Akash Chopra on Drawn matches in Ranji Trophy

[fineleg]

I apologize if someone has already posted this, I havent read through all threads. Mumbai didn't bother pushing for a win after taking a 236-run lead against Haryana, opting for batting practice on the final day instead Not even a single Ranji Trophy quarter-final match produced an outright win. All winners were decided on the basis of the first-innings lead. This happened primarily because there wasn’t enough time to go for an outright win and also there was no intention to force the result. Neutral Curators = A good batting surface The BCCI did the right thing by appointing neutral curators for the knock-out matches. It was the second best thing after hosting the matches on neutral venues. Yet, the curators only get a few days to prepare the track as the venues depend on the teams qualifying. All that they can do is to not allow the hosts to prepare a track which suits their needs. For example, they would not leave too much grass to assist the quick bowlers or an underprepared wicket to suit the spinners. But that invariably results in preparing a good batting surface. And in any case it’s unfair to expect a miracle in four-five days of preparation. You can’t change the nature of a particular track overnight. Four days not enough Only the teams which are in good form (both batting and bowling) make it to the last eight. It is rather difficult to take 20 wickets of the team in good form on a good batting surface. WV Raman, the coach of Tamil Nadu team was quoted saying, ‘from here onwards (quarter-finals) the teams batting well will win the trophy’. And he was correct in his assessment. Teams go into the match with the intention of batting-out the opposition. Since an outright win isn’t necessary to go to the next round, the focus is on batting for as long as possible. Teams rarely worry about the scoring rate, which at times, makes the game boring to watch. But you cannot blame the teams for that approach either. The game gets over as soon as one team gets first-innings lead however slender it might be. Imagine a team getting a five runs first-innings lead!! Falling short by a few runs doesn’t mean that the opposition was superior or your team was outplayed. Solution For starters it won’t be a bad idea to make all knock-out games a five-day affair. That would give teams a ray of hope to make a comeback even after conceding the lead. Also it will keep the team which has got the lead on their toes. That’s exactly how it panned out for us, Delhi, in the finals in 2007. Uttar Pradesh got the first-innings lead but there was enough time left in the match for us to make a comeback. Secondly, there could be a cash reward (this could be implemented for the entire season) for an outright win. This would encourage teams, once on top, to tighten the noose and not use the last day for batting practice. ARTICLE URL: http://blogs.cricinfo.com/beyondtheblues/archives/2010/01/how_to_reduce_draws_in_knockou.php

Posted by: Arvind at January 4, 2010 5:04 AM Seriously, what is the need for these knockout games? It gives opportunity for teams that have flunked throughout the season to snatch the trophy by taking 1st innings lead in 3 games. As I have said in response to one of your previous articles as well, get rid of the knockout games entirely. That would make the league games more "serious". Too often, teams play just to "qualify" for the next round than to win. Posted by: FanCric at January 4, 2010 7:31 AM This is a serious issue. This amount Drawn games are unacceptable. Neutral Venues and Neutral Curators are superb moves and it should be ensured that Venues and Curators are neutral and impartial. Four Days for Knockout Games are not at all good. Pitch should be made so sportive and bowler friendly that three days should be enough to ensure a result and four days should be maximum to get result. Sportive and Bowler friendly wicket will ensure that only Technically solid batsmen can find their feet in International arena. Posted by: ppr at January 4, 2010 8:15 AM Neutral venues is a bad idea. I thought the idea was to have one team playing at home so that you may draw spectators. There needs to be more publicity of domestic cricket. We need to have spectator friendly stadiums so we can take the family to watch a day of cricket. The best place to do this would be domestic cricket. How about day night Ranji trophy games? That might draw crowds as well as TV audiences. Also better food inside the stadium and easier access. Also make sure of attractive rewards for the player for a result rather than a draw. Sporting pitches would also go a long way towards this. All this may be expecting a lot from a Cricket board which schedules 2 test matches in a year for the Indian team. Posted by: Rajit at January 4, 2010 8:17 AM Pretty fair assessment of the state of the premier domestic tournament.Knock out games should be a five day affair and there needs to be atleast 4 days gap between two games for travel,practice and recuperation.BCCI needs to add some "spunk" to domestic tournaments apart from IPL. Posted by: Harikumar at January 4, 2010 9:42 AM I agree with Arvind. We could do away with the knockout stages and probably replace it with a super four league to decide the winner from top two of each group. The teams should also play for an outright win. Delhi vs TN quarterfinal match was sad. Delhi were determined to bat as long as possible to overhaul 463 and hence the match meandered till the 4th day with the first innings' yet to be completed. It is not necessary for 5 day matches to provide a result. Only a consistent performance should be rewarded and not the one off bravado. Posted by: Anirudh at January 4, 2010 9:59 AM The Indian Domestic cricket scene needs an overhaul - Akash needs to be applauded for his efforts and insight. The number of draws, with runs being scored at less than 3 rpo, is not only ruining the competition as mentioned but also removing all interest whatsoever of any crowd support. In order to make Ranji more followed, the Board needs to bring in more innovations to the game. Similar to the Aussie league, the batting teams must be made to declare - after 120 overs or so and the points for 1st innings lead should be relooked at. Most importantly, pitches should be result oriented - this also applied for international matches. Unlike ODIs and T20s, the pitch is extremely important to uphold the importance of Test matches - we should expect to see a result in every match. And also, Railways should be removed for their extremely slow batting. Posted by: Siddharth at January 4, 2010 10:36 AM The only option for producing results in the knockout stage is to go for matches which are scheduled for six days or maybe seven days (max). This would guarantee hundred percent results. Posted by: Dunkin Jalki at January 4, 2010 10:39 AM Here are my two bits worth suggestions: Have very elaborately drawn mechanism of awarding the points for the teams. Somehting like the following plan: 1. 10 points for the winning team 2. In a drawn match, if the difference of runs in the first innings is less than 25 then equal points for both the team. If the difference is more than 100 runs then the leading team will get 4 and the other team gets 1...etc. etc. 3. A victory with the margin of an innings will have more points than a simple win etc. 4. Instead of a knockout round, let the total points decide the two finalists. And in the final, if a team wins it gets the trophy; if the match is drawn then both the teams share the trophy. :-) Posted by: Preet at January 4, 2010 11:23 AM 5 day matches from the knock out stage are a must. At the same time sporting pitches like the one at the Brabourne are the need of the hour. The Mumbai vs Delhi match is an interesting one whereas the Karnataka vs UP match is heading towards a 'batting' draw Posted by: Gautam at January 4, 2010 12:39 PM I would suggest having a home and away set of matches for the knockout rounds. That would give the team losing the first match a chance to come back. (But this could make the Ranji season longer.That can be compensated for by having three groups instead of four and thereby reducing the number of qualifying matches to be played.) This could force teams to produce result oriented pitches for their home games( and also have some home support). Posted by: santhosh kudva at January 4, 2010 2:50 PM about the same time as the first round of this season's ranji trophy, the Sheffield shield was being played in australia. tasmania and south australia made sporting declarations, well below their opponent's total, and emerged triumphant. i must also mention that the opponents also took cue from the gesture and set up the matches. that explains why australian cricket is the way it is and indian cricket the way it is. Posted by: Arjun at January 4, 2010 4:19 PM Aakash is very right!!The first inns lead should be scrapped to make first class cricket in india better.Even today,two teams (Karnataka and Mumbai)almost batted for two full days and scored big without caring about the run rate..I have a question here,We see quite a few teams batting almost 2 days and scoring a huge 1st inns total.My question is,Who will be declared the winner if the team batting 2nd hasn't completed its 1st inns before the end of 4 days?I'm not sure whether this has happened or not..

[cowboysfan]

semis and the final should be over 5 days.

[vvvslaxman]

Even Quarter should have 5 days. Having been the best team by a mile upto quarters TN found themselves out of the semi finals

[Sachinism]

Agree with the 5 day thing. 1st innings top score wins is BS

[urbestfriend]

It doesn't really matter if it is 4 days or 5days , if team plays fro a draw. For eg: Mumbai,Instead of enforcing follow-on today and play for a win, they are opting to bat again . They bat till end of tomorrow because they have got the first innings lead. Best way to solve this problem is let there be no points for the draw game to both teams. Then teams are compelled to force a win to get points. We can get rid of QF,SF etc. Let there be only final played b/n topper of group A and topper of group B

[THX_1138]

I say do away with this first innings crap. It is rather pointless! If you bat first on a lively track that would ease out on day 2 and day 3, you start with a considerable disadvantage! Heck, we should have virtual mine fields for pitches. much like the one at kotla that lead to the abandoned match! if there are any batsmen who survive those pitches, they would be made of stuff that former players such as amarnath and gavaskar were made of. I am really tired of how mundane and absolutely eventless these ranji games are! no wonder there are few if any crowds...

[The Outsider]

A lot of domestic competitions are suffering from the same problem - lots of draws in Australia and England as well, perhaps not to the same extent as in India, but I would say majority are drawn. The only way out are livelier pitches - that will automatically cure the first innings malady in most cases. BCCI should take leadership as the richest board in the world and invest in proper pitches throughout the country. Buy off the Sydney curator if needed.

[coffee_rules]

How can you do away with the first inning lead rule in Knock-out stage like this? It is needed to send teams to the next round. Probably 1 point for the losing team (in the prelim rounds) of drawn matches was a step towards this. But still outright victory is just 2 pts ahead of first innings lead. It should be made 7 instead 5 and bonus point for innings/10 wkt victory. I think the Aus domestic matches have this rule already.

[champ]

our domestic competitions is plagued with only problems starting from lifeless pitches to format on judging points .. these need to be sorted out first to get better international quality ready players .. i too agree giving points based on 1st inns score is bullshit..