Ranji Trophy - Super League 2009-2010 - Discussion thread

[The Dark Horse]

Good to see that TN is prepared to take on anyone:dance:

[Guest Hiten.]

Oh noes It is not about my team or your team. This is about a stupid rule which doesnt make sense. Dont tell me you guys approve of this rule. The group leaders should play the 'weaker' teams. Teams that dominate the current season should be rewarded, not the finalists of last year's tournament.

When teams can progress further based on first innings' lead, then no rule can match or be as stupid. Teams have been literally playing for a first innings' lead, making the match into high scoring bore fest.

[ludhianvi]

When teams can progress further based on first innings' lead' date=' then no rule can match or be as stupid. Teams have been literally playing for a first innings' lead, making the match into high scoring bore fest.[/quote'] That's a pessimist attitude to have and one that does not ask for improvements in the system. Just because one rule is not that great, you dont sit on the sidelines and do nothing about it. Its a gradual process. One improvement will help the overall system. Regarding the first inning's lead, what other method do you propose? The only one I can think of is increasing the number of days from 4 to 5 but the tournament already takes about 2.5 months to complete. The point system is a fair one, considering the pitch conditions across the country. There is enough incentive to go for a win (5 points) or an innings or a 10 wicket outright victory (6 points) compared to a 3 point first innings lead. If you want to just record points for wins, then you have to factor into different pitch conditions. For example, in one place you can have a flat wicket and the result is a draw whereas in another part of the country, the wicket is a result-oriented one. Now the first two teams would be at loss for drawing a match at a flat wicket. And what would you do for knockout matches?

[Feed]

Vijay to lead Tamil Nadu, Chopra, Dhawan return for Delhi Chennai: M. Vijay will lead Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Delhi in Delhi from December 24 to 27. He stands in for Dinesh Karthik, who has been drafted into the Indian squad for the third and fourth ODIs against Sri Lanka. ... More... Vijay to lead Tamil Nadu Chennai: M. Vijay will lead Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Delhi in Delhi from December 24 to 27. He stands in for Dinesh Karthik, who has been drafted into the Indian squad for the third and fourth ODIs against Sri Lanka. Paceman Palani Amarnath, off-spinner M. Prabhu, and wicket-keeper batsman K.H. Gopinath have been included in the squad. Seamers R. Jesuraj and V. Yomahesh and batsman S. Suresh Kumar have been left out. While Jesuraj and Suresh Kumar have suffered form slumps, Yomahesh has fitness concerns. The State selection panel has laid emphasis on performance. The squad: M. Vijay (captain), Abhinav Mukund, K.B. Arun Karthik, S. Badrinath, S. Anirudha, C. Ganapathy, R. Ashwin, U. Sushil, L. Balaji, R. Sutheesh, R. Aushik Srinivas, R. Satish, R. Prasanna, M. Prabhu, P. Amarnath and K.H. Gopinath. Chief Coach: W.V. Raman. — Special Correspondent More... Chopra, Dhawan return for Delhi Rajat Bhatia will lead Delhi in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals against Tamil Nadu. The match is scheduled from December 24 at Palam grounds. For Delhi, Chopra had missed the last two matches due to ill health, Dhawan due to a thumb injury and Tehlan on account of form. They make a return in place of Rahul Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Abhishek Kapoor. The team: Rajat Bhatia (Captain), Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas, Puneet Bisht, Gaurav Chhabra, Pradeep Sangwan, Sumit Narwal, Parwinder Awana, Vikas Mishra, Mayank Tehlan, Aditya Jain, Pawan Suyal, Yogesh Nagar and Ankur Julka.

[Feed]

Ranji Super League devoid of real contests Out of the 49 Ranji Trophy Super League matches played from the first week of November, 30 meandered to a draw. This once again bears out the batsmen’s supremacy and the struggle the bowlers have undergone over a period of seven weeks in the BCCI’s premier national championship. More... Super League devoid of real contests G. Viswanath Out of the 49 Ranji Trophy Super League matches played from the first week of November, 30 meandered to a draw. This once again bears out the batsmen’s supremacy and the struggle the bowlers have undergone over a period of seven weeks in the BCCI’s premier national championship. Even to the seamers who have been among the wickets it’s not been easy either. As usual they have had to bend their backs and demanded scalps. The spinners were virtually out of the big picture. Clearly the contest between the bat and ball was absent in many instances with the batsmen amassing runs, a fact that’s evident in aggregates of 1000 plus in 20 matches and 900 plus in 13 matches. It’s another stark aspect that has brought the clear divide between the BCCI’s Pitch and Grounds Committee. The home associations have vested interests whereupon they cannot go against the whims of their players. They cannot look beyond the prize and hence most matches suffered from a real contest on account of lifeless pitches. Exceptions There have been exceptions though, like the one at Dharamsala where the pitch allowed for a contest between Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. W. V. Raman who has been a player and coach together for three decades said: “It’s the best pitch I have seen in 30 years. The pitch had pace, carry, bounce and lateral movement on all four days.” In fact he advised the authorities to prepare sporting wickets for all junior and senior cricket saying: “By all means. I would probably say it’s a must for real development of players.” The UPCA took maximum advantage of the presence of Praveen Kumar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Bhuvanesh Kumar and rolled out a track that afforded excessive seam movement. The surface helped Ranadeb Bose, Sourav Sarkar and Laxmi Ratan Shukla, too, but Bengal lost the match narrowly and thereby failed to progress to the knock-out. Uttar Pradesh advanced to the quarter-finals with five points from this crucial match. Things may have been different had Ashok Dinda (selected in the Indian team for Twenty20 against Sri Lanka) played this match. But the contest was gripping till the end. In another instance Baroda beat Saurashtra in one and half days on a seamer friendly track at the Moti Bagh Palace ground. Pitch dynamics What these two instances have shown is that India’s curators know the dynamics of making a pitch for any match. Once the authorities do not interfere with their work, one may see few batsmen pile up runs on plumb wickets. At the end of the Super League, Parthiv Patel on the back of his 166 against Tamil Nadu and 149 against Mumbai — both when conditions were favourable to the batsmen at the Sardar Patel Stadium and the Bandra-Kurla-Complex — leads with 727 runs. He is followed by Saurashatra’s own version of Virender Sehwag, but a left hander Chirag Pathak (601), S. Badrinath (584), Wasim Jaffer (569), Cheteshwar Pujara (554). Few more crossed the 500 run mark and notable among them is Karnataka’s Manish Pandey (553). In the last round, Mumbai’s Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 309 against Gujarat’s four main bowlers who have played between them 27 first class matches. “It’s good only for the fact that he’s learning to play a long innings and graft for runs,” said a national selector. The other big individual scores came from Badrinath (250 against Mumbai), Ajinkya Rahane (265 not out against Hyderabad), Abhinav Mukund (257 against Hyderabad), Cheteshwar Pujara (204 not out against Maharashtra) and Shikar Dhawan (224 against Baroda). Though he did not figure in the Karnataka's last league match against Saurashtra, R. Vinay Kumar tops the bowling averages with 33 at 16.78 as against Punjab’s Love Ablish’s 33 at 22.36. Himachal Pradesh’s V.S. Malik has taken 32, Karnataka’s Abhimanyu Mithun 31 and Punjab’s Manpreet Gony 30. The first among spinners is Orissa left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh who has taken 25. There are others like Uttar Pradesh’s Piyush Chawla, Mumbai’s Iqbal Abdullah and Tamil Nadu’s Aushik Srinivas who have taken around 20 wickets. The find of the league has to be Karnataka middle order batsman Manish Pandey and fast bowler Mithun and Tamil Nadu’s Srinivas. The quarter-final line up has India’s main teams: Mumbai v Haryana, Tamil Nadu v Delhi, Karnataka v Punjab and Uttar Pradesh v Assam. And Assam’s joint top wicket-taker with seamer Abu Nechim Ahmed has been off-spinner Arlen Konwar. The 28-year-old Konwar was in the proven chucker list with a beyond 20 degree defect. He sent 213.3 overs in six matches, but was not called for throwing.

[kabira]

so out of 49, 19 had results. I am sure few more results would have been there if there was 5th day. 40% result ratio is not so bad. Its been surprise season. No Baroda, Saurashtra in Quarters. No Railways either. Assam is big surprise.

[vvvslaxman]

Tamilnadu has so far bullied everyone with their powerful batting display. 5 draws in all. No team is consistently capable of bowling top teams out. They just go out there and pile up runs to get first innings lead and take the points. Hope the quarter finals produce results

[coffee_rules]

Last year, Mumbai got to meet the plate finalists because they were table toppers. This year they get to meet plate finalists because they were defending champs. How many times do they get freebies like this? F u cking freeloaders :protest: :protest:

[Cricketics]

Ranji Trophy - The Quarter Finals 4th Quarter-Final: Assam v U. Pradesh at Guwahati Dec 24-27 (09:30 local, 04:00 GMT) 2nd Quarter-Final: Delhi v Tamil Nadu at Delhi Dec 24-27 (09:30 local, 04:00 GMT) 1st Quarter-Final: Haryana v Mumbai at Rohtak Dec 24-27 (09:30 local, 04:00 GMT) 3rd Quarter-Final: Karnataka v Punjab at Mysore Dec 24-27 (09:30 local, 04:00 GMT) I predict UP, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and Karnataka going through to the semis. Though I have to say, Delhi vs Tamil Nadu should be a cracker of a game. It would be on good sporting pitch at the Roshnara cricket club in Delhi.

[coffee_rules]

@ Mysore, Good for Karnataka. They shd be through to semis to meet TN/Delhi.

[The Outsider]

Actually, there is a chance of UP getting ambushed in Guwahati - tough to predict anything on those kind of wickets at this type of the year.

[TheWall]

TheWall is leading Karnataka against Punjab in Mysore. Expecting a splendid performance from the Karnataka team.

[Feed]

Dravid to lead Karnataka in Ranji Quarters Rahul Dravid will lead the Karnataka team against Punjab in the Ranji Trophy Super League quarterfinal commencing at the Gangothri Glades ground in Mysore on December 24. More... Dravid to lead Bangalore: Rahul Dravid will lead the Karnataka team against Punjab in the Ranji Trophy Super League quarterfinal commencing at the Gangothri Glades ground in Mysore on December 24. Dravid, who was away on National duty and performed with aplomb during the recent Test series against Sri Lanka, will take over from Robin Uthappa. Allrounder B. Akhil and off-spinner Ryan Ninan are notable omissions from the squad while veteran left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi returns after a brief spell of rest. The team: Rahul Dravid (captain), Robin Uthappa, K.B. Pawan, Amit Verma, Manish Pandey, C.M. Gautam (wicketkeeper), Ganesh Satish, Sunil Joshi, Vinay Kumar, A. Mithun, S. Arvind, Stuart Binny, Udit Patel, K.P. Appanna and Aditya Sagar. Coach: Sanath Kumar.

[Feed]

Crunch time for Mumbai Mumbai, as defending champions, were expected to dominate the 2010 Ranji season. But they struggled to make the knock-out stage. The luck factor in their entry into quarterfinals cannot be brushed aside. More... Crunch time for Mumbai Taus Rizvi / DNA Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:36 IST Email Mumbai: Mumbai, as defending champions, were expected to dominate the 2010 Ranji season. But they struggled to make the knock-out stage. The luck factor in their entry into quarterfinals cannot be brushed aside. The 38-time champions have been anything but consistent. They managed only one outright in seven league outings - the lone win coming against minnows Himachal Pradesh. If there were old rules, Wasim Jaffer's team would have struggled to make the next grade. Mumbai finished third in the Group A with 19 points from one win and six draws while Tamil Nadu (26) and Punjab (19) were top two sides in the group. The holders will meet Haryana in the quarterfinals in Rohtak from December 24. Batting, led by Jaffer, has been decent, but not dominating. Ajinkya Rahane has also been in good nick. Rohit Sharma has had a poor start before bouncing back with a century against Railways on a turning track. His 309 -- against Gujarat in the last league game -- could not have come at more opportune time. Abhishek Nayar, however, has not done justice to his billing. But Mumbai's worry is in bowling. Not a single bowler has managed a five-wicket haul. Ramesh Powar, who suffered side strain during his match-saving 125 against Punjab, has not been in good form, taking only six wickets in four games. Left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla is the highest wicket-taker with 24 wickets. The fast bowlers, too, have failed to be penetrative. Mumbai got the services of Zaheer Khan in the first two games but the team could not take the advantage. Veteran pacer Ajit Agarkar has been below par. Mumbai coach Praveen Amre said: "There were some circumstances that went against us, like the rains during the Orissa match. We would have liked to have the momentum but things did not go as per our plans. It would have been great had we topped the table which could have given us immense boost. "We did not bowl well when it mattered and none of our bowlers could take a five-wicket haul. But we will have to put up a good show against Haryana because it is a knock-out game. They have some good players in Amit Mishra, Sunny Singh and hence we can't take them lightly," Amre said.

[maverickingrass]

they have not been developing good pace bowlers while in last 10-15 years pace bowling has become the route to success for teams in ranji trophy.almost evry team plays 3 pacers nowadays while some play even 4 after abey kuruvilla they have just produced just one gud pacer in sir aggy...even zaheer learnt his cricket outside mumbai.... their captain jaffar plays old school defenesive cricket and believes in batting out the opposition.they hype up dhaval kulkarni as if he is the next best thng on earth..aggy bowls better and faster than him....they wld have done better if netravalkar or a new pacer wld have played few matches..

[urbestfriend]

@ Mysore' date=' Good for Karnataka. They shd be through to semis to meet TN/Delhi.[/quote'] Mysore is placid pitch. I'd have preferred a green top to face Punjab which suits Karnataka's strength . i.e. bowling than a placid pitch

[Lord]

Mysore is placid pitch. I'd have preferred a green top to face Punjab which suits Karnataka's strength . i.e. bowling than a placid pitch

Gony n Ablish r also in good form

[ludhianvi]

Mysore is placid pitch. I'd have preferred a green top to face Punjab which suits Karnataka's strength . i.e. bowling than a placid pitch

Actually, Punjab got outright wins in helpful conditions for the bowlers. Their batting is that not strong compared to their bowling. The openers are not in good form and put a lot of pressure on the middle and lower order. So on a placid track, Karnataka would go in as favourites due to their strong batting. It would require an extraordinary effort from Punjab to pull this one off.

[cowboysfan]

why are they playing through Christmas?

[msb1991]

Are any of these being televised in India, if they are, can somebody please record some highlights for me?