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Build-up to Indian Domestic Season 2009-10

kingkallis

International Coach
Amol Mazumdar has shifted from Mumbai to Assam for this season. He took the decision after he was dropped from the Mumbai side late in their campaign, and then omitted from the Buchi Babu squad. He's 31 runs short of being the country's highest run-scorer in Ranji, behind Amarjit Kaypee.

In Delhi, it's become an open slugfest. Sehwag's comments have split up the DDCA on the issue of nepotism, but he's now also got support from other star players, particularly Gambhir, Ishant Sharma and Nehra. All of them, it seems, wanted to quit Delhi over this issue, just to support their captain. This isn't a good thing. Delhi has good cricketing infrastructure, and on the field, they've been run reasonably well. If they had their star players playing all their matches, they'd be competing with Mumbai more often. Their apparent destinations, Haryana and Railways, don't have the infrastructure, personnel or skills, that are conducive for quality cricket.
Hope Amol gets the chance to break Kaypee's record :)
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
India Cements won their match rather easily. Their weak bowling still proved too much for the BSNL batting, which fell 25 runs short in a rain-affected match. This was one more match where the gap in quality (India Cements had Badrinath, Dravid, Balaji and Tyagi, while BSNL's best was Arindam Das and Mohapatra) showed in the match result.

The match that should have got TV/Web coverage was between the star-studded ONGC and Madras Rubber Factory. Pinch-hitter Praveen Kumar set the pace with a rapid 27, while Gagan Khoda (remember him?) scored 105, with Gautam Gambhir (at three) and Virat Kohli scoring 50s each. Towards the end, Ajay Ratra scored 23 quick runs as ONGC smashed the weak MRF bowling for 329 for nine, with a valuable tail end contribution from Ishant Sharma. Interestingly, MRF's top bowler was PK Dharma, whose match figures read 8-0-75-5. The total was too much for MRF to chase, as they fell behind by 71 runs. The powerful bowling lineup had Munaf (three), Sarandeep (two), Mishra (two) and Ishant (two) sharing the wickets, but Praveen Kumar went for a few and didn't last the full ten overs- but the part-timers were even worse. This seemed a decent match, more interesting than the India Cements one.

In the match played at Mohali, Bhuvanesh Kumar took a wicket and scored six, but there was nothing else to look forward to, where India Revenue defeated ITC by six runs. The fourth match at Dharmashala was, not surprisingly, rained out. Indian Oil, with some domestic stars of today, yesterday and some IPL extras, will have to wait to make their debut in the tournament.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Are we seeing double? Look at the India Cements scorecard for today's match and then look at their score in the previous match they played. Badrinath scores over 90 and Dravid, over 60. Even their strike rates (maybe not Dravid's) are similar. Air India Red did well to restrict them to under 250, but the lack of a proper fifth bowling option hampered them. It's a hot match but I can't watch it, as Neo is still gone.

The Vishakapatnam match has been called off without a ball being bowled, for (now) obvious reasons other than weather. They can't have cricket played at this time.
 
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Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
Have always rated Tyagi and he has bowled well here at times. Just not consistent enough with the lines. He does bowl difficult deliveries at a good length though. A good long term prospect.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Air India Blue pummelled India Revenue in their match. With MS Dhoni, RP Singh and Harbhajan Singh in their ranks, the less-fancied Revenue were no match for them. Dhoni smashed seven sixes to reach his century, while opener Bisla did better and finished with 150. Both centurions finished the innings unbeaten, and the innings ended at 362 for one after 42 overs. The wickets were shared equally, as Revenue finished at 222 for eight.

India Cements still lost the match against Air India Red, with Raina scoring a quick 92. He was subject to several short deliveries by Dravid's bowlers, particularly Balaji and Tyagi, and going by a Cricinfo article, it was quite a battle.

Indian Oil Corporation were knocked out of their group without facing or bowling a ball, as their matches were rained out, and the other match had a result. Clearly, rain has played spoilsport here.

Semis- India Cements, Air India Red, Air India Blue, ONGC.
 

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
I do get Neo Sports now Arjun, have done for a while now, to answer your message on googletalk.

Raina's inning was terrible. Miscued shots, chances which were dropped and all his weaknesses exposed. If there were better bowlers bowling or even better fielders fielding, he would have been dismissed earlier. He has a long way to go to make an international class batsman.

EDIT - I looked at his record and was surprised he averages 45 in the last 2 years. Closer inspection shows the holes.

2008 - cashed in v minnows. 2009 has been better but I don't think this run will last.
 
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_Chandan

Cricket Spectator
I do get Neo Sports now Arjun, have done for a while now, to answer your message on googletalk.

Raina's inning was terrible. Miscued shots, chances which were dropped and all his weaknesses exposed. If there were better bowlers bowling or even better fielders fielding, he would have been dismissed earlier. He has a long way to go to make an international class batsman.

EDIT - I looked at his record and was surprised he averages 45 in the last 2 years. Closer inspection shows the holes.

2008 - cashed in v minnows. 2009 has been better but I don't think this run will last.
Wonder who our test replacement going to be in a year's period! At the moment, I can't identify even one batsman who can bat at #3 in tests.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
I don't get Neo, haven't got it in the last week, and it seems most Delhi residents also don't get it, particularly the DTH subscribers.

Raina is not a Number 3 batsman and shouldn't be played as one, but too much is being made of his weakness against short balls. He's been selected as a limited-overs specialist, so he has batted like one, to meet the demands of ODI batting. He's profited from batting lower down the order or in the middle-overs, where fielding sides try to contain, but he's been found out when bowlers try to take wickets. That's what happens when he's played too much limited-overs cricket and too little of first-class. It will take a while before he makes the Test team, and hopefully he'll improve by that time, but he should stay on for ODIs, but batting lower down. A break once in a while when he can play FC cricket (domestic, India A or Board XI) will help a lot.
 

_Chandan

Cricket Spectator
I do get Neo. And the most worrying thing in the Corporate trophy was that Ishant Sharma was bowling at 125k/h. Is it once again same story again? An India seamer starting fast but slowing down miraculously from his 2nd international season?
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
I do get Neo. And the most worrying thing in the Corporate trophy was that Ishant Sharma was bowling at 125k/h. Is it once again same story again? An India seamer starting fast but slowing down miraculously from his 2nd international season?
It is looking that way judging by how he bowled in the World T20. However, there is the possibility that he is slowing down because it is essentially a mickey mouse tournament.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
It is looking that way judging by how he bowled in the World T20. However, there is the possibility that he is slowing down because it is essentially a mickey mouse tournament.
While that's surely a good idea, he needs this tournament as a workout for him and all the other India players and prospects. He's not been in the best of form, even losing his place in the team once, and could have used this tournament to bowl his way back to form. The captaincy has also been questionable, as we see him bowling second-change.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Yesterday, Air India Red won the first semi by eight runs. The most notable contribution for Air India was by Sushant Marathe (top-order batsman for Mumbai), at 83 not out. The bowling wasn't doing too bad, but not too many wickets for the main bowlers.

A little earlier, we were talking about Raina's batting inadequacies. Yet we inexplicably find him bowling seven overs in the match. This needs to stop, so that he can concentrate on his batting. He's too valuable a batsman to waste on such a task. Likewise Yuvraj. Both of them were out cheaply. Uthappa, on the other hand, hung on gamely against the seamers, then attacked the spinners, to get a chunky score.

Air India Blue bowlers skittled out Tata SC for 267 in 49.4 overs. RP Singh took three wickets, while Pankaj Singh got four. Agarkar scored a rapid 53. Harbhajan went for a few runs too many, taking a wicket for 53 in a little over eight overs. Fifties were also scored by Ishank Jaggi and NS Shetty. Right now, Air India Blue are at 48 for no loss in nine overs.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
A wicket falls, as Maninder Bisla is stumped off Powar. For some reason, Kaif is sent in ahead of Dhoni. The match is at an interesting stage; it's 50-50 now.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
The match is easily in Air India Blue's grasp. Mohammed Kaif scores a 50, and opener/keeper Chandan Madan scores a century, which should strengthen his case for a place in the Kings XI IPL team.

I wonder how much Air India will benefit from this. They're not in the best of shape lately, and now both their teams made the finals of the Corporate Trophy.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
It's Air-India vs Air India in the final here. Air India Blue won by five wickets by VJD method.
Kaif recently commented he had not given off hopes of an India recall yet.
He should be in the frame for ODIs. He's a very smart batsman, fast runner between wickets and also one of the best fielders in India, though he faces competition from Badrinath.
 
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