Build-up to Indian Domestic Season 2009-10

[Arjun]

Baroda, chasing 101, are at 2/1. For some reason, they opened with Yusuf Pathan in place of their first-innings opener. In this game, Irfan again got a rush of wickets later in the innings, finishing with a match haul of seven, and also 24 quick runs. Elsewhere, Bengal are all over Delhi, with wickets shared between Bose, Dinda, Lahiri and Iresh Saxena- and LR Shukla hasn't bowled an over, for some reason. Gujarat now have amassed over 400, and have saved it.

 

[Arjun]

Day three: What may the points table suggest?

Hyderabad is gone. Relegated. There's nothing to save them now. With Plate graduates Himachal and Orissa pocketing points elsewhere, they still stay in the Super League. This is, again, an unfortunate outcome of the points system with the first-innings lead, where teams that lose three games stay, while the unbeaten (yet without a win) Hyderabad drop out. Two and Three are taken by Punjab and Mumbai, both of whom have got leads, and are through. Groan.

In the other group, Maharashtra are out, if they lose, which is likely, as this is a result match. Baroda already have the lead, but it is irrelevant, as they have to chase down the tiny total. That's likely, with a stronger batting lineup. A win will put them just about at par with Delhi, struggling against Bengal- then again, if that game's a draw, Delhi makes it with that one point, so Baroda will struggle to make the top three. So Delhi will make it even if Bengal win or lead, while Bengal miss out. This is the effect of the current points system. Time for a review?

 

[Arjun]

In the Plate league, Mishra's five gobbled up Tripura, and gave Haryana the lead. That may be a result match, which can go either way. In the other semi, Assam, one of the weakest East Zone teams and a Plate regular, is all over Andhra, relegated last season from the Elite league.

 

[Arjun]

Baroda and Karnataka have won their respective matches. Maharashtra and Hyderabad will be relegated. The quarters will involve TN, Mumbai, Punjab, Karnataka, UP and Delhi.

It's a massive farce in Hyderabad- TN declared at over 750 runs on the last day. Three centuries have been scored, including Mukund's 250, Badrinath's regulation century and seamer Ganapathy's ton. Then we saw Dinesh Karthik bowl utter rubbish- in fact, TN pulled out their regular bowlers and only bowled the likes of Aniruddha and Karthik. On the contrary, relegated Hyderabad didn't bowl any non-regulars and used only one wicketkeeper throughout the TN epic. The match was called off midway through the final session. The lack of urgency in the game was seen when Ashwin didn't run many singles.

p.s. Ganapathy, also a frontline seamer, is a very correct batsman, with tight technique. He didn't try to go over the top too often, and played the straight drive and on-drive quite often.

 

[Sir Alex]

TN's match is a joke. I hope the match referee has a serious look into this.

 

[honestbharani]

TN's match is a joke. I hope the match referee has a serious look into this.

why should he? The game was dead once the first innings points were achieved... The track was not good enough to force a result. So TN decided not to risk their main bowlers and bowled the part timers instead.. With the knock out games coming up, its perfectly understandable.

 

[Arjun]

Quarters-

• Mumbai vs Haryana
• Karnataka vs Punjab
• TN vs Delhi
• Assam vs UP

A wrap of round seven.

 

[Arjun]

How's this Ranji XI? This may be India's Board XI to face visiting teams.

• Mukund
• Vijay
• Pujara/Rahane
• Badrinath (C)
• Patel/Pandey
• Karthik (WK)
• Ganapathy (RM)
• Irfan (LMF)
• Chawla (LBG)
• Abdulla (SLA)
• Vinay Kumar (RM)/MS Gony (RMF)

I've let out most of the Saurashtra/Gujarat/HP/Orissa players as they haven't won enough matches, in comparison to TN or Karnataka. There have been only three spinners in the top ten, including relative unknown Dheeraj Singh, while Murali Kartik is way behind. The one interesting pick here is Chandrashekhar Ganapathy. He doesn't have too much as a bowler, but he's been fantastic with the bat.

 

[Cruxdude]

A real promising side. The only disappointing thing has been that many matches have been high scoring draws or miss matches.

 

[Arjun]

A real promising side. The only disappointing thing has been that many matches have been high scoring draws or miss matches.

Good point there. That's why there's a larger number of TN/Karnataka players, as they've won more matches. I'm often tempted to leave Parthiv Patel and Chirag Pathak (and most Guj/Sau players) out, because they've played out too many draws.

It's also good to see all-rounders coming to the fore, as Ganapathy, Irfan, Bangar, LR Shukla and Ashwin have. It's also a good sign that some top bowlers, such as Gony, Chawla and Vinay Kumar, have also scored runs. There is something to take out of this season so far, on that aspect.

 

[Manee]

How's this Ranji XI? This may be India's Board XI to face visiting teams.

• Mukund
• Vijay
• Pujara/Rahane
• Badrinath (C)
• Patel/Pandey
• Karthik (WK)
• Ganapathy (RM)
• Irfan (LMF)
• Chawla (LBG)
• Abdulla (SLA)
• Vinay Kumar (RM)/MS Gony (RMF)

I've let out most of the Saurashtra/Gujarat/HP/Orissa players as they haven't won enough matches, in comparison to TN or Karnataka. There have been only three spinners in the top ten, including relative unknown Dheeraj Singh, while Murali Kartik is way behind. The one interesting pick here is Chandraashekhar Ganapathy. He doesn't have too much as a bowler, but he's been fantastic with the bat.

The team is quite a strong one and shows the power that we do have in our domestic circuit. An extremely promising sign this year was to see Piyush Chawla find his feet in Indian domestic cricket (as opposed to County cricket or A team cricket outside India, which he has most certainly conquered) with 231 runs at 33.00 and 24 wickets at 24.25. Compare that to last Indian season where he took 36 wickets at 35.13 and hit 413 runs at 25.81.

The success of Gony and Vinay Kumar, who most certainly have the speed to convert FC to Test performances (though, of course, conversion from low to high level is never truly guaranteed) is a promising sign too. Iqbal Abdulla is an interesting one, he has had a magnificant season, but I remember being astounded by a rather unprofessional quote about him on Cricinfo; can't find the quote on Cricinfo but it noted how it was embarassing how he could not even spin the ball.

 

[Shri]

Did Kamran Khan from the Royals play for any Ranji side at all?

 

[Arjun]

Did Kamran Khan from the Royals play for any Ranji side at all?

He didn't make a Ranji team- it seems he's been injured for quite some time. Besides, given the BCCI's recent flushing out of chuckers from the Ranji scene, he'd find it tough to make a playing XI.

EDIT: He has, however, played several club games, possibly in Mumbai (if I remember correctly), as a frontline batsman.

 

[Arjun]

Live scores are available on Cricinfo's India page, and are updated more often.

 

[Arjun]

Rahane scores big again, with another century down. Agarkar's out of form with the ball, but his batting has been quite impressive- he's going at 70, and scored 78 so far. Rohit Sharma, however, was out for zero. Wickets were shared between Rana (three), Joginder (one) and Sanjay Budhwar (one), but strangely, Mishra hasn't got one. Mukund, Vijay and Karthik got their 50s, though Badrinath missed out, while Delhi had it tough. The best day one score has been by Punjab, at 292, but they've lost nine wickets against Karnataka. Wickets were taken by Sunil Joshi (four), Vinay Kumar (three) and Mithun (two). In the other match, UP were all out for 213, with no significant performances.

 

[Arjun]

Mumbai are all out for 400. Fifties and above have come from Rahane (over hundred), Agarkar and Powar, with a contribution from Abdulla as well. Wickets were hard to come for Haryana, and the surprise package has been Sachin Rana, with four. Even the much-fancied Amit Mishra has got just two. Haryana's chase has begun badly, like Mumbai's, and they're at 11/2.

Tamil Nadu were finally all out for 463, with contributions later from Ganapathy and Balaji. Aniruddha, a.k.a. Srikkanth Jr, scored a very fast century in the middle order. Delhi's best bwoler has been Vikas Mishra, with five for 115. Delhi are off to a bad start, losing both Chopra and Dhawan, and are at 37/2.

Karnataka are at 252/6, chasing Punjab's 300. Robin Uthappa fell nine short of a century, while Manish Pandey is still unbeaten on 74. Both have scored at a very rapid rate. The six wickets have been shared between the four bowlers and Taruwar Kohli.

UP have Assam on the mat at 100/6. Wickets are shared by all but Bhuvan Kumar. RP Singh's FC average has gone above 30 now.

 

[Arjun]

Karnataka vs Punjab - Report from Day 1 and Day 2. Other matches - combined report for Day 1 and Day 2.

 

[Arjun]

Karnataka have the lead and Vinay Kumar, his 50. He should be in the running for a place in the ODI and T20I teams now.

Here's a report of TN vs Delhi and also Mumbai vs Haryana on The Hindu from Chennai. They've also got some comments and quotes from the ground.

 

[Arjun]

Karnataka, TN, Mumbai and UP making the semis is looking more certain now. Delhi seems to have no chance, and are the ones most likely to turn the draw around, if they don't lose any more wickets. Haryana's as good as out of it- Mumbai are all over them. Assam can spring a surprise, but given their batting collapse earlier, it's unlikely. Karnataka have it tight, and will get ahead unless their batting collapses.

 

[Sir Alex]

Karnataka, TN, Mumbai and UP making the semis is looking more certain now. Delhi seems to have no chance, and are the ones most likely to turn the draw around, if they don't lose any more wickets. Haryana's as good as out of it- Mumbai are all over them. Assam can spring a surprise, but given their batting collapse earlier, it's unlikely. Karnataka have it tight, and will get ahead unless their batting collapses.

Delhi 219/3 has still a chance i guess