[Arjun]

Delhi won the Hazare Trophy. They've got a much better chance of competing with the Challenger sides than Assam. All of the top five did well with the bat. Plenty of wickets for not-so-old warhorse Awana.

A bit too much is being made out of Abu Nechim Ahmed. He's been creamed by the South Zone batsmen in Guwahati in the Duleep Trophy opener. Small man, only medium pace (or slightly faster), poor line, poor length and the South Zone batsmen, under pressure earlier from slower bowlers, played him with ease. Biplab Samantray, even slower, bowled a lot better. Shami Ahmed had a decent game until the final overs. All bowlers are either medium pace or slightly faster. The fielding started off poorly but got better.

Robin Uthappa batted smartly until his injury. Baba Aparajth got a well-compiled century and Dinesh Karthik started well until he ran himself out, running too hard. No decent scores elsewhere, except for No 4 in the batting charts in Hazare Trophy, the strangely-named Sachin Baby. Let's not make any jokes on his name, and look at his batting instead- he's had a strike rate over 130 in Hazare, reached the top four and scored a rapid 33 of 18 deliveries, with a few smart strokes in the final overs. A T20 specialist in the making.

One name to watch- Shrikant Wagh. Plenty of wickets in four games, but he plays for a weak team (Vidarbha), can score a few runs and is a left-armer. Should be in line for limited-overs, as he has very good limited-overs statistics. In two more seasons.