Ranji Trophy 2010-11: Super League

[Chandan]

QUARTER FINAL, DAY THREE Haryana vs Tamilnadu TN sets sights on semifinal spot Run-rate may prove beneficial for the visiting team on the final day GOOD SHOUT Haryana's Dhruv Singh makes a spirited but unsuccessful appeal against ROHTAK: The cold weather here is indeed making things difficult for the Tamil Nadu camp. But the playing conditions of the National championship have more than made up for the visiting team's discomfort. After two sessions were lost for the second successive day in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals here and the completion of the first innings appearing increasingly difficult on the final day on Monday, Tamil Nadu is better placed than Haryana for a semifinal spot. As far as the current status of the match is concerned, Tamil Nadu is 72 for two in 24 overs after Haryana declared its first innings at the overnight 379 for six. On the right side Abhinav Mukund, with three boundaries in his unbeaten 30, was comfortable during his 117-minute stay in testing conditions even as opener Arun Karthik and S. Badrinath offered catches in the slip-cordon to give Haryana some hope. Still, the dice is heavily loaded in Tamil Nadu's favour to advance on run-rate, since it finds itself on the right side of an otherwise lop-sided playing condition. Given the thick fog that descends every evening and reduces the following day's play to around two hours, not much play is likely on Monday to decide the first-innings lead. The playing condition, dealing with the status of a quarterfinal or a semifinal match where neither team manages the first innings lead, is clearly in favour of the team batting second. As per the rule, the team with the superior run-rate would prevail. But this rule would be applicable only if the team batting second bats for a minimum of 30 overs. In this match, Tamil Nadu has to maintain a better run-rate than Haryana's 3.26 runs per over for the duration of its unfinished innings. So far, Tamil Nadu's run-rate is 3.00 but it holds a huge advantage. Calculated assault On Monday, Tamil Nadu can launch a calculated assault to attain the desired run-rate in the first six overs and then maintain it for the remainder of the innings. Since wickets lost or taken do not come into the calculations, Tamil Nadu needs to do just enough, without taking undue risks against a rather unlucky home team. Should Tamil Nadu not get even six more overs to play, it will still go through to the semifinal since its net run-rate in the league is better than that of Haryana. On the other hand, Haryana faces a far bigger challenge. It needs to restrict Tamil Nadu's run-rate to under 3.26 which is likely only if its bowlers strike in a big way. In 24 overs so far, Haryana bowlers did not make much of an impact. The home side missed the medium pace of Sachin Rana, the all-rounder who severely hurt his already sore-back while playing a friendly game of football on the cricket field on Saturday. Haryana frustated that run-rate could decide the game Despite putting up a big first innings score, Haryana's ambition of making the semi-finals is in danger of being thwarted by the fog that has marred their quarter-final against Tamil Nadu in Rohtak. A net run-rate rule will come into play on the final day tomorrow. According to the rule, if a minimum of thirty overs are bowled in TN's first innings, the team that has the higher net run-rate in this game will go through to the semi-finals. If, however, the fog does not allow even that many overs to be completed, the net run-rate from the league stage will apply. Haryana declared their first innings on the overnight score of 379 for 6 today in a bid to get in some overs, and had TN on 72 for 2 in the 24 overs that were possible today. TN, who are currently going at three runs an over need to score above 3.26 runs per over, which is the rate Haryana managed in their innings. But the rule goes against Haryana in that they maintained that rate over 116 overs, while TN will go ahead even if they can marginally better that rate in 30 overs. "We have played so consistently over so many overs. It's easier to score say, 120 in 30 overs but far more difficult to make 400 in 100," Ashwini Kumar, the Haryana coach, told ESPNcricinfo. "It rankles somewhere that it had to come down to this rule. There should be some rule like Duckworth-Lewis or any other rule that is acceptable to both teams." Haryana have had two outright wins in six games in the league stage compared to TN's one win in seven games. Both teams had 17 points each. Ashwini said there was a thick blanket of fog over Rohtak today evening, and they were hoping to have some clear weather tomorrow. "First of all, we have to bowl the remaining six overs (to make it 30 for the innings). It's really tough to decide on the strategy right now. We'll take it tomorrow as it comes." Rajasthan vs Mumbai Rajasthan on brink of upsetting Mumbai JAIPUR: Rajasthan was on the verge of scripting history on the penultimate day of its Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match against Mumbai at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Sunday. The home team, resuming at 236 for one, rode on a solid batting performance to end the day at 484 for seven in its first innings and take a massive lead of 232 runs against the defending champion. With just a day left, the result is a foregone conclusion since it is destined to be decided on the basis of first innings scores if one discounts the theoretical permutations and combinations. If it wins, it would be Rajasthan's first-ever victory over the 39-time champion. The unbeaten overnight duo of Vineet Saxena and Hrishikesh Kanitkar overhauled the target in the 13th over of the day. Rashmi Ranjan Parida and young Ashok Menaria built on the lead to help Rajasthan come within the reach of a semifinal berth. Kanitkar (113, 309b, 465m, 16x4) scored his 29th century and third of the season in the morning before missing the line against Abhishek Nayar, who made the most of the cold and windy conditions. The home skipper, who also surpassed 9000 runs in first class cricket, had gathered 240 runs with Saxena before his departure. Saxena (143, 425b, 591m, 19x4, 1x6) batted with unwavering focus before trying in vain a big shot off Iqbal Abdullah. He was caught at mid-on by Ramesh Powar. Good stroke-play Parida and Menaria, however, waited patiently to settle down before unleashing their attractive stroke-play. On his way to his 39th half-century, Parida (53, 123b, 99m, 9x4) played three classy boundaries in an Avishkar Salvi over. Menaria (71 batting, 136b, 4x4, 5x6), making a comeback after a groin surgery, was the more destructive of the two. The 20-year-old, struck three clean sixes off Abdullah and two off Powar. “I was under pressure to perform. So, I took some time to judge the ball properly. This is my natural game and I enjoy playing my strokes,” said Menaria, playing his fourth first class match. Menaria and Parida put on 78 runs before the latter edged Nayar to stand-in wicketkeeper Rohit Sharma. Menaria, along with Vivek Yadav (38, 75b, 90m, 8x4), compounded Mumbai's woes by building an entertaining 83-run stand for the sixth wicket. The visiting team's frustration brimmed over with a few of its players getting into verbal duels with the batsmen. The umpires had to intervene to pacify the situation. Rohit was fined 50 per cent of his match fees for using abusive language against one of the umpires. Nayar accounted for four host batsmen to emerge as the best Mumbai bowler. Mumbai batsmen were too flamboyant - Chopra It's been a dream campaign for Rajasthan, emerging from the Plate League to all but go past the defending champions Mumbai and book their place in a Ranji Trophy semi-final for the first time in 25 years. "It's a huge thing for Rajasthan, to all those players who've been associated with Rajasthan for such a long time," Aakash Chopra, the former Delhi and now Rajasthan opener, told ESPNcricinfo. A determined batting performance from Rajasthan has given them a big first-innings lead, but did the conditions play any role in the contrasting performances of the two teams? "Not at all," Chopra said. "It was a good wicket to bat on on day one as well. That's why Mumbai won the toss and decided to bat. It goes on to show that they also thought the track was dry. There is a grass covering but the grass is basically brown, and it's there to hold the track more than anything else. So there wasn't any exaggerated sideways movement or movement in the air. There were no demons in the track. It's more about the way we have played our cricket and how Mumbai have played their cricket." The chief architect of Mumbai's collapse in the first innings was seamer Pankaj Singh, whose six wickets set the game up for Rajasthan. His victims included the Mumbai openers and one of their most successful batsmen this season, Rohit Sharma, each of the three either bowled or lbw. "Pankaj, throughout the season, has been bowling his heart out, running in hard and bowling in the right areas with good pace," Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the Rajasthan captain and their highest run-getter this season, said. "And he's never given up and it's solely his hard work that is helping him." The approach adopted by the Mumbai batsmen also worsened their prospects, Chopra added. "The Mumbai batsmen were flamboyant, going after the bowling and perhaps played into Pankaj Singh's hands because he bowled a probing line, asked the right questions and they didn't apply themselves as well as they would have liked. "They were bowled out for 252, not a par-score for this track. We had thought, considering their depth in the batting line-up, of chasing a score of something like a minimum of 450." Rajasthan's unbeaten run this tournament - although a nominal fourth day in the quarter-final still remains - owes, in large part, to a collective effort and consistency in implementing their strategies. "The teamwork has been the highlight," Kanitkar said. "We've really stressed on that in all our meetings and practice sessions. Throughout this season, in each game, we've had sets of players step up, which has helped us succeed consistently." A committed plan to make the most effective use of their bowling resources and extract as much assistance from the tail with the bat made this success possible, Chopra said. "As far as our bowling is concerned, we've tried to swing the ball all the way." And the ploy's worked, with seamers Pankaj and Deepak Chahar splitting 63 wickets in six games. "That's where our strength lies. We've tried to pitch the ball up, maintained a good aggressive line of attack. We may not have been the most economical side in the competition but we've created enough chances. For our batting, we had decided to have a set batsman batting right till the end and in most of the games we had one pure batsman batting with the tail." "It's just one of those things where we bowled really well, a disciplined line and length and continued to get wickets," Kanitkar said. "Mumbai have batted well throughout this season, but our discipline paid off." Baroda vs Railways Shreyas leads Railways' desperate fightback Vadodara: Railways is refusing to give up. In arrears by a substantial 168 runs, its top order — led by the brave and bold Shreyas Khanolkar (56, 51b, 7 x 4s) — made a last-ditch attempt to take the contest into the last day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Baroda at the Moti Bagh Palace ground. After three days, the odds are much in favour of the home team featuring in the semifinals to be played during the first week of the new year, but assertive and hard-hitting response in the second half of Sunday by Khanolkar, Murali Kartik (28 off 31 balls), Prashant Awasthi (85 batting, 94 balls, 10x4) and Karan Sharma (30, 36 balls, 5x4) enabled the visitor to clean up the deficit in 34 overs. It will now hope to set a reasonable fourth innings target before lunch on the fourth and final day. At stumps on the third day, Railways was 52 runs ahead with six wickets in hand. With 90 overs remaining in the match, Railways has its task cut out to spring a surprise, but it's not altogether ruling out its chances in the light of the fact that Baroda choked against Uttar Pradesh at the same venue chasing a modest target. Resuming at a formidable looking 303 for four and with Kedar Devdhar at 122, Baroda fell to Jai Prakash Yadav, Anureet Singh and Sanjay Bangar's manipulation with the second new ball. Devdhar played across to be declared leg before and Rakesh Solanki and skipper Pinal Shah nicked to wicket-keeper. In less than half an hour, Baroda declined to 308 for seven before the lower order defied and put together 108 runs with the last wicket pair in Sankalp Vohra and Munaf Patel raising 70 runs. Surprisingly Munaf Patel — who had taken four wickets in the first innings — did not take the field and Baroda suffered from his absence. The home team picked up two crucial wickets in the last half an hour when left-arm seamer Vohra held a smart catch off his own bowling and left arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt had Karan Sharma slog-sweeping to Jaikishan Kolsawala at deep backward square leg. Madhya Pradesh vs Karnataka Ojha and Saxena give MP hope Naman Ojha dominated the 84-run opening wicket partnership with Jalaj Saxena. INDORE: Madhya Pradesh took the contest into the final day even as Karnataka entertained hopes of forcing an outright victory in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at the Holkar Stadium here on Sunday. Karnataka, resuming at 306 for eight, managed a first innings lead of 161 runs with C.M. Gautam making a fluent half century, making most of the 55 runs that his team gathered on Sunday morning. Responding with an eye on scoring briskly, Madhya Pradesh finished the day at 312 for seven with major contributions coming from Naman Ojha, Abbas Ali and Mohnish Mishra. Positive approach Karnataka's approach was positive, looking to achieve an outright result. The roles were distributed among the ranks and it developed into an intense contest in the afternoon when Madhya Pradesh looked for quick runs and Karnataka aimed for wickets. Fast bowler A. Mithun and left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi did not allow the opposition to dictate by striking at crucial junctures. Ojha led Madhya Pradesh's improved show in the second innings. He dominated the 84-run opening wicket partnership with Jalaj Saxena, scoring with a flurry of boundaries, eight in all. The emphasis was on unsettling the Karnataka attack and he attacked with gusto before Mithun scalped him. Mishra, an attacking batsman, was in his element, settling down quickly to scatter the ball to all corners. Six boundaries adorned Mishra's knock which was curt short by an ill-judged run. Even though Madhya Pradesh saw skipper Devendra Bundela fail for the second time in the match, the host had left-handed Abbas to make a fight out of it. Delightful shots Abbas came up with some delightful shots on the back-foot. He prevented a middle-order collapse by taking on the bowlers. His decision to attack inspired Harpreet Singh to look for runs too. Karnataka seemed to have lost grip when Joshi struck to snare his second victim. In the end, the teams had set up a meaningful concluding day on Monday.

[Sir john]

@UB :finger: what about jogi team:hmmm:

[Sir john]

bad weather in rohtak haryana chances gone now TN in semis :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall:

[Sir john]

railway and Haryana out from semis race. :bubblegum:

[Sir john]

Madhya Pradesh 200 and 337; Karnataka 361 and 47/3 match becomes interesting now uthaapa is key here for karnatka

[Sir john]

Kar 126/5 51 needed for win

[TheWall]

karnataka WINS!!!!

[urbestfriend]

karnataka WINS!!!!

:yay::yay:

[Sir john]

I watched full match good cricket by both team. to karnatka team:good:

[Sir john]

My both team out from semis race :wall::mad::wall:

[rkt.india]

ajinkya rahane another not out 100..total 17 hundreds in 47 matches..at an average of 69+...what a performer has been in first class cricket...he needs to be next in line for tests :two_thumbs_up:

[cowboysfan]

hats off to karnataka.they always try to go for the outright win(except the last match).the others seem lazy and happy with the first inning lead.

[Sachinism]

Rahane and Kohli now really putting pressure on Dravid

[saneindian]

Baroda vs Karnataka at Vadodara Rajasthan vs TN at Jaipur Semis to be played between 3-6 Jan. I will assume the players picked for the ODI team would travel to SA before that. This could change a few equations. For Baroda, Yusuf and Munaf will be missing. For TN, Ashwin will be gone.

[kabira]

TN will win the Trophy now

[Sir john]

Bad luck to jogi team.

[coffee_rules]

Ranji Trophy Semi-Finals:[Jan 3 - 6 2011] 1st Semi-Final: Rajasthan v Tamil Nadu at Jaipur Jan 3-6, 2011 (09:30 local | 04:00 GMT | 23:00 EST | 22:00 CST | 20:00 PST) 2nd Semi-Final: Baroda v Karnataka at Vadodara Jan 3-6, 2011 (09:30 local | 04:00 GMT | 23:00 EST | 22:00 CST | 20:00 PST) Cracker of games. Giant-killers Rajasthan must be on cloud nine after beating Mumbai fair and square. Mumbai if they had won this year would have made it thrice in three years. With that monkey off the backs, other teams can hope to win this year. Karnataka and TN already have their hands on the trophy. Hope Rajasthan continue their giant-killing trend in the SFs and get beaten in the finals by Karnataka. Go Karnataka!

[jibranpatel15]

Airtel Ranji Trophy Super Leage: Semi-Finals |04-07 Jan 2011| here we go one upset at Quarter Finals and what else the defending champions are out of competition. 1st Semi-final: Rajasthan VS Tamil Nadu at Jaipur 2nd Semi-Final: Baroda Vs Karnataka at Vadodara So what else who wants the championship ???? I feel Karnataka Hot Favorite now as Mumbai Out.

[kabira]

Tamilnadu v/s Baroda Final Tamilian winning it

[Sir john]

Kar is a good balance team.