Indian domestic season 2005-06

[Arjun]

Absolutely dreadful batting by Haryana. All out for 168, but they've got an early wicket at seven. Hopefully they'll make up with a massive score in the final innings. They've been in such good form, if they lose this match, that will be disappointing, since Hyderabad don't look like making the next stage, and are in danger of relegation– luckily, Services is in this group.

 

[Arjun]

END OF ROUND FOUR:

Gujarat defeated Delhi by two wickets. Bhandari bowled well to get 10 wickets in the match, while Chopra and Dhawan scored for Delhi, but that dreadful collapse in the first innings was a major blow. Siddharth Trivede, the Gujarat medium-pacer who holds a Border-Gavaskar scholarship, also picked up 10 wickets.

Haryana were staring at a total of over 350 in the final innings set by Hyderabad, and youngster Deepak Joon scored a century to anchor the team. They were then boosted by a score of 48 by Sahu and a run-a-ball 58 by Joginder Sharma, who had a very good outing, having already picked up ten wickets. A Test selection shouldn't be far. He's been running red hot since his team's promotion to the Elite league, picking up 29 wickets in four matches, and has also scored 239 runs with 2 over 50. The match ended in a draw.

Maharashtra won their match against TN by 9 wickets. Munaf Patel got 6 wickets in the match, but wasn't too successful with the bat. Test opener prospect Dheeraj Jadhav scored 79.

The other matches ended in draws. Uttar Pradesh had Punjab on the mat, but a massive score of 175 by Dinesh Mongia saved his team. Piyush Chawla got a wicket in the second innings and has looked impressive so far, with bat and ball. A lto has been said of his ability to turn the ball.

Mumbai snatched two points in a draw yet again, this time against Railways. Amol Mazumdar, who's always scored heavily in Ranji, scored over 50 yet again. One may ask– why does he not get a Test spot while the likes of Vijay Bharadwaj, Parthiv Patel, Hemang Badani, Jacob Martin, Dinesh Mongia and Hrishikesh Kanitkar actually got some Test caps between them?

Bengal pinched two points against Karnataka. Youngsters Bharat Chipli (Karnataka) and Manoj Tewari had a good match. Off-spinner Sourashish Lahiri took six wickets. Tewari, a leg-spinner, hardly got to bowl.

Services v/s AP was a snooze........

 

[viktor]

Yeah, seriously, how is it that Muzumdar was overlooked?? It may be too late now; if he is selected with Pawar at the helm, the Mumbai lobby will be blamed but what happened all these years when he was performing and not being selected?

 

[honestbharani]

TN are struggling at the FC level at the moment. They better get their acts together soon.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Muzumdar is so unlucky - he was the man who sat for over a day waiting for Sachin and Kambli to make the largest ever partnership whilst he was a schoolboy, and now he appears to be carrying the Mumbai batting alone now that Kambli and Tendulkar have moved on.

Can anyone tell me what has happened to these promising players:

Vinyak Mane - he hasn't been in the Mumbai team this year
Deepak Chougule - was touted for big things as well

 

[viktor]

Mane is injured: http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1002605&CatID=6

 

[Arjun]

Expectations from the forthcoming Ranji matches–

• For Mumbai, Abhishek Nair must play as the third seamer. He bowled a good line and length against the visiting Lankans to claim three wickets, and can do the same this time too. His batting is also a bonus, and taking both skills together, they can now play five bowlers as they did before Bahutule's exit, since their new four-pronged attack has been found wanting. Tamil Nadu's bowling won't cause their batting too many problems, though. Mumbai are the favourites here.
• Big scores are expected from Delhi's key batsmen Akash Chopra and Mithun Manhas, as well as youngsters Mayank Tehlan and Shikhar Dhawan. Delhi's batting has been dreadful and that's cost them two matches, against relatively unfancied teams. Getting a few points against Railways will be an uphill task.
• Railways had a disappointing start to the season. Can they turn it around this time? Bangar's batting has been a cause for concern, not so much the form of the Delhi batsmen. They've got a good chance of repeating the turnaround.
• Another upset by the new boys from the North? Haryana's record has been impressive and they can push for the semis if they win their forthcoming matches, and a lot will depend on strike bowler Joginder Sharma, who's also a middle-order anchorman. He's been left out of the Test squad for Pakistan, so he has something to prove. He's been bowling very well, but a century (or two over 50) will land some egg on important faces.
• Maybe this time, Punjab will field a strong side. They've struggled to put together their best XI and consequently have struggled to gain points. Ishan Malhatra is one to watch. So is VR Singh. They're up against Baroda, back from a break. Will Baroda be rusty? Or refreshed? Worth a watch, especially for Yusuf Pathan, a contender for ODI's.
• Bengal and Gujarat are in form, making waves in their group. Either can cause a major upset by making the semis, given Railways' indifferent form and Delhi's debacles, from which both teams have benefited. Will Bose blow away the Gujarat top order? Will Trivedi rattle the Bengal batting? Will Lahiri take another bucketful? Will Laxmiratan 'Bittu' Shukla play a blistering innings? Wait and watch.

 

[Arjun]

What has the Karnail curator done? Railways are all out for 77, while Delhi were at 117/7 at stumps, day one. Spinners Yogesh Sachdeva of Delhi and Murali Karthik of Railways got five wickets each.

Zaheer and Jaffer celebrate their Test recalls with splendid performances. Zaheer ripped through the Punjab top order with 4 wickets as strike partner Rakesh Patel got five. Jaffer cracked a ton against TN.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Looks like some of the internationals are playing: Laxman for Hyderabad and Sehwag/Gambhir for Delhi. They must have a real problem with the Karnail pitch, a Delhi batting lineup of Dhawan/Chopra/Gambhir/Sehwag should be able to muster a few more runs than they have done.

 

[Arjun]

That Karnail pitch was dreadful. The match got over in two days, as Delhi won by 7 wickets. The only meaningful batting performance was by Railways' JP Yadav, who scored 90, while none of the contenders for a national team berth got a 50. Murali Karthik got 9 wickets in the match, while Yogesh Sachdeva got five in the first innings, and Abhishek got his five in the second. Looks like one curator's job is on the line. Terrible.

Then there's some good news. Zaheer got the top five Punjab wickets in their second innings, taking his match tally to nine. Karnataka's strike seamer Vinay Kumar got five, reducing Maharashtra to a score less than 150 and having them following on.

Upstarts Haryana have come crashing down to earth, as they were all out for 202. They have taken four Hyderabad wickets for 192, and may miss out on points yet again. Are they missing Ajay Ratra? The fast wicketkeeper who played for India was their captain as they advanced to the Elite league, without losing points in a single match, and now he's sacked. One can't say how effective the wicketkeeping of opening batsman (no please, not another one!!!) Mahesh Rawat has been, except that they've conceded too many leads and a few over 300 too. They've even had a change of captain midway through the season. That was one of the most foolish decisions taken in this season.

 

[Pratters]

Expectations from the forthcoming Ranji matches–

• Railways had a disappointing start to the season. Can they turn it around this time? Bangar's batting has been a cause for concern, not so much the form of the Delhi batsmen. They've got a good chance of repeating the turnaround.

• 
  
  The strategy to have an underprepared wicket to effect a result back fired for them as they came out the losers.

 

[Pratters]

Jaffer has been excellent right through the season - Duleep as well as Ranji.

Murali Karthik is performing very well as well.

And Dinesh Karthik has hit a brilliant century to respond to More's reservations on his batting with a splendid 98* in 111 balls versus Mumbai - one of the better teams this season.

It may have come a day late but I am really sad at his exclusion.

 

[Arjun]

The strategy to have an underprepared wicket to effect a result back fired for them as they came out the losers.

Now Sehwag said that this was an underprepared wicket, and even filed a formal complaint to the BCCI about this.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Surely with Delhi's batting strengths a placid track would be far more preferable to them, not a dustbowl for Kartik to bowl on?

 

[Arjun]

Surely with Delhi's batting strengths a placid track would be far more preferable to them, not a dustbowl for Kartik to bowl on?

I'm not too sure they'd be comfortable on any track, and all they need to survive are more moments of madness by the opposition.

 

[Arjun]

End of day three.......AND WE HAVE ANOTHER RESULT!!!

Karnataka have won their match, blowing away Maharashtra for a mere 144, winning by an innings. That's going to catapult them a long way up, since they also enforced a follow-on. Vinay Kumar took 5 wickets in the first innings, while Raghavendra took four in the second.

Things looking dreadful for Haryana here. They've lost 8 wickets for 125, trailing by 78 runs. An innings defeat is on the cards. A big fall from their impressive start. Against one of the weaker teams in the Elite league. Bring back Ratra!

Baroda, on the other hand, are in good shape, and they're most likely to win the match against Punjab, chasing a total of 105. At 73/4, it would only take a moment of madness for them to lose this match.

Mumbai v/s Tamil Nadu looks a little too one-sided. Mumbai declared at 430, then had TN all-out for 275, had them follow on, and now TN are at 205/5. Dinesh Karthik got his century, serving a reminder to the selectors who left him out from the tour of Pakistan.

The last match was a snooze. Nothing of note happening there, but for Laxman not getting a big score.

 

[honestbharani]

I hope people remember this knock of Kaarthick next time. The guy has truckloads of talent and needs to be encouraged. He may not be as disciplined with the bat as Parthiv, but he is the one more likely to score a hundred in tough conditions. I always see Parthiv as a 50s and 60s player. I juz don't see him getting even a first class hundred in the next year or so.

 

[Pratters]

Brilliant bowling performances by youngsters Kaushik Reddy and Inder Reddy to claim the victory for Hyderabad vs Services (18 wickets between them).

Just 19 wickets well in 4 days in Bengal vs Gujrat and both teams finished with no points. Bengal slides down the table thus. Can the return of Ganguly for the next match do them any good? We will see.

20 year old Sahil Kulkreja continues to impress for Mumbai as despite the effort of Dinesh Karthik Mumbai win the match confortably.

Baroda courtesy Zaheer Khan in the match over powered Punjab and climbed to the top of their group as expected with partly runs required to win today.

Andhra got an innings win with Sahabuddin finishing with 9 wickets in the match vs Haryana.

It has been a good Ranji Trophy so far with youngsters performing and good competitive matches and the Bengal vs Gujrat type matches being the exception rather than the norm.

 

[honestbharani]

The young bowlers of Karnataka and Hyderabad seem to be promising.

 

[Pratters]

A bit on Mumbai -

A close eye has to be kept on Mumbai youngsters. A lot of these players are getting opportunities in the FC level with so many players having shifted to other states while Mumbai wasnt getting favour from the selectors.

So space for youngsters to come in for Mumbai like Kulkreja is presently. There are quite a few youngsters now in the squad and a few waiting eagerly as well.

Also this may well be the year of Mumbai resurgence Ranji Trophy wise.