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By Venkat

The Domestic Season in India is very much alive and back with a bang. After the Irani Trophy, which is officially considered as a curtain-raiser to the season to follow, its now Ranji Trophy time. With the not-so-impressive performances by the Indians against the Aussies and a few places up for grabs in the national team, this season's Ranji Trophy promises to be an interesting one and something that one cannot choose to ignore. The two new teams that will be in action this season in the Elite group will be the Plate champions Maharashtra and Plate runner up Madhya Pradesh. The first round of matches got underway on Sunday, the 7th of November and the teams for once looked evenly matched as the star players returned to their state colours. Here is a review of the matches that took place on the 7th November to 10th November at various venues across the country.

Till date, the Ranji champions, Mumbai have had an indifferent season. A defeat against the Rest of India in the Irani Trophy and a tour match in which the Aussies dominated them was something they had to forget ahead of their all important Ranji trophy opener against Railways. On the other hand, the Railmen have always been a thorn in the Mumbai flesh and this was a match, that had all the makings of a good, tight opener. After Mumbai won the toss and chose to bat, disaster struck them when opener Vinayak Mane was out in the very first over. But a determined partnership between Test discard Wasim Jaffer and Rookie batsman Vinit Indulkar resurrected the Mumbai innings as they dominated the Railways bowlers. The other notable contributions were from veteran Amol Mazumdar. The Mumbai innings folded up at 361 and one can say, that there was an air of confidence among the bowlers. The Railways first innings had nothing substantial to speak about. Their batting certainly looked rusty and with all the starts players like Tejinder Pal Singh and JP Yadav got, one feels that Railways batted below par to end their innings at 284. Ajit Agarkar, returned to good bowling form with a fiver in the first innings and thus boosted his chance of making a sooner comeback into the national team. In the second innings, it was the other opener who came to the party, with Vinayak Mane making a solid 111 along with an impressive contribution from young Vinit Indulkar who made 53. Mumbai do not return home empty handed, as they carry 2 points by virtue of their first innings lead, but Railways have to be content with nil. Scorecard

Mumbai play recently promoted Madhya Pradesh at Mumbai next, while Railways host the mighty Bengal at Delhi.
 

Surprise was the name of the game at Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly, a reluctant Ranji player till date, decided to don his State colours barely before a few hours before the game, and thus enhanced his chances of playing against Pakistan. Bengal, led by Rohan Gavaskar won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat deck and the two openers Arindam Das and Deep Dasgupta did not let their skipper down by any means as they added 199 for the opening wicket. But after Das departed after a fine century, there was in a way a collapse in the Bengal batting, with the only notable contribution coming from Sourashish Lahiri, lower down the order. Bengal ended their innings at a disappointing 315 and even more disappointing after the great start they got. The Bengal bowlers had their work cut out and indeed they did deliver. The Karnataka batsmen were all at sea against some quality bowling by Bengal and only Sujit Somasunder stood tall for them as he made a gritty 48. Karnataka meekly folded at 179, thanks to an inspired spell of 6/28 by recalled left-arm spinner Murtaza Lodhgar. Thus gaining a lead of 136 runs, it was consolidation time for the Bengal batsmen. The batsmen did not perform as per expectations, but a well made 60 by Laxmi Ratan Shukla guided Bengal to 206, with a lead of 342. The Karnataka batsmen were always up against it and the writing was on the wall when they were reeling at 117/5. It was eventually going to happen, and it did, thanks to a fiver yet again by Murtaza Lodhgar as Bengal brushed aside Karnataka by 116 runs. It was win that Bengal earned, and this should do their confidence a great deal for the future matches. It will be interesting to see how Karnataka bounce back in the matches ahead. Thanks to this win, Bengal take home 4 points, while Karnataka have some soul-searching to do. Scorecard

Bengal travel to Delhi to play Railways, while Karnataka take on Gujarat at Bangalore in the Second Round.

It was not a perfect start to a cricket match, as rain delayed play on Day 1. But thanks to some good work by the authorities, we had play. Hyderabad would have hoped for something good after they won the toss and elected to bat first. Their batsmen looked hapless against the quality bowling of Tamil Nadu. They could manage all but only 163 runs, with no major contributions. R.Ramkumar ran through the Hyderabad batting and picked up his first fiver of the season, with figures of 6/57. The Tamil Nadu batsmen had a job to do, and a gutsy innings by opener Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan gave them the start they were looking for. He got good support from Subramaniam Badrinath who managed a score of 67. Hemang Badani also chipped in with a fifty and helped Tamil Nadu to a mammoth total of 461/6 decl, with a lead of 298 runs. The Hyderabad batsmen, who looked all at sea in the first innings, did not hesitate to commit the same mistakes they did earlier and did pay for it in the end, as they collapsed to defeat, a jolt that could put their season in tatters. They only managed to get 190, and yet again the man who wrecked the side was R. Ramkumar, who for the second time in the match got a 6 wicket haul. He ended with 6 for 71 in the second innings and a match figure of 12 for 128. Tamil Nadu surely deserved this win and the four points they take from it, while Hyderabad have to go back to the drawing room and learn from this defeat. Scorecard

Hyderabad do not feature in the second round, while Tamil Nadu travel up north to Kanpur to play Uttar Pradesh.

 

Assam have been one of the emerging sides in the Domestic scene for a long time, and this season was going to be a test of how much they have learnt from the past seasons. After Assam won the toss and elected to bat first, trouble beckoned them as they lost one of their openers Aziz early. Parag Das held one end up, but had to be content in seeing wickets fall at the other end and the middle order failed to make an impact. Parag Das eventually got out for 66 and Assam were in deep trouble, until some rear guard action from Sukhvinder Singh and Subhadeep Ghosh took Assam to 273. Mumbai exile Rajesh Pawar took 3 wickets and paceman Rakesh Patel got 4 wickets. The Baroda top order failed to make an impact as they only added 59 runs. But thanks to a fine fine 126 by skipper Jacob Martin and a gutsy 43 by Kiran Powar against his former team, along with some good contributions by Rakesh Solanki and Rakesh Patel, took Baroda to a total of 347. Javed Zaman, Arnald Konwar and Sukhwinder Singh shared the wickets among them, with 3 to each. The Assam second innings also started poorly with the dismissal of Parag Das in the very first over. But P Aziz and Syed Zuffri added some good runs with Zuffri making 106 and Aziz making 74. Tamil Nadu exile Vasant Saravanan got into batting mode when he scored a confidence boosting 102 not out. The match ended in a draw with Assam managing 360/4 in the second innings. Baroda were the gainers, as they took 2 points thanks to the 74 run first innings lead and Assam have to be content with nil. Scorecard

Assam play Punjab next at Mohali while Baroda take on western rivals Maharashtra at Pune.
 

Madhya Pradesh are one of the two newbies to be promoted into the Elite League of the Ranji Trophy. They took on Andhra at Indore in their first game. Andhra won the toss and elected to bat on a flat deck and their batsmen did not respond well initially to the call of the skipper as at one stage they were reeling at 147 for 5. But the man of the moment for Andhra cricket, Y Venugopal Rao took charge and since then, there was no looking back for Andhra. He received good support from K Sahabuddin, who made 86 and that crucial partnership helped Andhra towards a reasonable total. Rao made 140 runs, and Andhra ended their innings at 361. Former India leggie Narendra Hirwani picked up 4 for 89 for Madhya Pradesh and the others chipped in with wickets. Madhya Pradesh started reasonably well until Sachin Dholpure was out for 12, but Naman Ojha and skipper Amey Khurasia took charge. Ojha made 61 and Khurasia made 50, until the middle order failed to add many. Southpaw Syed Abbas Ali later made 72, which took Madhya Pradesh to 287, but did give in a first innings lead of 84 to Andhra. Venugopal Rao was yet again the star for Andhra with the ball, as his off spin got 4 wickets. The Andhra second innings started decently until Shantanu Pitre struck twice. Venugopal Rao yet again made a sedate 60 with the match ending in a draw. Andhra amassed 195/3 in the second innings. Andhra get 2 points thanks to that massive lead, while Madhya Pradesh have to do something more to set their foot in the highest level of Ranji Cricket. Scorecard

Andhra play Delhi next at Delhi, while Madhya Pradesh will battle it out against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium.
 

It was a game where the Graduate returned back to the school. Yes, a Ranji debut for stumper Parthiv Patel after 2 years of international cricket was the focus of this encounter between Delhi and Gujarat. Gujarat won the toss and batted first on a placid Motera wicket and disaster struck them when they were struggling at 12 for 2. They never really recovered from the early jolt as they succumbed to a meager total of 214, of which Parthiv made 26. For Delhi, Amit Bhandari took 3 wickets and the others like Nehra, Sanghvi shared wickets among them. Delhi started off well and continued to do so. Gautam Gambhir re-imposed his faith in the selectors by making a fine 151, with good support from Akash Sharma and Mithun Minhas. Apart from he Top and the Middle Order, the others did not offer much resistance as Delhi folded their innings for 419, with a huge first innings lead of 205. Gujarat had their work cut out for them and it was a case of once bitten twice shy, as some of their batsmen did not make the mistakes they did in the first essay. Mukund Parmar made 51, Kirit Damani made 86, while Bhavik Thakker made a fine 95 as Gujarat made a good comeback into the game with a total of 372, with Rahul Sanghvi picking a five-for 79 for Delhi. Delhi had to chase 167 and going by past records, such low totals can be made to look tough. And indeed did it look tough for Delhi, as their batsman surprisingly collapsed to 102/9 and earned what might be considered as a lucky draw. Gujarat may well consider them unlucky for not getting the whole 4 points and disappointed as they take nothing, while Delhi take 2 valuable points going into their next game against Andhra. Scorecard

Delhi play Andhra at home, while Gujarat travel to Karnataka in the second round.
 

UP were lucky to survive last season, but their opener came against a tough Intikhab Alam managed Punjab at Mohali. Punjab won the toss and elected to bowl on a good wicket for bowlers, and to an extent they justified their decision, as they got UP on the mat right away. They were really struggling at one stage, until R Prakash made a fine 112 and took UP to a moderate total of 269 in the first innings. For Punjab, Gagandeep Singh carried his form from the last season, as he picked a good five wickets for 68 runs, well supported by 3 wickets from Rajesh Sharma. Punjab did not start well either as they lost their openers cheaply. But a fine 52 from test discard Yuvraj Singh, who involved himself in a great partnership with Pankaj Dharmani resurrected the Punjab innings. A fine hundred by Dharmani was good enough to take them to 308, with a lead of 39 in the first innings. UP had to gain some form in the second innings and so they did as Jyoti Yadav played well with 103 and India U-19 player Suresh Raina chipping in with 61. UP finally ended their second innings with a total of 317/8. Reetinder Singh Sodhi picked up 4 wickets for Punjab. Punjab faltered in the second innings, as they ended up with a total of 120/5. Rudra Pratap Singh managed to pick 3 Punjab wickets before the match finally ended in a draw. Punjab manage 2 points out of the 39 run lead in the first innings, while UP will be disappointed to miss out on taking any points. Scorecard

UP take on Tamil Nadu at Kanpur next, while Punjab play Assam at Mohali.

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