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Build-up to Indian Domestic Season 2008-09
- Thread starter Arjun
- Start date
Precambrian
Banned
A myth?
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Lambu
U19 Debutant
Seriously though..the lack of updates is worrying,even though i discovered this only today
Precambrian
Banned
However he claims this chap regularly clocks above 100 mph, and is 21, and yet has never played in a big league match. Either he is a Sreesanth like talent recognised relatively late (Sree's case around 16-17), or he is a fabrication to earn some free ratings for the coach. Anyway time will tell.
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Ponty's reputation as a coach dates way back, and long before this post. Atul Sharma (or his Ian Pont connection) seems famous in some fan circles, as Manee may have discovered in another forum. I haven't read much about him, and most of what I find relates to 'Fast Bowlers' Bible' or 'seven tips for fast bowlers'.
His analysis of Atul Sharma, however, appears quite honest. He's explained why Sharma's kept out of domestic cricket action, and that's the truth. Either we have the Bishan Bedi types emphasising the 'Indian Way of Coaching', relying on seam and swing rather than pace, or they're rushed into national selection long before they're ready, like Munaf, VRV Singh and Sreesanth.
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Rahane sets his sights on national selection.
He doesn't have a chance. Yes, he's scoring a mountain of runs, but so are other batsmen, including a few who are in or near national selection. Let's see if he can get past Wasim Jaffer, Shikhar Dhawan, Vijay Krishnan and Akash Chopra. You have a relatively long queue of batsmen here for national selection, but you can only have two.
The Pathans, Rajat Bhatia, Abhishek Nayar, Ramesh Powar and other multi-skilled players stand a far greater chance of making the national team, but none of them are in great form, or have played enough.
He doesn't have a chance. Yes, he's scoring a mountain of runs, but so are other batsmen, including a few who are in or near national selection. Let's see if he can get past Wasim Jaffer, Shikhar Dhawan, Vijay Krishnan and Akash Chopra. You have a relatively long queue of batsmen here for national selection, but you can only have two.
The Pathans, Rajat Bhatia, Abhishek Nayar, Ramesh Powar and other multi-skilled players stand a far greater chance of making the national team, but none of them are in great form, or have played enough.
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Rajasthan have been relegated, and the same may happen to Andhra as well. Tamil Nadu and Mumbai have made the semis, while Delhi, Gujarat, Saurashtra and Karnataka have a chance. Gujarat are in good shape at second place, though a combination of results (them losing or falling back, Delhi or Saurashtra winning) could set them back. In the other group, Uttar Pradesh are sitting pretty at second place, but the break may be their undoing as they are in danger of missing the semis with Karnataka likely to trounce Maharashtra. That match lost against TN may prove costly in their break.
Round Six has had several matches ending in results. TN sprung back, and how, crushing Baroda by a big margin, while Mumbai overwhelmed Orissa, both by day three itself. Elsewhere, Punjab came back from a first-innings deficit to defeat Hyderabad, who had the stronger batting side. Take that, first-innings lead rule! Saurashtra's fairytale run may have come to an end after losing to Delhi, and they face a strong Hyderabad side in the last round. Gujarat defeated Rajasthan, and that's no surprise. The matches involving Maharashtra and Railways, as well as Karnataka and UP, ended in boring draws- the Karnataka/UP match had a first-innings total of 511 proving inadequate even for a lead! Ridiculously bad pitches hit the other extreme here.
Round Six has had several matches ending in results. TN sprung back, and how, crushing Baroda by a big margin, while Mumbai overwhelmed Orissa, both by day three itself. Elsewhere, Punjab came back from a first-innings deficit to defeat Hyderabad, who had the stronger batting side. Take that, first-innings lead rule! Saurashtra's fairytale run may have come to an end after losing to Delhi, and they face a strong Hyderabad side in the last round. Gujarat defeated Rajasthan, and that's no surprise. The matches involving Maharashtra and Railways, as well as Karnataka and UP, ended in boring draws- the Karnataka/UP match had a first-innings total of 511 proving inadequate even for a lead! Ridiculously bad pitches hit the other extreme here.
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
The stat sheets don't tell a complete story. We find Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara at the top- Cheteshwar even has a strike rate over eighty, primarily with runs between wickets- but a lot of those scores have come against under-strength bowling attacks, as most of the internationals were on national duty. While it's good to see high averages, seeing some century averages and some others over 70 indicates rather weak bowling attacks or flat pitches, though there have been several results in these matches. We find some Maharashtra players here- and Maharashtra is under drop threat- which is no surprise, given the home ground they've played in three matches. You can't get anything relevant from these batting stat sheets, as the teams were not tested much.
Balaji is back, and that's good news. With two five-wicket hauls in the series, he's in the top ten wickets list with 23 in five matches. Leading the pack is, not surprisingly, Dhawal Kulkarni, but against a strong TN or Karnataka batting side, he will be tested. Likewise Siddharth Trivedi, the striker for Gujarat, often a side show player in any level above state, second on the list with 31 wickets. Chawla is also in the top ten, but that average of 29.47 doesn't look attractive, though he's played a lot on flat pitches where his strokeful batting has also come useful. Gujarat's Mohnish Parmar is in the top list, but chucking concerns will keep him out of selection as he was reported once again. No problems exist with Saurashtra's striker Makwana's action, but he's way behind other bowlers in the race. However, when you find that there are bowlers with lower averages and strike rates way down because of lack of matches, you find little to take out of these sheets as well.
Balaji is back, and that's good news. With two five-wicket hauls in the series, he's in the top ten wickets list with 23 in five matches. Leading the pack is, not surprisingly, Dhawal Kulkarni, but against a strong TN or Karnataka batting side, he will be tested. Likewise Siddharth Trivedi, the striker for Gujarat, often a side show player in any level above state, second on the list with 31 wickets. Chawla is also in the top ten, but that average of 29.47 doesn't look attractive, though he's played a lot on flat pitches where his strokeful batting has also come useful. Gujarat's Mohnish Parmar is in the top list, but chucking concerns will keep him out of selection as he was reported once again. No problems exist with Saurashtra's striker Makwana's action, but he's way behind other bowlers in the race. However, when you find that there are bowlers with lower averages and strike rates way down because of lack of matches, you find little to take out of these sheets as well.
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Given a choice of Manpreet Gony and Gagandeep Singh, for North Zone, India A or the national team itself, whom would you choose? Gagandeep has the stats going his way well ahead of Gony. However, Gony seems to be a better-equipped pacer; he's tall and powerful, bowls a lot faster and with his IPL experience as a frontliner, has played a lot more against the better players. It seems a difficult choice, as Gagandeep is a better bowler while Gony is expected to be more useful.
Precambrian
Banned
Glad to see the increased number of matches which had results.
Balaji
Balaji
Manee
Cricketer Of The Year
Anyone but Gony is my policy, he simply does NOT take enough wickets. Is Gagandeep Singh back from injury?
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
I don't know. Let's check websites of newspapers from Punjab, as they will have the news. Living in Mumbai, I can get stuff on what happens in Mumbai and possibly other West Zone teams. Bengal/Orissa news comes in the Telegraph, while Deccan Chronicle will cover Andhra.Hyderabad and Deccan Herald for Karnataka. The Hindu, of course, will cover Chennai and HT will look at Delhi and Haryana. Maybe Gagandeep is better now, but in today's paper, Agarkar was left out of the Mumbai squad for the final round match.
Actually, HT hasn't updated its domestic section in some time...
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honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
Go TN and Dinesh Karthik!!! 
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
How much do you expect from the team? Will they win this year's Trophy? Balaji, Amarnath and Ashwin may turn out to be MVPs for the team, especially if they perform like they did in that last match. This season may launch Balaji's comeback bid; he's surely one of the better swing bowlers to play for India in the last few years.Go TN and Dinesh Karthik!!!
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
TBH, I expect nothing.. I thought they were dead and buried against Baroda after the first day.. And I still don't expect much, with our best two batters missing because of national duty... 
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Some highlights:
- Mumbai smash the Punjab bowlers all around Brabourne. Punjab surely look under-manned, with Rohit Sharma and Abhishek Nayar scoring quick and chunky.
- Rahil Sheikh has taken the superior (in this league) Punjab batting by surprise.
- Nayar chips in with bat and ball; Powar doesn't have such a good match.
- Irfan blows away Andhra.
- TN spinner Ashwin scores a century in the same match where Karthik scores another.
- Karnataka look to win the match against Maharashtra in three days, and the three-spin attack is taking most of the wickets.
- Fallah still carries on his good form.
- Saurashtra's dream run has surely come to an end, with Hyderabad having them in a tight spot. They're out of contention for the quarters now.
- The same may be said of Delhi, who don't look like making the quarters, as they bowled out Rajasthan for a little too many, and have just two days to roll them over cheaply again.