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*Official* Indian Domestic Season 2004/2005

honestbharani

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
I think people have been inspired by the Gillespie/McGrath show....:)


Balaji has taken 6 and apparently bowled really well in his third and fourth spells. It is good to see him getting back into some kind of rhythm. I hope he has gotten that lovely outswinger of his going. One reason why Pathan and Balaji were so good as a pair in Pakistan was because Pathan brought the ball into the right handers and Balaji got it to move away. Reverse for the left handers.


Great to see Yuvi, Viru, Laxman, Gambhir, Kaarthick make a few runs.... 3 of them are gonna start in the tests and it is important for them to get into the groove. I hope Laxman scores a big one in the second innings. He is a very important player and we need him in good form.
 
Deja moo

Deja moo

International Captain
Arjun said:
In that other match, Central are all out for 351, while BCBXI are at 117/6. JP Yadav made up for the low score of 10 with 3 wickets for 29.
Click to expand...
Yes, this guy Yadav can really bowl well for a medium pacer, can't he? I didnt think much of him before (think Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Reetinder Singh Sodhi), but his bowling really is useful.
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Deja moo said:
Yes, this guy Yadav can really bowl well for a medium pacer, can't he? I didnt think much of him before (think Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Reetinder Singh Sodhi), but his bowling really is useful.
Click to expand...
He's a keeper-stand-up medium-pacer, which may be why he's out of the team for so long. Lack of pace is a common problem with all seam bowlers in India, but he's bowling like a strike bowler in the recent past. His batting has been on the decline, but he can still hit the ball hard very often. When he was picked due to good all-round form, he got a very raw deal from the selectors and management- he just got in at the 45th over and in two matches, he bowled six bad overs, while Nehra bowled more than six terrible overs repeatedly.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla used to be a very average all-rounder for Bengal, which is why he was picked. Now he has stopped bowling, but his batting form has improved- look at his explosive 123 off 143 in the Duleep Trophy.

Reetinder Sodhi was full of energy and very talented, but very wayward and loose. That was until Intikhab Alam became coach of the Punjab side. He changed Sodhi's bowling action and batting strokes, and his effect has been noticed- he averages over 64 (largely due to one 251*) with the bat and less than 20 with the ball, as fourth seamer. The only problem is that he's miscast as an opener, and save that massive 250, he's done nothing of note. He's had a very good Ranji OD series, averaging 92 with the bat.
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
In that silly match at Karnail, Central have set a target of 417 for BCBXI. Their batting was sub-par, as four batsmen, including the prolific JP Yadav, were dismissed for no runs! Worse, Sanjay Bangar and Nikhil Doru were crawling along at a strike rate of 30!
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
In the more high-profile match in Indore, South were dismissed for 302 within a day. Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra got four wickets each, but seamers Nehra and Bhandari got taken for a few runs too many, though they had a wicket each. Dinesh Karthik and Balaji got out for not too many- 7 runs between them. Laxman can hit the ball a long way- his 59 runs included one six. Swapnil Asnodkar was the dark horse as he got to 74 with 11 fours, off 134. Save three of the top four, none of the other South batsmen got going.

A little too much is made of Maninder Bisla, the HP keeper. He's an opening batsman asked to keep. He's not been in good form with the bat, though his glovework is difficult to comment on, except that he's not a regular. Sad for Ajay Ratra.
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Now some deranged fools are pelting objects at the players in Indore. How low can they get? Sehwag even called his team off when Amit Bhandari was hit by something. They brought the teams bak after the stand was cleared. The comment by that doofus MPCA secretary was sickening-
It happens even in international matches
Click to expand...
Does he actually condone such behaviour? This is actually the second incident, the first being a stone hitting VVS Laxman. Talk about apathy towards domestic matches- this time, the fans are responsible. Are they even fans? Or a mad bunch of attention-seekers?
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
The match between BCBXI and Central has ended in a draw. Looks like it was called off midway, where BCBXI were at 199/6, with one session left. One should not even bother reading into what happened here, since the venue was chosen at the last minute, there were no fans, no doctors and at least three Central batsmen chose to play out an extra large number of dot balls. Worse, star attraction JP Yadav was not getting on with his hitting.

North raced to a victory, getting 146/3. Openers fell early, while Akash Chopra, at three, fell cheaply too. Yuvraj and the steady Dinesh Mongia led the team to their second win, as Dinesh stroked 9 fours (he still doesn't bother running) and Yuvraj blasted 60 in 38, with 7 fours and 4 sixes. He's proven that he deserves a Test spot.
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Meanwhile, the second tier of the Ranji Trophy as Himachal, Services, Haryana and Jharkhand in the semis. Not much can be expected of Services- they don't stand a chance of winning the series and would be lucky to make the next stage. Himachal will have to depend on Maninder Bisla, the young ex-India U-19 batsman, who's now playing as a keeper. Some of their bowlers are in form, particularly spinner Vishal Bhatia, but batting is slightly shaky, depending so much on Sangram Singh and Bisla. Haryana are a very young side in comparison and stand a good chance of making the finals, or even winning the series. They have three batsmen in good form- one of them is their in-form strike bowler Joginder Sharma- and will have to bat well to get ahead. They face Jharkhand, who have the explosive MS Dhoni in their ranks, but nobody else so effective. The winner of the Jharkhand/Haryana semi has a good chance of winning the series.
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
The final of the Duleep Trophy will be between North Zone and Central Zone. Since this coincides with the first Test between India and Pakistan, the star value that characterised the league matches will be missing, except for the return of Mohammed Kaif for Central- maybe we won't have JP Yadav not enforcing a follow-on when needed. Central look the stronger team, but North have promising youngsters and dependable A-team players. North can take a risk and go in with five bowlers and give Joginder more batting practice, but with Jadeja likely to return, that may not happen, though opener Ravneet Ricky should not bat in the middle-order.
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Suggested lineup for NORTH:
  • Aakash Chopra
  • Ravneet Ricky/Dhawan
  • Dinesh Mongia
  • Pankaj Dharmani
  • Sangram Singh/Jadeja
  • Joginder Sharma
  • +MS Bisla
  • Amit Bhandari
  • Amit Mishra

  • Vishal Bhatia
  • Gagandeep Singh
and CENTRAL:
  • Faiz Fazal
  • Amit Pagnis
  • Mohammad Kaif (Captain)
  • Suresh Raina
  • S Abbas Ali
  • Jai Prakash Yadav
  • Sanjay Bangar
  • +Naman Ojha
  • Murali Kartik
  • Kulamani Parida
  • Rudra Pratap Singh
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Everyone has forgotten about the Duleep Trophy final. A terrible batting performance from the North Zone batsmen had them skittled out for a paltry 104, with Central's JP Yadav taking 5 wickets yet again, and RP Singh getting two. North struck back leaving Central at 94/4 at the end of the day's play. Bangar's dreadful run with the bat continues- he's got out for zero yet again, though he took a wicket for 18. Central have two fresh batsmen and North have a chance to get them out for not too many. What sort of pitch have they got? Seems heavily in favour of the seamers- they've bowled a lot of overs and have ER's of less than 2, though Bhandari, Gagandeep and Sharma have gone for more.
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Good to see some support here. Just take one look at SportNetwork ICF- everyone discusses the Indian domestic scene actively. With so many India supporters, why can't the same happen here?
 
marc71178

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
I see that Bhandari scored 9 from 8 balls including a 6.

Surely he must be in the selectors minds for that effort?
 
honestbharani

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
I juz read that Bindra interview and I think most of his suggestions are extremely good ones. The only one I have a problem with is asking everyone to come to India to play cricket, it could be the death knell of international cricket. Most of his other ideas were extremely pertinent to today's market scenario. But would he actually be able to do all this, even if he became the BCCI president?
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
He seems genuinely interested in improving cricket in India, unlike his predecessors, who either are too concerned about money matters or building an image. The foreign players idea acn be put to good use, if you have one or two in each side, filling vacant roles- openers for Punjab, TN/all-rounders for Hyderabad, Delhi/pacer for Maharashtra,.....

But WHAT is going on in Nagpur? Do they call that minefield a cricket pitch? You have Kulamani Parida, who did not bowl a single over in the match and batted at 11! It is good to have a pitch that offers assistance to the seamers, but to offer so much assistance like those pitches in New Zealand is ridiculous- Harvinder Singh and Bangar have 5 wickets between them in the second innings!
 
Arjun

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Central Zone have won easily, with Mohammed Kaif running hard to make 48 at a strike rate of over 80, while the more steady Sanjay Bangar hit two big shots. Bangar's got runs and wickets here, but it's not a good sign as he's far from ready for international cricket.

If the pitch was bad, the batting was even worse. North's Maninder Bisla played a shot to get dropped at slip. Kaif placed a new man at slip and brought in RP Singh from mid-on to a short mid-on position to stop Bisla's uppished flick. Yet Bisla played that very shot to get out caught by RP Singh.

Then, JP Yadav, who said that the North batsmen helped his team's cause by playing reckless shots, slashed outside off-stump to give Chopra in slips an easy catch off Bhandari, and the others followed suit.

The fielding has been good. Central's Suresh Raina ran out Chopra in a flash and RP Singh caught a catch one-handed at point. With the Indian pacers not being fully effective on the field, RPS and Gagandeep should be considered in ODI's, especially after the latter's run-out of Salman Butt with a direct hit in Dharmashala.
 
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