Build-up to Indian Domestic Season 2009-10

[Arjun]

Delhi 219/3 has still a chance i guess

They pulled it off. Good call!

Hundred by Chabra, nearly there by Rajat Bhatia and over 70 by Punit Bhisht, Aditya Jain and Mithun Manhas. Wickets were few and far between for TN.

 

[honestbharani]

They pulled it off. Good call!

Hundred by Chabra, nearly there by Rajat Bhatia and over 70 by Punit Bhisht, Aditya Jain and Mithun Manhas. Wickets were few and far between for TN.

pretty gutted to see one of the best teams in the league stage go out like this, but that is what pressure and knock out games are all about.. TN could not handle the big moment..

 

[Manee]

All four Quarter Finals end in draws - there is something wrong here. In India, with the majority of the tracks being flat and/or slow, they should look to play five day cricket. If it were a five day fixture, Asaam would have been beaten, or pulled off an unlikely victory, Mumbai could have launched a victory charge, and declarations may have brought Karnataka and Punjab to a result.

Looking forward toward the semi finals...

Mumbai Vs Delhi should be a win for Mumbai, their bowling and batting just seems stronger than Delhi's. Agarkar's fine form with the bat allows Mumbai to play five bowlers, and this tends to work in their advantage, since while the pace bowlers have not been too good, the two or three spinners played seem to always do well. Without Ishant, Nehra, Gambhir, Sehwag and Kohli, Delhi look weak, as would most teams when missing their top five players.

Prediction: Mumbai on first innings lead

Karnataka Vs Uttar Pradesh looks like a very good contest. Two teams with the strongest bowling line ups in the country go head to head - I just hope that it is not a flat track. UP's problem has been finding the right combination of bowlers, when international players become available. The less fancied Srivastava and Gupta are among the top bowlers whereas Tyagi's few games have often been poor, and RP has been underpar all year - we'll see what team they go in with. Karnataka's strength lies in R Vinay Kumar and A Mithun who have taken wickets all year, S Aravind who has done well as the third seamer and Sunil Joshi, who is, as always, awesome.

Prediction: Karnataka outright

 

[Arjun]

pretty gutted to see one of the best teams in the league stage go out like this, but that is what pressure and knock out games are all about.. TN could not handle the big moment..

TN were surely the better team, with better players and better balance, but their bowling let them down once again on a flat deck. A bit surprising, when their bowling was at least reasonably better than Delhi's, and their batting, significantly better.

 

[Arjun]

Karnataka may have it easy, with their stronger batting lineup, but they're a bowler short. UP's batting looks a little flimsy, man for man, but they're capable of collectively putting up a massive score- they can be knocked over cheaply.

Mumbai have it a lot tougher against a team that equalled a first-innings total over 450. Their own bowling hasn't been particularly impressive, bar Iqbal Abdulla, less so Kulkarni and Harmeet Singh. Both teams are very evenly matched, and the encounter can go either way. Delhi have a point to prove, with a whole lot of bad press about their team's parent association going around.

 

[Arjun]

Mumbai are at 121/3, with a strange batting selection- they only have four specialist batsmen, with Abhishek Nayar at five, Agarkar at six, Powar at seven and Abdulla at eight. That looks a little fragile, though Agarkar, Powar and Abdulla have touched sixty each this season. Ironically, it's been a role reversal for Agarkar and Powar, both of whom have struggled with the ball this season, so the more bowlers to pick, the merrier. Delhi had a good start with Ishant bowling tightly and taking two.

 

[Manee]

Mumbai reached 329/4 at the end of the day, with the explosive Nayar reaching 111* by close. Nayar is an annoying cricketer, as he is prone to strong innings against good attacks and is never far away from a good haul with the ball, coming on at first or second change, but certainly lacks consistency. Ishant took the valuable wickets of Jaffer and Rahane, ending with 2/48, but would surely be looking for more wickets, as he looks to retain his spot in the Test team. Agarkar reached 57* at close, continuing his strong form with the bat. Notable omission is Dhawal Kulkarni, who I can only speculate is injured, unless spectacularly dropped after a quiet year, this year, to follow his remarkable debut season.

Karnataka are 255/4 at close in a game which is a clash of very strong bowling line ups. Shivastava has been edged out of the team, by virtue of not having played for India and therefore being considered an inferior bowler to Praveen Kumar and RP Singh, despite having outperformed both, this year. Pandey the star with 66 and Dravid has dug in for the long haul with 37* off 115 deliveries.

 

[Arjun]

Observations from television coverage-

• Sangwan kept overstepping and lost his line and length often.
• Awana struggled against left-handers.
• Ishant was the only good bowler on show and was largely over 132k, while the others struggled with pace.
• The spinner bowled well, but Nayar got stuck into him.
• Nayar was largely aggressive, but took one risk too many, missed the ball a few times and edged to slip, only to be parried away.
• They bowled a very good spell early, and Ishant in particular used the new ball well.
• Agarkar's innings was noteworthy, but because it was very scratchy and error-prone.

 

[Manee]

Oh, it was televised, any chance of recording the highlights and sending them to me, would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Cruxdude]

Seems like Nagpur will be hosting one of the test match against SA. In the last 2 months we have had 2 ODI's and 1 T20 at Nagpur. How many more will be hosted there? I still remember the poor crowds at Nagpur for the India Australia tests. Really sucks.

 

[Sir Alex]

Seems like Nagpur will be hosting one of the test match against SA. In the last 2 months we have had 2 ODI's and 1 T20 at Nagpur. How many more will be hosted there? I still remember the poor crowds at Nagpur for the India Australia tests. Really sucks.

It is one of the best stadiums we have. The wicket is also pretty good for test cricket.

 

[Arjun]

Oh, it was televised, any chance of recording the highlights and sending them to me, would greatly appreciate it.

I don't have a TV tuner card as of now, so that's a tough one. You can read reports on the next day in Times of India or Hindustan times; they provide detailed reports of the games. I can't get reports on the other semi anywhere.

 

[Arjun]

Both matches appear very one-sided. Karnataka are all over UP, after declaring their innings for seven at 575, then dismissing them for 208. This is more or less a Karnataka/Mumbai final now. Ishant's been doing reasonably well, but this was too much for him- virtually no support, bar youngster Vikas Mishra. Ramesh Powar took five wickets, finally, for a Mumbai bowler. He's been short of wickets, but this should do him- and his team- some good.

 

[Arjun]

The finals will be played between Mumbai and Delhi. Both eased in on the back of tame draws.

Do you think Mumbai were too negative in delaying the declaration? We saw Usman Malvi and Avishkar Salvi play out maiden after maiden, and it made for painful viewing. They then set an impossible target of 477 in 38 overs for Delhi.

The Brabourne surface was quite a helpful one for the spinners. First, Powar took five against Delhi, and then, young Vikas Mishra, who's played little FC cricket, took six wickets with several deliveries that turned square and had batsmen tied up in knots. He was unplayable in Mumbai's second innings, and in three matches, seems to have started nicely.

 

[Arjun]

Here are a couple of issues worth looking at. There's the first-innings lead rule, which gives way to passive, negative cricket. Many teams sit on leads and thus play negative cricket, without any intention of winning a match. Sometimes, the better team isn't the one that claimed a lead. How about replacing the knockouts with an extra series of round-robins in the super eights, with points carried on from the group stages, and the top two teams going into the finals? That would look better, and in case the final is a draw, nobody wins the trophy.

Then there's the issue of foreign players. A panel of ex-cricketers, including Saurav Ganguly, have disapproved of including foreign players totally and completely. While the inclusion of non-internationals and associate nation players would do no team any benefit, some selections would help a few teams, and raise the standard of cricket. One good example is Baroda. The ageing trio of Parab-Williams-Martin is well past its prime, and contributing nothing. They're there because of the lack of promising young players from Baroda, but in comparison to their counterparts from Mumbai (wherever they are), they're way behind. Someone like a Phil Hughes or a Jonathan Trott would help them a lot.

 

[Arjun]

The final will be held in Gangothri Glades at Mysore. This is not a regular FC ground. leave alone a Test ground. Already, Mumbai coach Praveen Amre is miffed- the place lacks basic facilities a FC ground has to have. In addition, that outfield is so hard, fielders would think twice before diving.

 

[Cruxdude]

The final will be held in Gangothri Glades at Mysore. This is not a regular FC ground. leave alone a Test ground. Already, Mumbai coach Praveen Amre is miffed- the place lacks basic facilities a FC ground has to have. In addition, that outfield is so hard, fielders would think twice before diving.

Seems like the reason they are playing at Mysore is because it is more bowler friendly than Bangalore.

http://www.cricinfo.com/ranjisuperleague2009/content/story/442808.html

 

[Arjun]

The KSCA ground was unfit for the final, so they chose this place.

 

[jeevan]

Seems like the reason they are playing at Mysore is because it is more bowler friendly than Bangalore.

Moving a domestic match to an obscure ground so that pace bowlers get a green top? Who'd have thought this possible!

 

[Arjun]

Vinay Kumar has started well for Karnataka, taking three wickets, leaving Mumbai at 20/3. He's got decent pace, but not often above 130k, but he's got a tight line and length, getting past the bat several times. He's also a good infielder, and took three off a boundary just after his spell ended. Surely, time for a national call-up for ODIs? Mithun, though wicketless, seems to have decent (read: 130k) pace. Mumbai, in the meantime, built a 50-run partnership and are at 72/3.

EDIT: Even as I type, Mithun knocks out Omkar Khanvilkar's off-stump at 128k, and bowled two deliveries at 133k after that. Mumbai at 84/4.