*Official* Indian Domestic Season 2004/2005

[Arjun]

They are all-rounders, but not very good. A lot of them average less than 30 with the bat or more than 30 with the ball. Moreover, they play for Tier II teams, so they may not even be close to an India-A call-up, except for Dhoni, Sunny and Sharma. However, they notice their role as one missing in the national side, so they perform it as well as they can, which helps their teams. Haryana's recent upswing has been largely due to Joginder's feats.

Powar is not only in the top 10 among bowlers, but also scores vital runs at numbers 7 through 9. He is a regular bowler for his team and has contributed in many a good bowling performance by them. Whenever the team was in trouble with several wickets lost, he would strike back with some attacking but controlled batting and pull them out of trouble. His batting looks weird, but effective.

Sehwag has the potential to bowl as many as 7 overs at a stretch in ODI's and can even bowl a few overs in Tests to cut out other bowlers' dry weight overs (as many as 24 such overs were bowled by Kumble in Mohali), thus reducing burnout of other bowlers. He just has to be played as a bulk/stock bowler and not just in bits and pieces. Yuvraj bowls rubbish. The sooner he's taken off, the better. Kaif doesn't bowl too many even in domestic matches.

Pathan and Balaji are primarily bowlers for their sides, but are also very good with the bat. They can be used exclusively to score quickly, rather than build a long innings, and hit lots of big shots cleanly- they have the right build and technique. As with Sehwag, they too have to practise. In the TN side, with Suresh far from certain to make the XI, Gokulakrishnan retired (he's not been seen in the last two sessions) and Dinesh Karthik not in good nick, Balaji has a good chance. Both Irfan and his brother can hit the ball hard and if they play together, Baroda's chances of winning a tournament will shoot up.

Ultimately, though there are so many multi-skilled players coming in for India, they must be used fully and not in bits and pieces- batting higher than 8,9,10,11 and bowling at least 7 overs.

 

[Arjun]

Rajat Bhatia was spotted by a Times Of India journalist as a hard-hitting middle-order batsman who could swing the ball like Manoj Prabhakar. He was on the TN bench for a long time and now plays for Delhi- strangely, he hardly gets more than 5 overs a match, while Jadeja bowled 22 overs in a match and didn't pick up the ball even once.

Gaurav Dhiman from the U-19's is another player to watch. He's been consistently scoring quickly and he's been in good bowling form.

 

[marc71178]

Ultimately, though there are so many multi-skilled players coming in for India, they must be used fully and not in bits and pieces- batting higher than 8,9,10,11 and bowling at least 7 overs.

So just drop the specialist batsmen then?

 

[honestbharani]

I think Sourav tends to just use one or two of his batsmen as bowlers every innings...Like at times he uses Sehwag and Sachin and at times he uses himself and Sachin/Sehwag. Maybe he could give them all a go for 3 or 4 overs and see how things go. They tend to make the odd breakthrough.

 

[Arjun]

I think Sourav tends to just use one or two of his batsmen as bowlers every innings...Like at times he uses Sehwag and Sachin and at times he uses himself and Sachin/Sehwag. Maybe he could give them all a go for 3 or 4 overs and see how things go. They tend to make the odd breakthrough.

Instead, he should use the same bowler for 7 overs in every match and rotate the last three overs. Splitting 10 overs among 4 bowlers repeatedly is too big a risk.

 

[Arjun]

Suggested Ranji lineups- MUMBAI:

• Jaffer
• Mane
• Indulkar
• Shetty
• Mazumdar
• Bahutule(21)
• Powar(18)
• Agarkar(17)
• Samant(WK)
• Malvi(18)
• Hazare/Shinde(16)

 

[Arjun]

RAILWAYS:

• Bangar(16)
• Pagnis
• TP Singh(7)
• YKT Goud
• Raja Ali
• G Shankara Rao
• JP Yadav(22)
• Siddharth Joshi
• Karthik(20)
• Parida(22)
• Harvinder(16)

 

[honestbharani]

Instead, he should use the same bowler for 7 overs in every match and rotate the last three overs. Splitting 10 overs among 4 bowlers repeatedly is too big a risk.

That is what he does, usually. And, I meant giving them all 3 or 4 overs in Test cricket.

 

[Arjun]

That is what he does, usually. And, I meant giving them all 3 or 4 overs in Test cricket.

That split of overs NEVER works- someone among them bowls utter rubbish, or all of them do. When one bowler among the four strike bowlers goes for more than a few runs or without a wicket, that combination makes the bowling look weaker. With one man bowling 7 overs out of 50 regularly, he gets used to bowling and can be more consistent. These part-timers don't bowl very often and are hence prone to making mistakes such as overstepping, long-hops or wides.

 

[Arjun]

• Yuvraj will make the starting lineup for Punjab for the semi-final.
• Hyderabad won't be so lucky, and they may be Railroaded in that other match

 

[chris.hinton]

Rajat Bhatia was spotted by a Times Of India journalist as a hard-hitting middle-order batsman who could swing the ball like Manoj Prabhakar. He was on the TN bench for a long time and now plays for Delhi- strangely, he hardly gets more than 5 overs a match, while Jadeja bowled 22 overs in a match and didn't pick up the ball even once.

Gaurav Dhiman from the U-19's is another player to watch. He's been consistently scoring quickly and he's been in good bowling form.

i did not know that Jadeja is still playing?

 

[Arjun]

i did not know that Jadeja is still playing?

He was brought back into action recently and was picked for the Delhi Ranji side as vice-captain. He has been in very good form, averaging over 50 with a strike rate of over 70. He's not in contention for a spot in the national side, though- the farthest he got was the North Zone side for the Deodhar Trophy.

 

[Arjun]

Hmmm....everyone has forgotten about the Ranji semis. Still, Mumbai are all out for 251, with top scores by Amol Mazumdar (old hand never fails, 73), Agarkar (47) and Powar (37, fewer fours, more singles), but none of the others got too many. Gagandeep Singh took 4 wickets, while Vikram Singh got 3 and Sodhi, 2 for 64. Punjab just lost two quick wickets- Gaurav Gupra and Yuvraj for not too many, and are at 37/2, both snared by left-arm spinner Kulkarni.

In the other match, Hyderabad have been rolled over for just 166, with little Harvinder Singh taking 4 wickets and Yadav, three. Railways lost 4 wickets on their way to 103, with Pagnis top-scoring with 48 and JP Yadav at the crease, with 23 off 29. Hyderabad's Anirudh Singh top-scored with 92, but nobody else contributed. Their best bowler so far is P Ojha, playing his first match.

 

[Arjun]

In the Plate semifinal at Chandigarh, Haryana are at 137.3, with a steady 48 by opener Bist. Sunny (62*) and Shafiq Khan (11*) are unbeaten at stumps. A wicket each for Diwakar, Rao and Shahid Khan.

 

[Arjun]

Have the Mumbai side erred in picking five bowlers? Someone else on another board thinks so. But whom do you play? Bhavin Thakkar and Praful Waghela are too raw and don't have much in their favour to play in a semi, while Robin Morris (who can bowl seam-up) is out injured. That same poster suggested bringing in Wilkin Mota for Salvi, since Mota's a better batsman, but the man who should have been replaced is Kulkarni- when the national team needs more seam bowlign options, the last thing a top domestic side should do is pick 3 spinners and 2 seamers. An attack of Agarkar/Salvi/Mota/Bahutule/Powar would be fine, and you'd get more runs out of them. With 9 wickets taken by the Punjab seamers, have they prepared another grasstrack in India? Seems to be a trend of sorts.

 

[honestbharani]

Hyderabad made the semis because of VVS and with him not here, it is obvious they won't do much.

 

[Arjun]

Railways are not doing too well either- they were all out for 180, with JP Yadav making 40 in 18 deliveries, with 5 fours and a six. Right now, they have Hyderabad at 151/5, with Daniel Manohar unbeaten at 63 (seems to be blocking all day, he's hit 10 fours) and Shivlal Yadav Jr. just in- now they're in with a chance to take a few quick wickets.

Punjab are all out for 126- strangely, they have gone in with 6 bowlers, a selection that defies logic- promising middle-order batsman Ankur Kakkar may consider himself unlucky to be left out. Then they take 8 Mumbai wickets for 110, with Gagandeep taking 4 wickets. He and Vikram Singh bowled a very good line and length, as the Times of India said. The stage is set for a blazing Yuvraj century.

Talking of Yuvraj, he definitely has a few temperamental issues left behind. He came in at 17/1, facing Nilesh Kiulkarni, and was opened up on three balls without scoring, then spooned one straight bac to the lanky left-arm spinner from the North East. Just as he was walking back, some insensitive so-called fan shouted out- "How will you face McGrath next time?"- that was a sickening remark, but there was no need for what Yuvraj did- he called the fan in the centre and almost roughed him up, till the security guards entered.

And about the low scores- What is it with these curators? They've gone to the other extreme in their bid to solve the problem of pitches in the country. OFten blamed for making dead, flat, benign pitches that make several matches high-scoring and bowlers droop shoulders, they've struck back with a vengeance, preparing minefields you won't even find in New Zealand. In the last two matches, you have scores of 251, 126, 10/8, 166 and 180 and in the Duleep Final, scores of less than 150, and a similar trend in the league matches as well, though not so bad.

Making sporting wickets is one issue, but making grazing patches for Red Deans is another, and defeats the very purpose of making seamer-friendly wickets. You may soon have more Daryl Tuffey clones all over the country. No doubt quality pacers will thrive, but so will a bunch of lazy pretenders who will pitch the ball all over the place only to get away with it due to excessive movement. Slow-medium crawlers will look devastating, until they make the national side. Perhaps the influence of a New Zealand expert may have a hand in this- maybe they can replace him with an Australian- they truly know how to make a cricket pitch.

There is an exception- Haryana made over 450. Snny Singh converted his 62 into a 137, then Joginder Sharma made 38 rapid runs in 50 balls, with 6 fours- this SHOULD have been converted into a century, but still effective. Ajay Ratra made a useful 40, seamer Sachin Rana made a stodgy 83, with more contributions from Amit Mishra (47) and Gaurav Vashisht (21). They have taken two Jharkhand wickets, with Dhoni yet to arrive. Dhoni may be a huge obstacle (though only 5'11") but the rest of that side is no threat. Haryana can't lose from here.

 

[Arjun]

Railways have won their match...easy did it....with Pagnis unbeaten on 98. Punjab need 99 runs to win with 6 wickets left. Haryana have taken 8 J'Khand wickets for 269. Make that 9- Mishra has 6 for over 60.

 

[Arjun]

In the fourth match, hardly any lay was recorded- play on all 3 days was delayed due to a wet outfield. HP are at 9/0. The semi-finalist may be decided on the toss of a coin.

Haryana get their two points- Jharkhand is all out for 308. There seems to be a plan to bowl the spinners for a long time, given how long Mishra (LBG) and Gaurav Vashisht (OB) have bowled in tandem, while Joginder only bowled 15 overs, Malik and Rana, 19 together.

 

[viktor]

The Punjab-Mumbai match is interestingly poised.. Punjab need 28 runs to win with 3 wickets in hand. Dharmani has played a top hand for Punjab so far, lets see if he can take them through. For Mumbai, AA has 4 wickets while Bahutule has been tight.