Indian domestic season 2006-07

[Arjun]

Bose bowls a slower delivery and Shukla skies it, but a fielder near Bose misread it and it fell safely. Shukla's bat snipped so he got it changed.

Now the tail is exposed as RP Singh faces Shukla. Singh hit one straight, but the ball lost pace and Shukla deflected it (EDIT: picked it up, turned around and threw it) to the stumps, running out the other Shukla. All recognised batsmen (all eight of them) are now gone.

NOW: RP Singh scoops over point, and third-man fielder Mihir makes a dreadful mess-up as the ball goes for four. Central are at 300 for 8. They finish at 302 for eight wickets. This is a good total for this six-man bowling unit to defend, and they've also got part-time support from TP Singh and Khanolkar. Well....how will their fielding perform?

 

[Arjun]

Mohanty didn't get his full quota of overs, but Shukla got eight overs and a wicket. Bose was unlucky with the fielders, and so was Shukla. Diwakar did well, but went for too many runs. The part-timers were dreadful. Spinner Lahiri finished with three wickets for 32, when Central were in a spot of bother.

 

[adharcric]

Awesome. Thanks for the commentary.

 

[Arjun]

That match was won by Central Zone. I had to head for a lecture at that time. JP Yadav took three wickets in four deliveries there.

The next match was South against North. South were all out for 191, but North lost several wickets in a heap. Bipul Sharma played a good hand to get a half-century, adding to one in a previous match. His bowling, however, was off-colour.

Then came West against South, which was of academic interest, with West having won the tournament. Yusuf Pathan smashed all the bowlers around, and was very sever on Sahabuddin. The AP all-rounder had an off-day, being taken for lots of runs, struggling to hold his length and was chased by the ball in the field in tight situations. Yusuf was supported well by Parthiv Patel, opening, surprisingly. Yusuf was opening in all matches, and got a strike rate well over 100 in all.

In this match, he was menacing. With six sixes in the innings, there was no stopping him. One of them went straight out of the ground, and had the match held up briefly. He had more than a few strokes in his armoury, including scoops over point, a leg-glance, a gentle deflection of the spinner over off-side, edge over slips, even sweeps. He scored a lot more on leg-side, especially square. He reached his century in 70 deliveries and was out playing-and-missing to a straight delivery by Vinay Kumar. After his dismissal (also Cheteshwar Pujara's, who made a quick 50), the West batting lost its sting and lost wickets, only to be rescured by a brief surge at the end by Rajesh Pawar. West finished at 300 for eight.

South were never in the hunt once Sid Trivedi bowled the first ball. They looked hopeless, out of sorts, and fell in a heap, all out for 116. Seamers Abhishek Nayar and newcomer Shirkant Mundhe took four wickets each. In another match before this one, East Zone defeated North by eight runs. Dinesh Mongia top-scored with 71 and Pankaj Dharmani got a 50. Joginder Sharma, who got quick starts but didn't convert, and did reasonably well with the ball, didn't play this one.

 

[honestbharani]

yeah, but the pace of most of the "fast" bowlers is really worrying me. Almost all of them seem to be down from last year or so. We need to urgently find a way to see why this is happening and how to avoid it.

 

[Arjun]

yeah, but the pace of most of the "fast" bowlers is really worrying me. Almost all of them seem to be down from last year or so. We need to urgently find a way to see why this is happening and how to avoid it.

My sentiments alike. The concept of a tearaway pacer seems nonexistent here in India, with every bowler, even hardcore specialists, bowling at a little over medium-pace.

My suggestion is that the people in charge of these bustling youngsters (and also peerless veterans) is to abandon the so-called Indian way of coaching, which is oriented towards producing mere medium-pacers who concentrate on swing and seam movement. Let the potential fast bowlers be encouraged to bowl fast, with the freedom to break the speed (and sound?) barrier. Not just fast, even aggressive bowling should be encouraged, where they bowl more often onto the body, make the batsmen play and even at a little less pace, make it hot in the middle.

 

[viktor]

Mumbai in the Ranji OD semis...Maybe Arjun can put up a more extensive coverage?

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/287303.html

 

[adharcric]

Good to see Powar and Chawla doing well with bat and ball. Rahane scored big runs in New Zealand - looks like Mumbai is once again a powerhouse with the young talent.

Kaif has been impressive in the domestic limited-overs circuit, scoring plenty of runs at a fair lick. Time for a call-up tbh.

 

[viktor]

Yes he will probably be recalled for the BDesh series.

 

[adharcric]

I expect Mumbai to cream Rajasthan in the final. Sachin, Zaheer and Agarkar should be asked to play as well, considering they aren't up to much these days.

 

[Perm]

Piyush Chawla continues to impress me, he may be young but he's taking wickets at a fair rate in both List A and First Class matches. Only a matter of time before Kumble retires and he gets another crack at the big time, hopefully he can handle the next season of domestic cricket and continue with this fine form. Suprised none of the counties have signed him to play for their 2nd XI to get some more experience, I thought the BCCI may have done this.

Good to see Kaif scoring runs too, suprised he missed out on the WC squad really. Definately needs to be there in the middle order.

 

[viktor]

Mumbai completes the double...http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/287659.html

 

[Arjun]

NEO Sports was on the blink yet again. I'll have to dig up some stuff on the matches to provide you a clearer picture. From the figures, it was disappointing to see Rajasthan have such an easy entry to the finals, where they were eventually crushed by the Ranji Champions, whose captain had also led West Zone to victory in Deodhar.

If you want reports with more than just numbers, read articles on the Times Of India or Hindustan Times. They've got everything that happened, especially HT, who are based in Delhi. The Premier Cup was held in Delhi and Jaipur.

 

[chris.hinton]

Why wasnt Power in Indias World Cup squad, i always rated him

 

[Perm]

They didn't feel there was room for three spinners and the selectors preferred Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh over him, quite a few people on these forums were baffled as to why he wasn't included.

 

[honestbharani]

India really need to take a look at the bench strength. I really hope that at least this time, the selectors have the brains to leave out blokes like Kumble, the big three of our batting at home for the tour to BD, in both tests and ODIs. And leave out Dhoni for the series as well, just to see how Karthik shapes up on a whole tour as the specialist keeper. And also rest AA.



Gambhir
Uthappa
Sehwag
Yuvraj
Kaif
Raina
Karthik
Pathan
Sreesanth
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Joginder Sharma
VRV Singh
Powar
Badrinath
Rohit Sharma



Take these 16 guys for the whole tour. And try and see that as many guys get games in as is possible. The squad is pretty young, would have reasonable balance. Captaincy could be given to Viru or Yuvraj (there are no other options, really) and Viru can be the back up opener. And Uthappa can be the back up keeper.


EDIT: Can't believe I missed Munaf there. Throw him in instead of VRV. And include maybe Chawla for tests instead of either Pathan or Sharma depending on their performances in the ODIs.

 

[honestbharani]

My sentiments alike. The concept of a tearaway pacer seems nonexistent here in India, with every bowler, even hardcore specialists, bowling at a little over medium-pace.

My suggestion is that the people in charge of these bustling youngsters (and also peerless veterans) is to abandon the so-called Indian way of coaching, which is oriented towards producing mere medium-pacers who concentrate on swing and seam movement. Let the potential fast bowlers be encouraged to bowl fast, with the freedom to break the speed (and sound?) barrier. Not just fast, even aggressive bowling should be encouraged, where they bowl more often onto the body, make the batsmen play and even at a little less pace, make it hot in the middle.

Dont get me wrong, I am not saying pace is everything, but somehow these guys never get their pace back. I can understand one getting injured and losing some pace like that, but some of these guys haven't been injured that bad. And they never seem to regain their pace or even increase their pace either, something that happens with bowlers from other sides.

I remember in 2001, Nel couldn't top 135 ks and then next time I see him play international cricket, he was hitting 145+ against Lara & co. in 2003. Why doesn't that happen in India? Here, once pace is lost, its lost. Even Pollock seems to have regained "some" pace nowadays, compared to a couple of years ago.....

 

[adharcric]

Depressing post ...

 

[chris.hinton]

India must play Chawla and Powar

 

[adharcric]

India really need to take a look at the bench strength. I really hope that at least this time, the selectors have the brains to leave out blokes like Kumble, the big three of our batting at home for the tour to BD, in both tests and ODIs. And leave out Dhoni for the series as well, just to see how Karthik shapes up on a whole tour as the specialist keeper. And also rest AA.

Do you really think we need to rest the senior batsmen (and Kumble) for the tests as well? It may not be necessary; the only advantage is that we will be able to have competition for the reserve spots to England and the likes of Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly will feel the pressure from the youngsters (be it Yuvraj, Kaif, Badrinath, ...).

Gambhir
Uthappa
Sehwag
Yuvraj
Kaif
Raina
Karthik
Pathan
Sreesanth
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Joginder Sharma
Munaf
Powar
Badrinath
Rohit Sharma

Gambhir, Uthappa, Kaif, Yuvraj and Badrinath should definitely make it. Raina is recovering from a torn ACL so he's out of action. Rohit Sharma has done plenty with the A team but he hasn't done enough in domestic cricket yet (only one good season). Chawla is also not ready yet but he's not a bad choice. On the whole, that squad seems reasonable.