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Indian Domestic Season 2010-11

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
The season has already begun (more or less) with the Corporate Trophy. What was once touted as a fresh new thing in the BCCI calendar is now merely an also-ran, with teams pulling out, star players opting out and even telecast rights not given to anyone- last season, Neo Sports and Neo Cricket showed the event, while this time, followers are dependent on scorecards on Cricinfo. Several current and reserve Indian players, including Yuvraj Singh, RP Singh, Amit Mishra and Badrinath are listed, and among notable exclusions are the Pathan brothers.

In other news, Mumbai have picked their provisional squad with Jaffer as captain, as well as all internationals in the list. Long-serving wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant has quit the team and is elsewhere. Mumbai is, as the piece says, yet to lose under Jaffer, and already have two straight titles in the shelf. Tamil Nadu have appointed three specialist coaches for batting, bowling and fielding, after their previous head coach, former international opener WV Raman, shifted to Bengal. Elsewhere, Sreesanth had initially stated that he'd shift to an Elite league team, but stayed in Kerala. The people running that association, having already demoted him from captaincy, don't seem too patient with him, especially when he plays so few games for that team.
 

Daemon

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Whats that tournament with India Green, Red and Blue called? Thats the only domestic tournament they've ever telecast in Singapore :(
 

kingkallis

International Coach
It will be interesting to see the progress of our seamers and spinners! I will quite closely follow the performance of Jaidev Unadkat, Irfan Pathan, Ashok Dinda, Vinay Kumar, Iqbal Abdullah, Piyush Chawla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yusuf Pathan, Saurabh Tiwary & Naman Ojha!
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
There's a match on between India Cements and All India Electricity Board. India Cements, with South Zone frontliners Balaji, Yo Mahesh, Ashwin and Jakati, are running through the much weaker Electricity Boards XI, despite bowling lots of wides. The Electricity Boards batting was quite dreadful, with no starts at all. Yo Mahesh, who was a player from the U-19 team, is bowling slow under the 130k mark and running over the danger area, warned twice.

Just in, Electricity Boards are blacked out for 128, a lot of wickets falling to poor shots, although a couple of wickets came from unplayable deliveries and a third, to a fantastic catch by Shadab Jakati. They're now struggling with the new ball, with Manoj Tiwary and Nilesh Kulkarni opening, without Ashok Dinda.

EDIT: India Cements came out to bat before the break and lost a wicket. Right now, I'm watching a very dull and boring highlights package. That's the only D/N match today on Neo. If you've missed it, you've missed some good bowling by Ashwin, Jakati and possibly Balaji, but they weren't tested, and also a painstaking innings by Tiwary, so it wasn't much.
 
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Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
The Irani Trophy is going on right now at Jaipur, on one of the flattest decks they can make. One wicket has fallen, to a part-timer. Mumbai, fielding first, were rather flat on the field, possibly worse than the Indian team in the ongoing Test. The bowling, with Agarkar and Powar as the known names, looked weak and flat, and two TN batsmen capitalised, scoring heavily- Mukund in particular made 150, while Badrinath got another 50. Badri never stops scoring, even if selectors stop looking at him. He played the spinners with ease, but anyone in that team could, with Powar overstepping and Abdulla not trying to take wickets. Mumbai are obviously hampered by the absence of Sachin and Zaheer (as against Yuvraj and possibly Chawla turning out for Rest) but the selections are largely agreeable, but for the presence of all three rookie seamers ahead of Vinay Kumar.

Sairaj Bahutule has switched over to long-relegated Andhra from fellow Plate leaguers Assam. It may have something to do with the selection of an extra outstation batsman. His captain in Assam, prior to the shift, was his Mumbai teammate of old, Amol Mazumdar.

Challenger squads have been announced, and once again, it's likely to be a farcical also-ran. At least we're seeing a whole lot of good players not seen even in second XI's. Both the Pathans are in the event, in different teams, while little Jadeja is in the same team. The captains are Yuvraj, Karthik and Badrinath. It's good to see Badri, Chawla, Ashwin, the Pathans, Vinay Kumar and RP Singh after some time, but this, like any short-run series, should be treated as a workout and not a gauge for selection. Disappointing, though, that Laxmiratan Shukla wasn't picked.

Ambati Rayudu has now changed over to Baroda, following Hyderabad's relegation. Coach Venkatapathy Raju was unhappy, and said it was in bad taste, and that it reflected his commitment to the Hyderabad team, whom he should have guided this season. Not too bad for Baroda, with a flimsy batting side.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
In yesterday's action, Badri missed a ton by six, Kulkarni got five, Parthiv got a century at a high strike rate (no big ones), Ashwin blitzed to 78 and ROI got 668. Mumbai are at 26/0. A draw is on the cards, with ROI clinching the lead.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Rest Of India are all over Mumbai. They've got eight wickets, conceding just 205 runs. The pick of the bowlers is, not surprisingly, Chawla, with three top order wickets for 70, till now. He's been ably supported by Ashwin, who's been quite smart. The pacers, though, have largely been average, save Unadkat.

We haven't seen the Ranji champions win in several Irani seasons in a row. This doesn't appear to change the trend. Maybe if Tendulkar and Zaheer also joined the game, they'd be more competitive. Commentators have complained that this Mumbai side isn't as competitive as Mumbai teams of old, and seem to merely follow the game.
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
The Mumbai batting line up should be doing better.They have the likes of Jaffer,Sharma and Rahane in it.
Their bowling attack though is ordinary except Kulkarni.
 

Daemon

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Rahane looks like a really good player. One of the few to have scored 1000+ runs in a ranji season.
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Rahane looks like a really good player. One of the few to have scored 1000+ runs in a ranji season.
Yeah is a good player.
Though has some technical flaws,but then so do Kohli,Raina etc..

I quite like the look of Mukund too.Been impressed everytime i have seen him.
Made the point at the time too,that the selectors picked the wrong TamilNadu opener in Vijay at the the time ahead of him.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Mumbai's batting is a tad flimsy. It's just Jaffer, Sushant, Khanvilkar and Rahane, who are specialists. The bowling isn't too bad, as Agarkar is a domestic boss, while his counterparts in that team are one season old. Kulkarni has also done well, while Powar has tirelessly served Mumbai for nearly a decade. It's a strong attack, despite having weak links Malvi and Nayar, with newcomer Iqbal.

Someone has posted a message on Cricinfo commentary- there's a larger crowd for this match than the ongoing Test match. It's good for the domestic game, but the game hasn't been so good for the fans.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah is a good player.
Though has some technical flaws,but then so do Kohli,Raina etc..

I quite like the look of Mukund too.Been impressed everytime i have seen him.
Made the point at the time too,that the selectors picked the wrong TamilNadu opener in Vijay at the the time ahead of him.
We've been going on and on about Rahane, who's largely dominated Ranji games, but struggled against international opponents. He's had a decent A-team tour of England and done well in a Board XI game, but needs more experience in these teams to be a contender for national selection. Ideally, he should play 50 FC matches before coming anywhere near national selection, and needs to choose between opening and middle-order. He's also been poor in the IPL (where you face top international players) and in T20 in general, suggesting he's not a complete batsman. Raina, Rohit and Pujara, on the other hand, have proved themselves across formats and scenes.

As for Mukund, he's too young to be thrust in so early, and it's good to see the older Vijay preferred. He should have been chosen over Ramesh and Vidyut, though.
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
We've been going on and on about Rahane, who's largely dominated Ranji games, but struggled against international opponents. He's had a decent A-team tour of England and done well in a Board XI game, but needs more experience in these teams to be a contender for national selection. Ideally, he should play 50 FC matches before coming anywhere near national selection, and needs to choose between opening and middle-order. He's also been poor in the IPL (where you face top international players) and in T20 in general, suggesting he's not a complete batsman. Raina, Rohit and Pujara, on the other hand, have proved themselves across formats and scenes.
.

As for Mukund, he's too young to be thrust in so early, and it's good to see the older Vijay preferred. He should have been chosen over Ramesh and Vidyut, though
Actually Pujara was poor in the IPL TOO.

And if we are basing selection of the test team on the IPL then Laxman and Dravid should not be anywhere near the test team too.

And though Vijay is older than Mukund ,at the time of his selection he had played about 10 First class matches more than Mukund Only.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Actually Pujara was poor in the IPL TOO.

And if we are basing selection of the test team on the IPL then Laxman and Dravid should not be anywhere near the test team too.

And though Vijay is older than Mukund ,at the time of his selection he had played about 10 First class matches more than Mukund Only.
You don't touch Laxman and Dravid. They're too classy. They would have done their bit in the IPL had it not been for complete and total brainlessness of the franchise owners. Pujara, on the other hand, was unfortunate to play for KKR, who have a reputation for sidelining local talent for foreign stars. We'd all agree that India's Test stalwarts are leagues better than these so-called batting prospects.

Besides, Rohit Sharma, Vijay (Test reserve) and Raina (current Test starter), famous for IPL/CLT20 exploits, have also done well over a period of time in first-class and list-A cricket, so it gets down to who adds more value.

We'd prefer a more complete picture, and more complete players making it to the team. Scoring runs against top international bowlers is more important than dominating no-name-no-face domestic extras, so let's not deride the IPL too much.

I'm out of touch with the TN domestic scene, but Vijay may have played more games for clubs than Mukund, and the selectors plumped for experience, as against kids playing in the frontline for Saurashtra and Maharashtra. Besides, someone named Arun Karthik is tippedas a better batsman, even though he doesn't make the XI too often. TN is one of the better oganised teams in India.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Three boundaries hit off Usman Malvi by Dhawan. Some of his offside shots have shades of Ganguly in them.

An ad came for the Challenger Trophy. Has it lost its relevance? Harsha Bhogle criticised the concept back in 2002, saying it highlights individual performances rather than team dynamics. He was right- Hemang Badani top-scored for India Seniors, who couldn't win, and struggled in the ODI series against England, which was squared. Now, with no seniors (virtually) in the fray, there's nothing to gain for a selection, just a workout for the players.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Hang on, no follow-on! I wonder, do RoI expect a Kolkata 2001 to happen to them here? Impossible. Dhawan's already out, caught skying a delivery by Kulkarni.

There's a graphic here- Mukund, it seems, in 29 games, has scored nine centuries (including a triple and 257*) and just six fifties. He's a hard runner between wickets, and also good on the field. He's worthy of India A/CSK selection, and definitely one for the frontline in five years.
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
From watching some of Kulkarni in very few FC games and the odd IPL game, I think he has all the tools to make it at Test level. His FC record is pretty good and unlike most, he actually did okay after his debut season. Five wickets here, in a lone performance is also very impressive and moreso than, say Unadkat's which came against a clearly under pressure and weaker Mumbai line up who had already been decimated by spin. Unadkat does appear to be a bit of a prospect though, gets big seam movement apparently - action is a bit all over the place though. Kulkarni on the other hand reminds me of Stuart Clark.

What do you think of the pacers on show in this game, Arjun?
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
I do feel all of the pacers are at least three seasons away from an India debut. Rest Of India, in particular, have a starting lineup pace combo with a combined first-class experience that's less than that of the benched Vinay Kumar. Umesh Yadav sprayed the ball all over, trying to make an acrobat out of Parthiv Patel and a spectator out of each Mumbai batsman. Jaidev bowled well, but his wickets were either tailenders or came by skiers. He doesn't even have the pace at present. He's impressed the India A coach Praveen Amre in England, so it's a good beginning, but four more seasons and he should be in contention. Saurashtra is one place where kids and teens make an early debut. Mithun, who's had one fruitful season, is more a line-and-length-over-time bowler, and we have to see how long it lasts. When he isn't bowling, he's very effective on the field, which is a huge plus, but so were so many others before him. Kulkarni was largely average, though he had maintained a good line and length. The fielders didn't support him at all, with feeble stop efforts and drops. Agarkar, for a senior, and the fastest bowler, was a huge disappointment, while Malvi was an extra who shouldn't have been there at all- Nayar can do as much, or more, being a batsman, while Salvi is a more accomplished bowler.

All the pacers, however, were outperformed by RoI's spin duo of Chawla and Ashwin. Spin attacked from both ends, foxing the Mumbai batsmen and making them play, and thus, get out. While this is a first-class match, both should be in contention for spots in the limited-overs squad, as they add a lot more value- batting, fielding and strike rates- than the spinners picked for India currently.

Joke of the day- Yuvraj does not enforce the follow-on, to get a chance to bat and return to the Test team. Surely, Yuvi's made of sterner stuff than that, isn't he? Warrior, certainly, partygoer, maybe on recent news, but profiteer? Not quite.
 

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