*Official* Indian Domestic Season 2004/2005

[viktor]

Wow! Kambli was not performing but still that seems pretty drastic esp since essentially one of Powar or Sai has replaced him. I guess they decided the combo of Bahutule, Powar and Agarkar would give them enough runs to cover for Kambli. But like you said, good move, though they might need a specialist batsman there in the knock-out stages. Maybe Bhavin Thakkar can get back in.

 

[viktor]

Just looking at the scores around the country at lunch, the batsmen are really struggling, Mum 82/2, Pun 78/5, Del 65/5, Hyd 87/4... wonder if its the pitches..

 

[masterblaster]

It should be tough for the domestic bowlers. There are a lot of technical mistakes in Indian domestic cricket- be it a wide gap between bat and pad, or a short ball bowled repeatedly. International players would exploit them fully, and these domestic regulars would think twice when continuing with these same sub-standard methods. It is not easy to bowl to Sachin Tendulkar, but if they don't bowl to him, how will they ever face the Haydens, Trescothicks, Smiths and Gayles? That is the basic objective.

Yeah, I agree with that although I doubt the bigger stars even care for Domestic Cricket these days.

 

[Arjun]

Wow! Kambli was not performing but still that seems pretty drastic esp since essentially one of Powar or Sai has replaced him. I guess they decided the combo of Bahutule, Powar and Agarkar would give them enough runs to cover for Kambli. But like you said, good move, though they might need a specialist batsman there in the knock-out stages. Maybe Bhavin Thakkar can get back in.

They have enough runs in Morris (he's a frontline batsman), Powar, Bahutule, Agarkar and ven Samant, so five specialist batsmen are enough. One good thing about Mumbai is that there are so many multi-skilled players in the side, but they would be a lot better if they played against the Indian senior players more often.

Just looking at the scores around the country at lunch, the batsmen are really struggling, Mum 82/2, Pun 78/5, Del 65/5, Hyd 87/4... wonder if its the pitches.

Hopefully these pitches are of Test standard, not like Mumbai2002, Mumbai2004 and those minefields in NZ.

Yeah, I agree with that although I doubt the bigger stars even care for Domestic Cricket these days.

At the end of 2002, Kumble played a match for Karnataka, and Prasad still turns up. Laxman is quite a dominating Ranji batsman- he scores triple hundreds and scores a lto of runs in fours and even sixes. Dravid hardly ever turns up for Ranji matches, while Tendulkar made the Mumbai team for the Ranji final and IRani match. These four are the most valuable, but least seen. The schedules are a problem.

 

[Arjun]

End of Day One-

• Mumbai v/s Andhra- After losing the openers, Mumbai bounced back to score 305/3, with Vineet Indulkar and Amol Mazumdar both scoring exactly 111 runs.
• Punjab v/s Baroda- The pitch aided the seamers, and Baroda made o mistake choosing to field first, as their seamers, particularly Irfan Safi Pathan, rolled over the Punjab batting side for 175. Punjab opened with someone other than Reetinder Sodhi, which is a good sign, though it didn't help.
• Delhi v/s Railways- Losing half the side for 43 runs, Delhi captain Ajay Jadeja scored a slow 74 and is still unbeaten. He formed two parenerships, with Varun Kumar and Sarandeep Singh. Delhi are at 176/6. The key bowler for Railways was Harvinder Singh, with 3 wickets.
• Karnataka v/s MP- Very good start for Karnataka, with both openers getting over 160 runs. Barrington is still unbeaten, and the final score on day 1 is 261/1

 

[Pratters]

A prediction - R.P.Singh .. a 20 year old player will go on to play for India.

Just into his 6th FC match, he took 10 wickets vs a U.P. batting line up. For a medium pacer that is a big achievment in domestic cricket so early in his career. Hoping for the best.

http://ind.cricinfo.com/db/PLAYERS/IND/S/SINGH_RP_06047123/

 

[viktor]

Have you seen him play? If not, that would be a really bold call. Its just 5 matches, can't go by the stats, IMO.

 

[Pratters]

Have you seen him play? If not, that would be a really bold call. Its just 5 matches, can't go by the stats, IMO.

Havent watched him. But for a fast/medium fast bowler to take 10 wickets early in his career is no men achievment. And he is just 20 years old. Long time for my prediction to come true. So its a safe prediciton and not entirely bold

 

[Arjun]

Havent watched him. But for a fast/medium fast bowler to take 10 wickets early in his career is no men achievment. And he is just 20 years old. Long time for my prediction to come true. So its a safe prediciton and not entirely bold

Let's see how consistently he gets wickets, at what average. A more reliable choice is Gagandeep Singh, who has played six times as many FC matches, and has taken over 150 wickets at an average of 20. He has maintained that average for six seasons, as the breakup on CricketArchive.com suggests.

No point picking someone on the basis of his age and his first performance- one just needs to remember Ambati Rayudu. He slogged 221 runs against a weak Andhra attack, but got scores of 0 and 1 against a strong Mumbai attack, yet there were (and still are) a few who think he's good enough for the Indian team. In the Challenger series, his shot selection was terrible. Let RP Singh get a full season so that he can prove himself. If he bowls at express pace, the selectors may watch him, but their pace options should be restricted to those has-beens in the Indian side, with Gagandeep, Amit Bhandari, Avishkar Salvi, Irfan Pathan and SteamShip. The selectors don't need more medium-pacers. They need all-rounders and tearaway fast bowlers.

 

[Arjun]

A prediction - R.P.Singh .. a 20 year old player will go on to play for India.

Just into his 6th FC match, he took 10 wickets vs a U.P. batting line up. For a medium pacer that is a big achievment in domestic cricket so early in his career. Hoping for the best.

http://ind.cricinfo.com/db/PLAYERS/IND/S/SINGH_RP_06047123/

CricketArchive lists him as a Left-arm medium-pacer, while CricInfo thinks he's a right-armer. Not to mention his name is either Rudra Pratap Singh or Rudrapa P. Singh respectively.

 

[viktor]

Cricinfo is wrong atleast as far as the name goes. Couldn't figure out if he is a left-armer or not.

 

[Arjun]

Cricinfo is wrong atleast as far as the name goes. Couldn't figure out if he is a left-armer or not.

News reports say he is. Moreover, I have seen him in action once, in a tour match against NZ.

 

[Arjun]

Mumbai is back on top of the table, with Nilesh Kulkarni taking his career best 7/60 to defeat Andhra. He's 31 and not in the frame for national selection, but that does not stop him from trying. What do you think? Is his success a good thing in domestic cricket? Should the national selectors think again and reconsider him as a spin option? Or should the Mumbai selectors drop him and look for someone younger?

In the other group, Punjab have won their second match in a row, out of three. If thier batting improves, they can emerge a serious contender for the title and do what final-flops TN couldn't do twice in a row- pose a threat to Mumbai. For that, they need more consistency at the top of the order, which has been missing- Reetinder Sodhi and Binwant Singh have been far short of the mark. Yuvraj Singh is another key player- when he gets a foot in, he can take the game away from the opposition with his hard hitting. Contributions from Dinesh Mongia, Pankaj Dharmani and Ankur Kakkar will be vital. Gagandeep Singh has been taking wickets in bucketfuls and has been a key player in their good form. He should last the full season.

The star sons in the Karnataka side are contributing next-to-nothing. Stuart Binny and Udit Patel have been short of runs as well as wickets. Scorpio Speedster winner NSC Aiyappa (max speed 135km/h in the final) has not been in the best of form either. They can try Gaurav Dhiman from the U-19's, who opened the bowling and batted at number 8. This selection can add more balance and more power to the team .

 

[Arjun]

An interesting excerpt from an article about Mumbai's victory in the Times of India, Mumbai-

Excerpt from the Times of India, November 29
Kulkarni, bowling with the new ball, got one to break and wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant took an alert catch. Samant's general display earned praise from coach Chadrakant Pandit who said: "His glovework is the best I have seen in the country."- a clear message to Pandit's one-time Indian team keeping rival, Kiran More, today the chairman of the national selection committee.

I have no idea about Chandu's intention here, but if Samant was so good for so long, why was he never given a chance? He has been keeping to spinners who hunt in pairs and even trios and still maintains an impressive performance, as Mumbai win quite a few matches. In last year's Ranji final as well as the previous year's when fans could watch him in action, he kept quite well.

 

[Arjun]

Your opinion of the Haryana side? They have a lot of young players, and some of them can contribute in more than one skill. Hopefully they will win the Plate championship- they already have 6 points so far.

 

[viktor]

Mumbai is back on top of the table, with Nilesh Kulkarni taking his career best 7/60 to defeat Andhra. He's 31 and not in the frame for national selection, but that does not stop him from trying. What do you think? Is his success a good thing in domestic cricket? Should the national selectors think again and reconsider him as a spin option? Or should the Mumbai selectors drop him and look for someone younger?

In the other group, Punjab have won their second match in a row, out of three. If thier batting improves, they can emerge a serious contender for the title and do what final-flops TN couldn't do twice in a row- pose a threat to Mumbai. For that, they need more consistency at the top of the order, which has been missing- Reetinder Sodhi and Binwant Singh have been far short of the mark. Yuvraj Singh is another key player- when he gets a foot in, he can take the game away from the opposition with his hard hitting. Contributions from Dinesh Mongia, Pankaj Dharmani and Ankur Kakkar will be vital. Gagandeep Singh has been taking wickets in bucketfuls and has been a key player in their good form. He should last the full season.

The star sons in the Karnataka side are contributing next-to-nothing. Stuart Binny and Udit Patel have been short of runs as well as wickets. Scorpio Speedster winner NSC Aiyappa (max speed 135km/h in the final) has not been in the best of form either. They can try Gaurav Dhiman from the U-19's, who opened the bowling and batted at number 8. This selection can add more balance and more power to the team .

With Kumble, Harbhajan and Kartik doing well, its unlikely that Kulkarni will ever get back into contention. That does not however mean that he should be dropped from Mumbai team. The reason he is in the squad is because he is one of the top 3 spinners the Mum selectors have to choose from. Rajesh Powar and Pawar were both decent spinners but couldn't make it as Kulkarni performed much better than them. So I don't think he is holding back any talent from Mumbai.
I am happy for Punjab; I like most of their players, at least those who have been around for a while, dunno too much about the new ones. Ravneet Ricky will hopefully be more consistent this season. Sodhi, I like for the effort but I don't rate him much as a player and playing him as an opener is a strategy only to try and get him into the national side.
About Samant, I dunno, he has apparently always kept well but has never ever been in contention. His batting, from all accounts is also not too bad.

 

[Arjun]

Rajesh Powar and Pawar were both decent spinners but couldn't make it as Kulkarni performed much better than them.

Rajesh Pawar was not up to the mark, so he couldn't make the Mumbai side- another left-armer had performed better for a long time. Moreover, he didn't contribute as many runs as Sairaj Bahutule or Ramesh Powar (especially Powar), so his chances of staying in the Mumbai side were slim.

 

[Arjun]

Sodhi, I like for the effort but I don't rate him much as a player and playing him as an opener is a strategy only to try and get him into the national side.

He burst onto the FC scene with good batting as well as bowling performances. His ODI career was never really impressive, since he lacked the body build to match his aggressive, berserk style and his match temperament was not the best either. His main strengths are his speed, reflexes and accuracy on the field (he has the best reflexes in the Indian side) and his attitude- he always plays for a win.

With the intelligent Intikhab alam as Punjab's coach, he may improve not just as a batsman, but also as a bowler- he has suggested changes in his bowling action and so far, his bowling has been decent. His batting, however, has suffered, but that was because he was opening the innings and that is by no stretch of imagination the right place for him, and luckily that mistake has been corrected. Hopefully Binwant Singh or the other opener is more consistent. As someone pointed out, Punjab didn't reach far last season since the bowlers did not get enough runs behind them. With that silly Bangladesh series coming up, Harbhajan can return to his state side and strengthen their bowling and at the same time, utilise this chance to improve his batting as well.

Hopefully they'll roll over TN. The TN bowling lineup is not so strong, especially without Balaji, but their batting is still strong. Once Punjab knock them over, they will become Tournament contenders.

By the way, has anyone seen Gagandeep Singh anywhere? How tall is the man? I had seen clips of a Duleep match and he's quite muscular. Hopefully he's built like a fast bowler.

 

[viktor]

I haven't seen Gagandeep.. heck I haven't seen int'l cricket for a while now.
Coming back to Mumbai and the left-armers, any idea who the oher guy was? . I remember there being competition for the third spinner's spot but can't rem. if it was just kulkarni and pawar or if there was someone else

 

[Arjun]

I haven't seen Gagandeep.. heck I haven't seen int'l cricket for a while now.
Coming back to Mumbai and the left-armers, any idea who the oher guy was? . I remember there being competition for the third spinner's spot but can't rem. if it was just kulkarni and pawar or if there was someone else

There was a lot of competition between Kulkarni and Rajesh Pawar. Sometimes, both would lose out to a third seamer- Robin Morris. Their main disadvantage as compared with Bahutule and Powar was that they couldn't contribute as many runs.

By the way, the selectors once confused Ramwsh POWAR with Rajesh PAWAR!