it takes a lot of time for
> > the ball to be brought back when it goes past the ropes" !!
> >
> > One of the umpires, BTW, is K. Murali - who was manager of the Indian
> > side during the recently concluded tri-series ODI tournament (this
> > is a post which is of some value monetarily of course - and it is a
> > post that is given to officials/administrators on the largesse of
> > the President of the BCCI, one Jaggu Dalmiya. No prizes for guessing
> > which association he belongs to).
> >
> > An utter travesty of a cricket match, making a mockery of Indian
> > domestic cricket. Assam has said its association will lodge a protest
> > with the BCCI - I'll bet it wont be handled half as promptly as the
> > Abhijit Kale bribery allegation was.
> >
> > Thus, at the end of this game, Assam has only 2 points instead of 4 -
> > and are only tied with Bengal instead of leaving them trailing in
> > their wake. A disgusting situation.
DiiVolunt
chance to
> > play...
> > noting that both Madan and yadav are common names... they could be 2
> > different people...remember puru and pururaj:-)
> >
>
> Ah ok, hadnt seen him for Railways before at all.
He did not got to play though he was in playing 16 and not just 28 1st
cut selection, he was in 14 against Goa...
> BTW, are you sure Pururaj was in Karnataka U25, and 2/3 years ago? Because
> I looked, and couldnt find him. I dont have the cards for Karnataka from
> last year, but both 2 and 3 years ago he wasnt around. Most of the
> Karnataka U25 names from 2 years ago were pretty familiar anyway
> (Shyam Ponappa, Rowland, Shinde captain, Chougule, Raghu, Aiyappa,
> Lazarus, Devraj Patil, Mahesh etc). Three years ago most of those guys
> were also there, plus Dharmichand, Chaitra , Rajashekhar Shanbal etc.
> How old is Pururaj supposed to be, anyway?
Puru Raj singh Rathore, nephew to Chetan Chauhan was born 27 december
1979...
he represented his birth state MP in Schools in u-16 in 1994-95...
then in 1998-99 he joined Karnataka u-19 squad...
1st match: scored 54 and 25 (shinde 24, barrington 54 & 6 ) vs
hyderabad...
batted #3
2nd match: opened 2 vs Kerela, shinde 22 , barrington 59
3rd match: opened 7 vs andhra shinde 70, barrington 104
4rth match: opened 6 vs TN, shinde 71, Barrington 39
he is employed by central bank for atleast one year (2002 cards)....
also he got selected last year and nobodysaid anything as he could not
play last year as qual period was going on then.
Sareen started his campaign against the star kids (which by the way
first focussed on Rushiel Bhaskar Pillai and Manan Ajay sharma in
U-15, one kid got 7 wickets and other scored a ton so that fell flat,
sareen then tried to get Jadeja via jaitley 's connection, that
fizzled... he had nothing and could not really attack madan viz a viz
Kunal esp. with respect madan has in the zone... he chose Chauhan..
now i found that Chauhan and sunil dev are close and so attacking
chauhan is attacking sunil dev and that helps Dalmiya... Sareen is
focussing to take over DDCA... bedi, maninder and Manoj Prabhakar are
the strange bedfellows supporting him and now it seems BC KHanna has
joined them...),
Anyway, Sareen used press and HT or times got a quote from the
karnataka coach saying that Pururaj was not good enough for karnataka
and that he batted at #7 and did not score much (which is part untrue
as he batted high but did not score many runs)...
From tribune dated 24th november:
"After the addition of 16 more runs to the total, the other opener,
Puru Raj Singh, too was back in the pavilion. Puru Raj Singh, who has
shifted turf from Karnataka to Delhi, was consolidating his position
when one from J P Yadav kept low trapped him in front."
Delhi selectors are:
Kirti Azad, Anil Jain, Sunil Khanna, Surender Khanna and Venkat
Sundaram
along with manager Vinayak and convener Dev, Chairman Chauhan and
coach Madan lal..
also btw Amit Suman cannot play for Delhi... he applied for transfer
to Haryana and was accepted there last year only.. he sat out the year
change and can play for haryana this year...
as for some comments that bengal side has foreigners:
delhi has sarandeep (ex Punjab), Gambhir (ex junior Punjab),
Sanghvi (ex railways), Manhas (ex- J&K), Jadeja (half gujju half
kerelite playing for harayana and J&K), pururaj singh (ex jr
karnataka) in their ranks...
UP did so... back in 1953, they hired literally an old hand in CK
Nayudu :-)
vizzy, the only UP player to play for india till Gopal sharma came
along suddenly became generous in old age revived Lala 's career and
hired CK, both his bete noirs from 1930s...
> UP could probably use that sort of thing for a couple of years - might
> even help them not be so up-and-down in the Ranjis. If they do and
> fix their consistency thing, they could be a real Ranji power within
> a year or two - and once they manage that, things will take care of
> themselves from that point onwards. Once you get 2/3 Ranji semis or
> so in a row, everything pretty much takes care of itself, the
> experience comes automatically etc.
1999-2000: UP lost in quarters...after taking 1st innings lead
1998-99: dominated central zone...rain ruined all matches could not
qualify..
hearbreaking 1 wicket to get to ensure qualification as rains came
pouring and tears from zaidi ...
1997-98: Sadiq would remember this match, defeated Mumbai in semis...
1994-95: Lost semis to Bombay (winners)
1992-93: Lost semis to Maharashtra... jedhee
1991-92: lost quarters to TN (finalists)
1990-91: lost quarters to Haryana (winners)
1989-90: lost quarters to Baroda after taking 1st innings lead
1988-89: lost quarters to Bombay ....
1987-88: lost quarters to TN (winners)
1985-86: lost quarters to TN on spin of coin
1984-85: lost quarters to Delhi (finalists)
1983-84: lost quarters to baroda
Outside central zone they generally lost the first match they
played... only times they started proceeding was in 1990s when they
made three semi finals...
and in these last 9 years, they have won 2-3 u-19s and u-16s....
they probably need a professional!
> Well, I havent seen their U19 stuff this year - hardly seen any U19
> stuff this year. But a lot of the players above are qualified for
> U19 still, after doing well the last couple of years. Raina, the
> Shukla's, Gupta, Piyush Chawla etc are all still U19. As are
> RP Singh etc for pace.
>
>
> Sadiq [ we beat UP U19 by 1 run in the semis, 2 years ago :-) ] Yusuf
>
> P.S. Onkar Khanvilkar was the captain of that Bombay U19 side, which
> went on the win the title, 2 years ago. It was a first-innings battle,
> and Bombay U19 scored 316 and UP were allout at the end of the match
> for 315. A lot of the players mentioned above were playing - Shivakant,
> Raina, Avinash Yadav, Pravin Gupta etc.
>
actually, for some time now U-16 and U-19 sides are getting blurred!!
Punjab juniors have been doing well this year,, delhi is losing in all
age levels this year...
regards
Pranshu B [ who is secretly glad that A lost in 3 days giving time for
certain duo to take a train for Baroda)
Aditya Basrur
"Parag Kale" <parag_k...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dc02db98.03120...@posting.google.com...
<snip usual worthless trash>
Welcome back, Shridhar. But honestly, isn't maintaining "Ram Jaane", "Parag
Kale" and "Anonymous" at the same time a bit of a stretch?
Good job, anyway.
Aditya
Ramakrishnan G
"MB_newsgroup" <mbiswa...@ucsd.edu> wrote >
>
> <snipped>
> It wasn't Saurav who stayed around to ensure Karnataka's
> disqualification. It was his elder brother Snehasish. It was one of the
> gutsiest innings I have ever SEEN. Snehasish played with a injured left
> leg for most of the innings and defended against three future India
> bowlers who left their mark in international cricket.
Not an injured leg. It was a broken leg. Makes the effort really creditable.
Amol Cricketwallah
previous 2 rounds (all making it to their teams, because India-A lost to
SL-A within 3 days of the 4 day game; else Bombay would have had a big
edge, with only its 2 players showing up for a game 10 minutes away
after being in the reserves for the final test, while everyone else
was still depleted :-)
Bombay vs Kerala:
Another seam-friendly pitch at the Wankhede. Kerala batted first, and
were 2/1 in 6 overs of bowling! Munaf Patel returned to the Bombay
side, and Bombay stuck with Usman Malvi as their 2nd paceman, ahead of
the Swapnil Hazare's and Rajesh Verma's of the world (the 2 changes
were Munaf for Nilesh Kulkarni, and Ramesh Powar for Onkar Khanvilkar).
For the first time in his 3-match career (IIRC), Usman Malvi produced
the goods right from the start, and took 3 of the first 4 wickets to
fall. He got the first wicket, then Kerala recovered to 48/1 before
Munaf chipped in with the 2nd wicket. Then Usman picked up 2 in a
hurry, Hemant Kumar and Oasis (probably Kerala's 2 best middle-order
guys) and Kerala were 60/4. Munaf came back to get Nair and Somasundar
(who had opened and was still there, top-scorer with 48). Kerala were
97/6, but fought back a little thru their lower-order. Finally Ramesh
Powar and Bahutule finished it off, and Kerala were 165 allout only
45 minutes before stumps. Munaf 3/45 in 19 overs, Malvi 3/33 in 19
overs, Ramesh Powar 3/27 in 18 overs and Bahutule 1/36 in 16 overs.
Bombay lost Vinayak Mane for a duck in the first over of the innings,
caught behind. Captain Bahutule took the responsibility however, coming
in at #3 (sort of a night-watchman-ish role), and Bombay played out
time cautiously, ending at 15/1 in 7 overs. There seems to be a fair
degree of help for the seamers, so Yohannan and company will have
their chance tomorrow morning. They will have expert advise on how to
exploit the early-morning Wankhede track at least - their coach this
season is Abey Kuruvilla, who knows a thing or two about bowling in
those conditions.
UP vs Andhra:
A wet pitch meant a late start, but UP won the toss and batted anyway
against 2nd placed Andhra. They struggled at the beginning too, sliding
to 33/3 (and 42/3 by lunch). Kaif failed again - came in at #3 and
was caught behind off the paceman for 4 (23/2). After lunch, Rizwan
Shamshad fell right away, and UP were in deep trouble at 43/4.
That was when Gyanendra Pandey joined Suresh Raina, and UP ground out
a fight-back. Young Raina is one of these immovable figures, who seems
to bat for ever - here he batted out almost 4-and-a-half hours, and
was 66* at the end of it all (having come in at 23/2). At the other
end Pandey was a little more enterprising, but played his typical
innings-recovering hand - he ended the day 75* in under 4 hours of
batting. And UP had fought back, recovering from 43/4 to 179/4 in
68 overs by the close.
(BTW, the next man in is S.Shukla. Again Iam not *certain* who it is.
I presume its Shivakant - but the link in the scorecard takes you to
"Anurag Shukla", a 20-year old offie. Besides UP in their U19 ranks
also had a decent player named Sarthak Shukla a year or two ago, so
that is another possibility).
Railways vs Punjab:
Railways are joined 2nd with Andhra at the moment, and must be hoping
UP can do them a favour while they themselvs pick up more points in
this round, to take sole position of 2nd spot. They made an excellent
start at home - won the toss and batted. And after losing their first
wicket at 18, Bangar and TP Singh put on 200 at almost 4/over. Bangar
made a 4-hour 79, and Tejinder was his usual aggressive self, eventually
blasting 168 in 207 balls with 21 fours and 3 sixes (quite a talent, is
Tejinder Pal Singh - an aggressive batsman who has been batting #3 for
the past couple of seasons, and a more than useful left-arm-spinner.
Hasnt quite done justice to his talent, but is beginning to - might be
someone to watch for the selectors at least with ODIs in mind).
Finally the 2nd new ball claimed both TP Singh and Yere Goud in the
last over of the day, to bring Punjab some relief - but Railways still
ended the first day in a quite happy position, at 311/4. One wicket
each for Gagandeep, Sodhi, Uniyal and Navdeep - but 3 catches went
down during the day, 2 of them supposedly off Uniyal.
Delhi vs Baroda:
The India-A players returned for Delhi, and it made a difference right
away. Delhi were put in, but Bhatia and Gambhir put on 96 - before
Bhatia fell for 49 and Gambhir for 52. Dahiya batted at #3 and fell
for 16, but Manhas was 49* and Jadeja 41* at the end of the day, as
Delhi ended at a pretty comfortable 233/3. In the last match Dahiya
was hurt and Varun Kumar played at keeper - and had scored a nice 50.
Well, Delhi has aparently decided to keep him there, playing as a pure
batsman now. Thus Varun Kumar and Pradeep Chawla are yet to bat, before
the tail (and Salil Oberoi, who had opened the innings with some degree
of success, was left on the sidelines). Delhi's bowling is much stronger
for this game as well - they have Bhandari, Gill, Sarandeep and Abhishek
Sharma. Baroda left out centurion Rishikesh Parab for Connor Williams,
and Rajesh Pawar for Valmick Buck.
TN vs Assam:
Assam won the toss and put TN in - and used their TN-emigrants to good
effect (Assam has 3 of them this year). Gautam Dutta got the first
breakthru, but then former TN U25 skipper Satish, who had never claimed
a first-class wicket in his entire life, came on with his part-time
medium-paced offerings, and promptly claimed 3/33 in 9 overs! And a
couple of big wickets there too - Sriram (continuing off his poor India-A
run) for 19 and Badrinath for 1. TN reached 144/6 mostly due to young
Dinesh Kaarthik's 71, but then recovered very well from there with their
strong lower-order. Vidyut hit 53 and Ramkumar 73, and TN ended the day
at a quite comfortable 291/9 (despite losing 2 wickets in the last 5
balls of the day).
A fair day for both the returning emigrants - Satish with the best
bowling day of his career (obviously, since its the only wicket-taking
day of his career to date :-), with the abovementioned 3/33. And
Raghuram with 2/39 in 12 overs.
Bengal vs Hyderabad:
Another home game for Bengal, and this time they bowled first after
Hyderabad chose to bat. And Bengal had a fine day with the ball (and,
shockingly, the light apparently didnt get too poor to play in at
4:13 pm with 20 overs left in the day - in fact, Bengal somehow managed
to bowl 93 overs in the day this time around :-)
A spin-friendly track at the Eden this time - which suits Bengal quite
welll usually (and will not suit Hyderabad very well, since Venkatapathy
Raju was indisposed and had to drop out of the final XI). Hyderabad lost
wickets with a great deal of regularity all day long, and ended at 223/7.
Young tyro Rayudu on his return from India-A was given a lesson by the
veteran Utpal Chatterjee - clean bowled for 30, after hitting 5 fours
in an hour of batting. Shivaji Yadav got 45, and wicketkeeper Ibrahim
Khaleel was 50* at the end of the day.
For Bengal Chatterjee finally returned to form, on a helpful pitch -
he ended the day with 35 overs, 5/44 (his 30th 5-fer in Ranji Trophy
cricket). Offspinner Lahiri picked up 1 wicket as well, and paceman
Paul who has been having such a wonderful season found his claws drawn
on a pitch that didnt help, and ended 1/48 in 18 overs.
Rajasthan vs Gujarat:
Rajasthan ended the day at 246/8 after being put in - a quite happy
state of affairs, probably, since the KL Saini pitch has been a hugely
helpful pitch for pacemen all season long so far. It was difficult here
on the first day as well - Rajasthan at one stage were 91/5. But
opener Vineet Saxena ground out an 80 in almost 5 hours, and new
skipper Rahul Kanwat (who took over on the morning of the match, when
previous skipper Krishnakumar apparently stepped down on the morning
of the game in a quite dramatic gesture) hit 65, and the two put on
a very valuable 94 to restructure the innings. At the end of the
day 246/8 is pretty satisfactory for Rajasthan.
For Gujarat pacemen Lalit Patel and Trivedi had 2 wickets each, and
third seamer Shyamal Bhatt had 3. Gujarat has apparently dropped opener
Luv Pawar, and must be missing the other opener Akash Christian thru
injury or something (they couldnt have dropped him, since he had a
century a match ago). Young Bhavik Thakkar makes his Ranji debut.
In the plate, Services really might have the best unheralded pace
attack for a Ranji side around. They are now opening with Surendra
Ghag, and new-boy Fazil Mohammad (who was supposedly a big prospect
in Kerala, but never got to play for them). After doing well 2
matches in a row (Fazil 5-fer the first game, Ghag 5-fer the
2nd game), they struck early against Saurasthra yesterday too,
reducing them to 42/5! But they had little support, so Saurasthra
recoverd to 189/6 by the end of the day.
Sadiq [ a fair few low-scoring games in progress ] Yusuf
DiiVolunt
> previous 2 rounds (all making it to their teams, because India-A lost to
> SL-A within 3 days of the 4 day game; else Bombay would have had a big
> edge, with only its 2 players showing up for a game 10 minutes away
> after being in the reserves for the final test, while everyone else
> was still depleted :-)
I am firm believer in the great conspiracy of life... we lost to lanka
to facilitate Karthik 's flight arrangements to australia prior to
test 2...delhi send an SOS to Gambhir and Bhandari as did prob Bengal
to gavaskar, orissa to dass, UP to Kaif.. only badani represents a
team with no current problems...all our A level bats are from teams
struggling to bat a day in domestic competitition....no wonder they
went for a 50 over innings...damn fine preformance by bowlers
anyway...mishra was disappointing... he seemed ripe to replace kumble
last year and now!...
with flight of Karthik to Australia...and India A squad announcements
and here i take a bow... I told you Manhas will Make the grade he
did... maybe delhi delibrately lost couple of matches to domestic
opponents to "fix" the squad and get the skipper in:-)...
As of now Delhi has following players in national or A contention
which also leads to national colors:
Chopra, Gambhir, Sehwag, Manhas, Nehra, Bhandari, Sarandeep, leaving
Dahiya home to mind the store... and if we add Bangar and Karthik... 9
players with houses in Shiela dixit's duchy and look at Chandigarh 's
constribution of
Dinesh Mongia, Yuvraj singh, Gurgaon 's ratra, we have a 12 from
National Capital region... (in case you wonder Harbhajan does not
count)....why are they holding the tournament in Kolkata.. hold it in
delhi... save the hotel bills for Indian side :-)....
Mumbai the indian domestic power has paltry SRT, Agarkar, Bahutule and
Patel in the ranks!
7 from a side which is struggling to avoid domestic relegation and a
double ton by Jadeja to boot... I am really happy... when Delhi
dominated the 80s we never had this big a chunk of national colors...
only time we saw so many players from a failing domestic side was in
1997 (remember NSW came 5th out of 6 states and certain karnataka did
not qualify for the superleague maybe because the guys were
missing!..even then NSW got the one day trophy pura cup?..)
pity about Jaffer though!... he misses out...Bangar and Mongia make
welcome returns...with karthik being picked for random search as i
write... maybe Mishra or Powar is back in A team as replacement...
Muzumdar and Kambli maintained their rehabitilating runs in the
squad... with batting clicking on... Mumbai is now odds on favorite
for retaining Ranji...
Prasanth Chandran had 2 1st class wkts before this match... his next 2
were internationals Jaffer and Bahutule and he took 3 more to put
Mumbai is some spot of bother which required Kambli's patient hand at
the helm...
even then... Chandran should be proud of this spell... Kapil said 3
kerela kids were good pace prospects... one was tinu, second was
Sachin nair.. was chandran the third of that or kerela has dug out a
fourth one..
> UP vs Andhra:
> A wet pitch meant a late start, but UP won the toss and batted anyway
> against 2nd placed Andhra. They struggled at the beginning too, sliding
> to 33/3 (and 42/3 by lunch). Kaif failed again - came in at #3 and
> was caught behind off the paceman for 4 (23/2). After lunch, Rizwan
> Shamshad fell right away, and UP were in deep trouble at 43/4.
>
> That was when Gyanendra Pandey joined Suresh Raina, and UP ground out
> a fight-back. Young Raina is one of these immovable figures, who seems
> to bat for ever - here he batted out almost 4-and-a-half hours, and
> was 66* at the end of it all (having come in at 23/2). At the other
> end Pandey was a little more enterprising, but played his typical
> innings-recovering hand - he ended the day 75* in under 4 hours of
> batting. And UP had fought back, recovering from 43/4 to 179/4 in
> 68 overs by the close.
> (BTW, the next man in is S.Shukla. Again Iam not *certain* who it is.
> I presume its Shivakant - but the link in the scorecard takes you to
> "Anurag Shukla", a 20-year old offie. Besides UP in their U19 ranks
> also had a decent player named Sarthak Shukla a year or two ago, so
> that is another possibility).
should be Shivkant only.. btw did Asif, older brother of saif and kaof
also play ranji for UP that makes all 3 brothers in cricket... asif
works like their dad for railways while saif and kaif explore for bat
oil literally (ONGC)...
Raina completed his ton and Pandey scored 97 with 5 sixes... UP still
only tottalled 267.. they seem adequate now as Andhra collpased to
4/33 to Zaidi and ended day at 112/5....Young Gyaneshwar rao (ex india
junior player) is 55*. a third of his 1st class runs....
> Railways vs Punjab:
> Railways are joined 2nd with Andhra at the moment, and must be hoping
> UP can do them a favour while they themselvs pick up more points in
> this round, to take sole position of 2nd spot. They made an excellent
> start at home - won the toss and batted. And after losing their first
> wicket at 18, Bangar and TP Singh put on 200 at almost 4/over. Bangar
> made a 4-hour 79, and Tejinder was his usual aggressive self, eventually
> blasting 168 in 207 balls with 21 fours and 3 sixes (quite a talent, is
> Tejinder Pal Singh - an aggressive batsman who has been batting #3 for
> the past couple of seasons, and a more than useful left-arm-spinner.
> Hasnt quite done justice to his talent, but is beginning to - might be
> someone to watch for the selectors at least with ODIs in mind).
> Finally the 2nd new ball claimed both TP Singh and Yere Goud in the
> last over of the day, to bring Punjab some relief - but Railways still
> ended the first day in a quite happy position, at 311/4. One wicket
> each for Gagandeep, Sodhi, Uniyal and Navdeep - but 3 catches went
> down during the day, 2 of them supposedly off Uniyal.
when punjab came back with 2 wickets late in day, i expected railways
to crumble next day andthey did losing last 8 wickets for less than
100 and ended up with 390... This 390 should be enough though...
PUnjab chases badly this year... gagandeep got a good return...uniyal
is not doing much considering he was purchased from HP in return of 6
players to them...Yuvraj scored another 80 as opener but Mongia fell
too... dharmani and sodhi are left...
when kaif and sodhi got us the last world cup we won... manish sharma
and Ricky starred... they seem to have been split up with Manish
hardly getting a look in... as if kakker is scoring enough to justify
his place...
punjab is doing great in age groups this year! even sodhi 's place is
in threat not to mention chandan and likes of rajesh sharma..
> Delhi vs Baroda:
> The India-A players returned for Delhi, and it made a difference right
> away. Delhi were put in, but Bhatia and Gambhir put on 96 - before
> Bhatia fell for 49 and Gambhir for 52. Dahiya batted at #3 and fell
> for 16, but Manhas was 49* and Jadeja 41* at the end of the day, as
> Delhi ended at a pretty comfortable 233/3. In the last match Dahiya
> was hurt and Varun Kumar played at keeper - and had scored a nice 50.
> Well, Delhi has aparently decided to keep him there, playing as a pure
> batsman now. Thus Varun Kumar and Pradeep Chawla are yet to bat, before
> the tail (and Salil Oberoi, who had opened the innings with some degree
> of success, was left on the sidelines). Delhi's bowling is much stronger
> for this game as well - they have Bhandari, Gill, Sarandeep and Abhishek
> Sharma. Baroda left out centurion Rishikesh Parab for Connor Williams,
> and Rajesh Pawar for Valmick Buck.
JADEJA....JADEJA....JADEJA....
single handedly phew!! the relegation may be avoided after all!!
btw first double ton of ranji season or didnt one of maharashtrian
guys did it against Orissa...jadahav...anyway first in the elites!!
> TN vs Assam:
> Assam won the toss and put TN in - and used their TN-emigrants to good
> effect (Assam has 3 of them this year). Gautam Dutta got the first
> breakthru, but then former TN U25 skipper Satish, who had never claimed
> a first-class wicket in his entire life, came on with his part-time
> medium-paced offerings, and promptly claimed 3/33 in 9 overs! And a
> couple of big wickets there too - Sriram (continuing off his poor India-A
> run) for 19 and Badrinath for 1. TN reached 144/6 mostly due to young
> Dinesh Kaarthik's 71, but then recovered very well from there with their
> strong lower-order. Vidyut hit 53 and Ramkumar 73, and TN ended the day
> at a quite comfortable 291/9 (despite losing 2 wickets in the last 5
> balls of the day).
TN should reverse their batting order might make sense...Assam fizzled
out big time for 134... TN umpires undid them last match now it was tN
bowlers...Ramkumar took 4/24...and TN finished on 99/2 sriram again
disappointing...
>
> Bengal vs Hyderabad:
> Another home game for Bengal, and this time they bowled first after
> Hyderabad chose to bat. And Bengal had a fine day with the ball (and,
> shockingly, the light apparently didnt get too poor to play in at
> 4:13 pm with 20 overs left in the day - in fact, Bengal somehow managed
> to bowl 93 overs in the day this time around :-)
There is a gavaskar at helm now!
> A spin-friendly track at the Eden this time - which suits Bengal quite
> welll usually (and will not suit Hyderabad very well, since Venkatapathy
> Raju was indisposed and had to drop out of the final XI). Hyderabad lost
> wickets with a great deal of regularity all day long, and ended at 223/7.
> Young tyro Rayudu on his return from India-A was given a lesson by the
> veteran Utpal Chatterjee - clean bowled for 30, after hitting 5 fours
> in an hour of batting. Shivaji Yadav got 45, and wicketkeeper Ibrahim
> Khaleel was 50* at the end of the day.
>
> For Bengal Chatterjee finally returned to form, on a helpful pitch -
> he ended the day with 35 overs, 5/44 (his 30th 5-fer in Ranji Trophy
> cricket). Offspinner Lahiri picked up 1 wicket as well, and paceman
> Paul who has been having such a wonderful season found his claws drawn
> on a pitch that didnt help, and ended 1/48 in 18 overs.
Chatterjee made it 8/54...not bad for a 45 year old! Lahiri at half
that age got 71/1... Bengal finished at 153/3 with Arindam batting
with Gandhi... Hyderabad will get 1st innings lead though... I curse
the bengal ranji team!
i just realized... does hyderabad ranji team recruit from princely
hyderabad regions then they should have maratha and kannada players
too or are limited to telengana or just hyderabad city..
> Rajasthan vs Gujarat:
> Rajasthan ended the day at 246/8 after being put in - a quite happy
> state of affairs, probably, since the KL Saini pitch has been a hugely
> helpful pitch for pacemen all season long so far. It was difficult here
> on the first day as well - Rajasthan at one stage were 91/5. But
> opener Vineet Saxena ground out an 80 in almost 5 hours, and new
> skipper Rahul Kanwat (who took over on the morning of the match, when
> previous skipper Krishnakumar apparently stepped down on the morning
> of the game in a quite dramatic gesture) hit 65, and the two put on
> a very valuable 94 to restructure the innings. At the end of the
> day 246/8 is pretty satisfactory for Rajasthan.
Anyway Gujarat collapsed from 113/1 to 188/9 as stumps were drawn ...
looks like gUjarat can soon challenge the bengal and assam in
relegation zone...
> For Gujarat pacemen Lalit Patel and Trivedi had 2 wickets each, and
> third seamer Shyamal Bhatt had 3. Gujarat has apparently dropped opener
> Luv Pawar, and must be missing the other opener Akash Christian thru
> injury or something (they couldnt have dropped him, since he had a
> century a match ago). Young Bhavik Thakkar makes his Ranji debut.
Akash christian is playing scored a 50 in zillion minutes again...
>
> In the plate, Services really might have the best unheralded pace
> attack for a Ranji side around. They are now opening with Surendra
> Ghag, and new-boy Fazil Mohammad (who was supposedly a big prospect
> in Kerala, but never got to play for them).
is he the third kapil kid!
>After doing well 2 matches in a row (Fazil 5-fer the first game, Ghag
5-fer the
> 2nd game), they struck early against Saurasthra yesterday too,
> reducing them to 42/5! But they had little support, so Saurasthra
> recoverd to 189/6 by the end of the day.
Saurashtra dismissed early , Fazil 5 and Ghag 3 but services in spot
of bother with 138/5...76 adrift though Yashpal is playing a lone
hand... if some one sticks with him..
>
> Sadiq [ a fair few low-scoring games in progress ] Yusuf
Jadeja Jadeja Jadeja...
as for rest:
JK found time to limit tripura to 235 but ended at 7/2 themselves...
MP plays Haryana in the big game for the Plate... Jitendra ran himself
out and then all haryan bats got 20s or 30s and met the guy with crazy
specs.. Narendra hirwani was 33/4 of 20 overs as Haryna was 156/5 off
90 overs!!
Kokje is not even bowling... what is he in side for his batting...
vidharbha restricted to 250 plus as Shankar rao of Bihar took 6/56...
four different bihari bowlers have had 6er or more in last 4
innings...
watch this match... dhoni took 6 catches behind stumps...
Bihar was 6/81 when rajiv Kumar came good with a ton.. ex India A
player.. he assured lead and then Shahid rubbed salt on Vidarbha with
a 40 run last wicket stand...Looks like Bihar might even pull a win
here!
in the konkan coast championship, Little brothers goa scored 326,
Phadke the skipper scored 78.. though Kolambkar the opener scored 66
in 400 minutes...
somasekhar the keeper scored 31 with 7 boundaries in 122 balls... aka
atleast 112 dot balls!!! the three stray dogs in the stands fell
asleep even Somasekhara 's doting mom could be heard snoring!!!
Looks like a close finish on cards!!
orissa scored 246 as Sangram singh doubled his first class wickets
with 4/39
SS Dass was out on 30th over for 28 yawn! Mangaraj took 7/42 as HP
disintegrated... Orissa should win from here...Dass is already out in
second innings so chances for him playing for a draw are slim now!
regards
Pranshu B Saxena [why did they leave Dahiya at home...pick him too..]
DiiVolunt
As google is not updating properly i am limiting this to the
qualification scenarios:
Group A
all 5 matches
Bombay : 18 points
Railways: 10 points
Punjab: 6 points
Andhra: 6 points
UP: 4 points
baroda: 4 points
Delhi: 3 points
Kerela: 1 point
railways have 2 difficult encounters with Mumbai and Baroda left...
Bombay has Railways and Punjab left
Punjab has Mumbai and Andhra left.
Baroda has railways and UP left
Andhra has Punjab and Delhi left
Delhi has relatively easy Andhra and Kerela left
UP has Baroda and Kerela left
Kerela has UP and Delhi left
so actually, the semi final spot is still open....before start of
season i had on basis of last year assumed 13 points are enough for
qualification... looks like that is coming true...
Railways do not get any points vs either baroda or mumbai leave
themselves open to being overtaken...Railways need 2 points to remain
in running...
Let us look at baroda... escaped from delhi, say they get 2 points
from railways and have UP left who are batting well so If baroda gets
2 first innings leads only then they finish with 8 points and miss
semi spot...
They need a win...
Punjab needs to defeat Andhra big time... andhra have beend oing ok
while Punjab bowling is not penetrative enough...If Punjab pulls a
coup against mumbai doubtfull..same situation saw Haryana lose to
under strength Mumbai back in 1997-98... So if PUnjab defeats Andhra,
they can get 4 points and take tally to 10... then run quotient comes
into play ... if punjab lose on that that is second year running they
would have slip betwixt cup and lip....
andhra has had a dream run but Punjab and Delhi are now on the rise
and may prove a handful... they need a win and hope for run
quotient...I do not see them doing anything but you never know...
Delhi needs 2 good wins and can escape into the semi finals!! imagine
this after such a horrible year... that is still a possibility! They
have kerela and Andhra left to tackle... A win or 1st innings lead vs
Kerela ensures no relegation and win against both almost ensures a
semi spot!
UP has difficult Baroda and needs to just draw the game vs Kerela...UP
hardly win matches in Ranji... they once went almost 10 years without
a win... so 1st inning lead against kerela ensures no relegation...
Kerela has 2 difficult games vs Delhi and UP... they also lost a point
so they need to take 4 points to avoid relegation....
So to summarize.. delhi has an outside chance to qualify... but smart
money is on Railways to escape through! and kerela to relegate of
course delhi can still slide back.....
Group B:
TN: 15 points to play Hyderabad
Bengal: 7 points to play Gujarat
Hyderabad: 7 points to play TN and Rajasthan
Rajasthan: 5 points (they should get 2 for 1st innings lead?) to play
hyderabad and Assam
Gujarat: 8 points to play Bengal and Karnataka
Karnataka: 6 points to play Gujarat and Assam
Assam: 2 points to play Rajasthan and Karnataka
we have three quarter finals here: Gujarat will play rivals bengal and
Karnataka
and needs 4 points to ensure qualification...
Hyderabad needs a win vs Rajasthan to stay in running...
even Rajasthan can topple applecart with 6 points they need...
Karnataka needs good wins and assam can give them one...
Assam has everything to play and can also reach semis!!!
smart money is on Assam relegating...hard luck... rajasthan can also
relegate or go on to win ranji from this point!
Looks like anyone's group from this point on.
regards
Pranshu B Saxena
Uday Rajan
> As google is not updating properly i am limiting this to the
> qualification scenarios:
>
> Group A
> all 5 matches
> Bombay : 18 points
> Railways: 10 points
> Punjab: 6 points
> Andhra: 6 points
> UP: 4 points
> baroda: 4 points
> Delhi: 3 points
> Kerela: 1 point
Thanks to Sadiq and you for the updates, and keeping the thread
going. I'm glad to see Muzumdar and Kambli back in form; with the
form Jaffer has shown so far, it seems like the Bombay batting is
a little more stable heading into the semi-final. I wish Bombay
had some bowlers, though.
One question: is Bombay guaranteed a semi-final slot at this
stage, or do they still need to ensure, e.g., a first-innings
lead in one of the remaining two matches?
And likewise, is Tamil Nadu guaranteed a SF slot from group B?
DiiVolunt
oh! sorry, i thought that was clear, Mumbai and TN have already
qualified..
there are crazy scenarios where TN or mumbai may still miss out:
Mumbai can lose both by innings and Punjab wins both by innings and
lot of loose change...
I mean TN can lose by innings to hyderabad...and there is scenario
where Gujarat wins both matches and Hyderabad wins both matches and
one (TN)by innings for TN to miss out... or hyderabad wins both
matches and TN one by innings and karnataka wins both and one by
innings.
If TN avoids innings defeat they may be ok...
also TN may lose to hyderabad and hyderabad scored 600 plus in both
and wins by huge margins... run quotient turns and Gujarat wins both
matches...
all unlikely scenarios now!
regards
Pranshu B Saxena