South Zone will host Central Zone. North Zone and West Zone will clash in the other semi. There are no stars in this series, making it rather inconsequential. Let's look at two issues here.
Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Pankaj Singh and Deepak Chahar have scalped more than a few wickets each. What does it hold in store for the IPL? Delhi's utterly incomprehensible approach in the IPL auction has left them stuck with Dinda and Umesh, while Rajasthan's decision to support home-grown talent has had them stick with Pankaj and Deepak. Both teams have some strong overseas batting picks, but as a result, to get the most out of that, may depend a lot on their domestic bowlers.
There was this phase in the domestic scene, when you had overseas players involved, with Rajasthan actually getting two (Vikram Solanki and Kabir Ali from England), and while they initially did well, the absence of both hurt them as they got relegated. The Duleep Trophy was also revised, with two groups, featuring the five zones and an overseas team- highlight teams were England A and Sri Lanka A, but in between, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh sent their reserve teams, resulting in some very one-sided games. Eventually, a panel of experts decided that there will be no foreign players in the Indian domestic circuit. Do you think this was a step backward? With Indian players often missing domestic games and Indian domestic performers with no experience against someone of international standard, there's a huge trick missed here.
