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Ranji Trophy 2004/05 - 7th Round Summary |
A Review of the 7th
Round of Ranji Trophy 2004/05 by Venkat
The Seventh and Final Round of matches
in the Elite League got underway on the 31st of
December.
Here is a review of the matches that took place
on the 31st of December to the 1st of January at various
venues across the country.
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Mumbai Vs Delhi at
the Wankhede Stadium
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As they say, the best is
always reserved for the last, and indeed this
round had a taste of intense inter-city rivalry
in the last stages of the league phase. Mumbai
had already qualified for the semis, but Delhi
had to run full steam to grab a win if they had
any chance of qualifying for the semifinals.
Delhi won the toss on a "wet" wicket and opted
to bat, and in a way gave the advantage to
Mumbai as they lost opener Shikhar Dhawan early.
But, a good and steady partnership
between Aakash Chopra (51) and Mithun Minhas
(74) got Delhi back into the game. In between
these good spells of partnerships, the batsmen
ensured that the home team were always in the
hunt, thanks to some brilliant bowling spells by
youngsters Usman Malvi and Wilkin Mota. But,
Delhi skipper Ajay Jadeja had other ideas, he
made a fine 93 and some good runs from the tail
meant that Delhi scored a challenging 394 runs
in their first innings. Mumbai began their
innings in a classy fashion, with the infamous
partnership of Jaffer and Mane adding 136 for
the first wicket. The loss of Mane did not deter
Jaffer as he found an able ally in Vinit
Indulkar, who made 85. Wasim Jaffer
carried his good touch from the earlier matches
to notch up yet another century for Mumbai.
Veteran Amol Mazumdar carried his form
from the previous match to this one, as he and
Bhavin Thakker saw to it that Delhi returned
home empty handed. Wilkin Mota chipped in a
valuable 55 not out as Mumbai declared at a
mammoth 600/9. Delhi ended the game in
disappointing fashion in the second innings at
37/1. A first inning lead for Mumbai was good
enough to send Delhi back home without a point,
and for Mumbai, it was yet another psychological
step over their city rivals.
Scorecard
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Railways Vs
Karnataka at Bangalore
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It was a virtual
do-or-die of sorts for both teams, for Railways,
it was a chance to resurrect their fortunes in
the tournament and for Karnataka, it was a fight
for pride. And to join in and musketeer his
state, Rahul Dravid participated in the contest.
Karnataka won the toss in their home ground and
chose to bat first, and in a way gave away the
advantage to Railways, as their bowlers got on
top of the Karnataka batsmen. It took Railways
just more than a day to bowl out
Karnataka for a dismal 194, with Rahul Dravid
top-scoring with 41. For Railways, the wickets
were shared between JP Yadav (3), Kulamani
Parida (3), M Yadav and Harvinder Singh (2
each). In reply, Railways did encounter certain
problems at the start, but the all-rounder in JP
Yadav came to the fore as he and Raja Ali
steered their side from danger. Yadav
contributed with 54 and Raji Ali notched up a
crucial ton (113) to take Railways to 299.
Paceman NC Aiyappa bagged an impressive fiver
for the hosts. The first innings lead by
Railways was good enough to add some more
pressure on Karnataka, and the batsmen simply
could not stand upto it, except Sujit Somasundar,
who made 58, and Karnataka were bowled out for
241 in the second essay. JP Yadav and Parida
were the wreckers-in-chief yet again, as their
bowling performance left Railways with just 135
to chase and win. And, the Railmen achieved the
target with utmost ease and stormed into the
Semi-Finals edging rivals Gujarat, thanks to
some whirlwind knocks by JP Yadav and Amit
Pagnis. It will be interesting to see if this
turnaround in Railways' fortunes came at the
right time, as they face a confident Hyderabad
next in the Semis.
Scorecard
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Bengal Vs Madhya
Pradesh at Kolkata
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It was a game, which
solely depended on the first inning performance,
as it would guarantee the team yet another
season in the Elite Group. Bengal, who have been
hapless all through the season, were boosted by
the presence of Saurav Ganguly for this game.
Bengal won the toss at the Eden Gardens and
elected to field, without realizing what they
were going to be upto as the MP batsmen looked
positive with Naman Ojha at the top. Ojha made
96 and passed the baton to veteran Syed Abbas
Ali, who used all his experience for MP as he
scored a crucial 145 and took MP to 392 from an
earlier position of no-hope. For Bengal, SS Paul
bagged 4 wickets along with veteran spinner
Utpal who picked 3. In reply to the mammoth
total, Bengal started pretty poorly, losing 4
wickets for 70 runs. But thanks to a timely ton
by the Indian skipper Ganguly(121), and good
support by Devang Gandhi(77) and Laxmi Ratan
Shukla(81), helped Bengal just edge past MP in
the fight for survival. For MP, leggie Yogesh
Golwalkar picked 3 wickets. The MP team went
down fighting as in the second innings thanks to
yet another impressive show by Naman Ojha, who
made 51. It was a near miss for MP, but they can
take heart from the fact that they went down
fighting as it was only a matter of the team
grabbing the first inning lead. Bengal will have
to do well if they have to survive yet another
season in the top flight.
Scorecard
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Maharashtra Vs Tamil
Nadu at Chennai
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Tamil Nadu knew their
fortunes before their game, and unfortunately
they just missed out to Punjab earlier. But,
this game was to be
something beyond the race for the semis-spot for
the home side.
Maharashtra skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar won the
toss and elected to
field on a typical Chennai wicket, and his
bowlers obliged him by
picking quick and important wickets. TN
virtually had no momentum
going their way until K Vasudevadas decided to
come to their rescue.
His 68 along with Ramkumar's 43 were
instrumental in Tamil Nadu
reaching a handy total of 277. For Maharashtra,
Ajay Chavan picked 4
wickets and Iqbal Siddiqui 3. But, the
Maharashtra reply wasn't any
different. The batsmen, except for Dheeraj
Jadhav, whose impressive
run continued with a score of 74, looked all at
sea against some
top-notch bowling by the home side, as they were
bundled out for a
modest 175. TN grabbed a 102 run lead thanks to
Jesuraj and Vidyut's 4 wicket hauls. In their
second innings, TN started well and continued
the momentum with some classy batting by keeper
Dinesh Karthik and Hemanth Kumar, as they
contributed in TN's 2nd inning score of 259/8.
Maharashtra had a tough task ahead of them
chasing 362, and they indeed did succumb to the
enormity of the score by just making 170 thereby
losing by a whooping 191 run margin.
Ramakrishnan Ramkumar was the wrecker-in-chief
this time around with 4 wickets. It was a
disappointing end by TN standards, but this
non-qualification should egg them up for the
next season.
Scorecard
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Hyderabad Vs Assam
at Hyderabad
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Just as some of the stars
took the field for their respective teams,
it was Ranji time yet again for VVS Laxman, as
he led Hyderabad
against Assam at home. Assam won the toss and
elected to field,
handing over the advantage to the home side as
the Hyderabadi batsmen took full toll of
anything loose bowling by the Assamese.
Hyderabad's fortunes recieved a major uplift
thanks to skipper Laxman's classy knock of 135,
and good useful contributions by Arjun Yadav and
S.Vishnuvardhan, who scored half-centuries.
Hyderabad ended with 340, leaving a mammoth
total for their opponents to face. The Assam
batting, that has been hapless all season,
continued its downslide, as they collapsed to
158, with the damage being done by Indra Shekhar
Reddy and Vishnuvardhan, who picked 4 and 3
wickets respectively. Following on, the Assam
batsmen continued their haplessness as they yet
again had no answer to some top class bowling by
the Hyderabadis. Assam ended their season with a
pathetic score of 126, and could not avoid
relegation of any sorts. Vishnuvardhan, Kaushik
Reddy and Indra Shekhar Reddy all shared 3
wickets, as they bowled Hyderabad into the Semis
with a bonus point. Now it will be interesting
to see if Hyderabad will finally conquer the
hurdle they have failed to and enter the finals.
Scorecard
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Andhra Vs Gujarat at
Vishakhapatnam
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Gujarat, in recent years
have been one side, oppositions cannot choose to
take lightly, and this time they had a face off
with Andhra in the final round at Vizag. Gujarat
won the toss and chose to bat, but their openers
made the skipper think twice about the already
made decision. But, Niraj Patel and Kirit Damani
steadied the ship for Gujarat as they recovered
from a bad start. Patel reached his century and
made 118 while Damani just missed it, as he
ended his knock on 86. But, that was not the end
of it all. Nilesh Modi's unbeaten 72 and some
useful contributions by the lower half saw to it
that Gujarat made a huge score of 420. For
Andhra, Kalyanakrishna continued his good form
with 3 wickets, ably supported by Pradeep and
BBK Singh, who picked 2 each. In reply, the
Andhra top order looked all at sea against the
Gujarat pacemen. But upcoming batsman Venugopala
Rao had different ideas, as he flayed the
bowling to all corners of the ground in his
brilliant knock of 156, well supported by his
younger brother Gnaneshwara Rao who made 61, as
Andhra managed a decent 314. For Gujarat, Lalit
Patel proved the most successful bowler with 3
wickets, with Makda and Majmudar picking 2
wickets each. In their second innings, The
Gujarat batsmen did not do well as they could
manage only 189 runs. But one man Akash Christan
held fort for Gujarat as he contributed with 98
runs. For Andhra, BBK Singh and Sahabuddin
proved to be the most successful bowlers, with 4
and 3 wickets respectively. Chasing 295 for a
win, Andhra did not start well losing quick
wickets. But a steady knock by ASK Varma and
some useful runs lower down the order saved the
day for Andhra, as they drew the game
successfully, making 222/7 in the second
innings. This game brought an end to the journey
of two impressive and upcoming teams of Indian
cricket.
Scorecard
If inconsistency had to
be defined in the Ranji Trophy, then UP were
the best team to do so. But they had an
opportunity to correct the
definition as they took on Baroda in the last
round of the league
stages. UP won the toss and elected to field,
and their bowlers did
just what the captain had ordered of them.
Barring skipper Jacob
Martin, other batsmen provided little or no
resistance to some fine
bowling performances by the UP bowlers. Mishra
bagged a fiver, while
Ashish Zaidi grabbed 4 wickets for UP. The reply
wasn't any different
either from UP. They did not perform well either
as they collapsed for
a meagre 124. For Baroda, Yousuf Pathan bagged a
fiver as well, ably
supported by Indian speedster Zaheer Khan, who
picked 3 wickets.
Baroda in their second innings started better
and their batsmen showed good application, which
had a say in their scores. Connor Williams,
Kiran Powar and Yousuf Pathan all made handy
fifties as Baroda managed to score 283. Ashish
Zaidi was impressive yet again with 3 wickets
for UP. It was indeed disappointing to see UP
succumb to some high quality bowling by
Baroda, as they got bundled out for 203, with
the top score coming from Suresh Raina. Zaheer
Khan grabbed a confidence boosting fiver in the
second innings and played an important part in
Baroda's fortunes. But there was a twist in the
tale, as this win was not good enough to
guarantee them a place in the semis, as Punjab
had a better quotient. Nevertheless, a spirited
performance can be one of the important
positives a team can take for the future.
Scorecard
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