Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Ranji Trophy is already on, two days down. Some games have plenty of wickets falling, some, big batting scores, some, a little too much rain.
Karnataka, champions in the last two editions, were skittled out for 189, trailed Assam by 5 runs and are now unbeaten on 77. Assam's Syed Mohammed took seven, while Karnataka's wickets were shared evenly. So were batting failures on both sides.
Delhi and Rajasthan, two poorly administered teams, lost plenty of wickets on either side, but Delhi were far behind, by over 102 runs, and they too responded with stable batting, at 176/1, with big scores from Chand and Gambhir. Rajasthan, without the injured Pankaj Singh, seem unlikely to take a bagful of wickets once the wicket flattens out.
Shootout at Chennai, as wickets are falling left, right and centre in the TN/Baroda match. Bharghav Bhatt and Yusuf Pathan and for TN, Rahil Shah, are getting plenty of wickets. Not many getting runs.
Pankaj's rival for a place in the Indian team, Ishwar Pandey, had a poor outing on a flat deck as MP played UP on a very flat deck in Moradabad. But UP played very negative cricket, still batting at 656/5, showing no intent to take 20 MP wickets. Sarfaraz Khan, a Mumbai lad, shifted to UP and narrowly missed a double-century.
Mumbai, on the other hand, are struggling to get Andhra wickets. Andhra, promoted last season, are currently at 213/4. Ricky Bhui scores a hundred, ex-India batsman Kaif is on 89.
Three centuries and a double for Punjab- the double scored by Gurkeerat, picked for ODIs, while Mandeep, close to 50 FC games, scored a century. Uday Kaul, never considered a wicketkeeper prospect in Tests, scored a century, to add to his impressive FC figures. The other team is Railways, and one-time Test prospect Karn Sharma picked up one wicket in two days.
Sehwag, not an India prospect these days, scored 92 and young Haryana batsman Himanshu Rana scored a hundred. They managed 332, against a Maharashtra attack far from impressive.
Umesh Yadav, very much an active India prospect as a fast bowler, had a great game with the bat, as he scored a very fast century for Vidarbha, who amassed 467 against Odisha. He didn't pick any of the two Odisha wickets for 79.
Hyderabad scored a healthy 325 against Goa, with contributions big and small, from top to bottom- except from Ashish Reddy, who was out cheaply and didn't take a wicket yet, as Goa are at 47/1. Rituraj Singh, who was struggling to take wickets for Rajasthan and then Jharkhand, had a good game with three for Goa. He's stuck in yet another mediocre team, all because of the chaos in Rajasthan cricket administration.
Thankfully he's moved away from Jharkhand as well. They've batted very poorly against Services, whose batting isn't much better, and may lose within three days.
J&K were dismissed for 328 by Kerala, with contributions all round, including from the much-loved Parvez Rasool- who struggled with the ball when Kerala came out to bat, now at 158/2. The less-fancied all-rounder Ram Dayal was out cheaply, and picked up one wicket.
Tripura vs Saurashtra may just be a plank for Ravindra Jadeja to come back to the Indian side. Let's see if he can pull his team out of Group C first.
Followers of the Indian domestic scene love to watch or read about Rishi Dhawan, the HP all-rounder. He's out of action as HP doesn't have a game this time. Hopefully he can pull HP out of Group C mediocrity, or move out to a better team, if he has to compete with Jadeja for a place in the national side.
Karnataka, champions in the last two editions, were skittled out for 189, trailed Assam by 5 runs and are now unbeaten on 77. Assam's Syed Mohammed took seven, while Karnataka's wickets were shared evenly. So were batting failures on both sides.
Delhi and Rajasthan, two poorly administered teams, lost plenty of wickets on either side, but Delhi were far behind, by over 102 runs, and they too responded with stable batting, at 176/1, with big scores from Chand and Gambhir. Rajasthan, without the injured Pankaj Singh, seem unlikely to take a bagful of wickets once the wicket flattens out.
Shootout at Chennai, as wickets are falling left, right and centre in the TN/Baroda match. Bharghav Bhatt and Yusuf Pathan and for TN, Rahil Shah, are getting plenty of wickets. Not many getting runs.
Pankaj's rival for a place in the Indian team, Ishwar Pandey, had a poor outing on a flat deck as MP played UP on a very flat deck in Moradabad. But UP played very negative cricket, still batting at 656/5, showing no intent to take 20 MP wickets. Sarfaraz Khan, a Mumbai lad, shifted to UP and narrowly missed a double-century.
Mumbai, on the other hand, are struggling to get Andhra wickets. Andhra, promoted last season, are currently at 213/4. Ricky Bhui scores a hundred, ex-India batsman Kaif is on 89.
Three centuries and a double for Punjab- the double scored by Gurkeerat, picked for ODIs, while Mandeep, close to 50 FC games, scored a century. Uday Kaul, never considered a wicketkeeper prospect in Tests, scored a century, to add to his impressive FC figures. The other team is Railways, and one-time Test prospect Karn Sharma picked up one wicket in two days.
Sehwag, not an India prospect these days, scored 92 and young Haryana batsman Himanshu Rana scored a hundred. They managed 332, against a Maharashtra attack far from impressive.
Umesh Yadav, very much an active India prospect as a fast bowler, had a great game with the bat, as he scored a very fast century for Vidarbha, who amassed 467 against Odisha. He didn't pick any of the two Odisha wickets for 79.
Hyderabad scored a healthy 325 against Goa, with contributions big and small, from top to bottom- except from Ashish Reddy, who was out cheaply and didn't take a wicket yet, as Goa are at 47/1. Rituraj Singh, who was struggling to take wickets for Rajasthan and then Jharkhand, had a good game with three for Goa. He's stuck in yet another mediocre team, all because of the chaos in Rajasthan cricket administration.
Thankfully he's moved away from Jharkhand as well. They've batted very poorly against Services, whose batting isn't much better, and may lose within three days.
J&K were dismissed for 328 by Kerala, with contributions all round, including from the much-loved Parvez Rasool- who struggled with the ball when Kerala came out to bat, now at 158/2. The less-fancied all-rounder Ram Dayal was out cheaply, and picked up one wicket.
Tripura vs Saurashtra may just be a plank for Ravindra Jadeja to come back to the Indian side. Let's see if he can pull his team out of Group C first.
Followers of the Indian domestic scene love to watch or read about Rishi Dhawan, the HP all-rounder. He's out of action as HP doesn't have a game this time. Hopefully he can pull HP out of Group C mediocrity, or move out to a better team, if he has to compete with Jadeja for a place in the national side.