Been ages since Mumbai have been this weak, wish Tendulkar had decided to play on a bit more.
Mumbai missed a trick by not choosing Amol Mazumdar, letting him go to pushover teams like Assam and Andhra. Their team is more or less strong enough, but they miss an opener, and they need a new all-rounder, as Nayar isn't much of a bowler now, nor scoring enough runs. Iqbal and Kulkarni should be the all-rounders for the Hazare trophy and beyond.
The captaincy of the Mumbai side was poor. Didn't attack enough, and were just playing for a draw that would never happen. Strange, given that Zaheer is the captain of Mumbai. He can take a break from chasing any more India games and try to help Mumbai win their next title.
Jadhav has been so, so good this season.
Jadhav is an outstanding batsman.
He's been rather good for several seasons, but this one was exceptional, especially because it happened in FC. He's proven himself as a limited-overs batsman to all, except Delhi Daredevils management and other IPL franchises that didn't employ him, who scout leagues of other countries while ignoring local talent. An India debut would need enough experience in lower leagues. He has it now. He has amazing OD statistics, and now he's getting better in FCs too.
VRV Singh seems to be getting back to his best, he was the most promising pace bowler in the country at one point of time but went on a downward spiral after the first time he got selected in the team on Greg Chappell's recommendation. Chappell had a lot of faith in him. A series of injuries meant he lost his pace and didn't look the same even when he was selected again and got chances to play a few games for India.
Too many injuries, poor fitness, hardly encouraging. At least Singh's a lot more aggressive, and tries a lot harder even when the odds are against him, than that lazy troll known as Munaf Patel. Hope he gets back to full pace.
That point on Chappell recommending him is noteworthy- Chappell went about recruiting several youngsters way before they were ready into the national side. He too was way too raw for the big stage, and that may have harmed him a lot more than it was supposed to help. I hope that policy of getting youngsters into the Indian team at a very early age is junked forever. Let Sandeep Sharma, Vijay Zol and Samson complete five seasons in FC cricket before getting their first India cap.
Meanwhile, the Railways-Bengal match has even more bad blood than their previous encounter. First, there's a controversy involving a ball change, and officials allege the Railwaymen tampered with the ball. Abhay Sharma, Railways coach, blames it on the steel barricades. Then, some sadistic Bengal fans repeatedly heckled some Railwaymen, including Murali Kartik, and that got Anureet Singh's goat, and he almost lynched them. Anureet, anyway, is closing in on Rishi Dhawan's top spot in the wickets tally, with at least one game in hand. Kartik, though, is being a thorn in the flesh of the Bengal team and its fans, now opening the innings and having some success in taking his team closer to victory. He's now a subject of jokes of the Alok Nath kind on Cricinfo's live Ranji blog.