Ranji Trophy 2011-12: Super League

[Sir john]

Ranji Trophy Round 1 Match thread Ranji Trophy Super League Matches

Group B: Bengal v Gujarat at Kolkata - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group B: Delhi v Haryana at Delhi - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group A: Orissa v Saurashtra at Cuttack - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group A: Punjab v Uttar Pradesh at Mohali - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group A: Railways v Mumbai at Delhi - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group A: Rajasthan v Karnataka at Udaipur - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group B: Tamil Nadu v Baroda at Chennai - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT)

Ranji Trophy Plate League Matches

Group B: Goa v Maharashtra at Porvorim - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group B: Hyderabad (India) v Jharkhand at Hyderabad (Deccan) - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group B: Jammu & Kashmir v Assam at Srinagar - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group A: Services v Andhra at Delhi - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group A: Tripura v Himachal Pradesh at Agartala - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT) Group A: Vidarbha v Kerala at Nagpur - Nov 3-6, 2011 Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT)

[Sir john]

good news neo cricket to show Punjab vs Uttar Pradesh match. :clap:

[Sir john]

Ranji Trophy Punjab v UP Raina returns to Ranji with vigour

Most international stars feel (though they won’t say so openly) that playing domestic cricket is a waste of time. When the circumstances do arise and they are compelled to turn out for their respective State teams in the Ranji Trophy, these stars consider such an exercise as a bit of a climb-down. But no such thing as taking it easy was on display when you watched Suresh Raina at the nets at the PCA Stadium here this morning. Raina is in Mohali to lead UP against Punjab in the Ranji game that starts here tomorrow. And the skipper was engrossed in the preparations. He went with coach Gyanendra Pandey to have a look at the wicket, had a bit of a bowl in the nets and also batted for a longish time. After that he was available to speak to the media as well. There was no sign, no hint whatsoever, of any fuss or tantrum. “I really think it’s a good thing whenever players are not involved in international matches, they should come and play domestic cricket. This has helped me a lot. Yes, players do need rest but playing Ranji Trophy is also important. I played some Ranji games last season as well,’ said Raina. “We had a tough time in England. The weather and everything else did not help. I tried my best there,” he said, referring to the disappointing away series. “But now in the ODI series we really played very well. My own form is quite good. “I don’t need to change my game all that much. Perhaps a little bit in shot-selection. I’m confident of getting back into the Test team and whenever I get my chance again I will be ready for that. A couple of good knocks in Ranji will only add to my confidence,” said the UP captain. Raina of course, was the captain of the Indian ODI team on the tour to the West Indies and was also part of the Test team in England but he now finds himself out of the team for the upcoming Test series against the West Indies. More than a few players are looking to seal their spot in the Test team with none of them having really cemented his place. Virat Kohli got his chances in West Indies but could not grab them. Yuvraj should have been a settled member of the Test side by now but even he has not made the most of it. Raina too has impressed in patches and has also been found wanting in some instances. Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma are there as well. It’s up to these players to step up and grab the mantle from the seniors of the side who are not going to be there for very long. In Suresh Raina the selectors have a player who is not short of commitment, neither of talent. He has made a place for himself in ODI’s and T20. Raina may not like to admit it but he does need to tighten his game for Test match cricket. He sure is smart enough to realise this and committed enough to work on that aspect of his game. His fielding is electric to say the least. With a few minor adjustments to his style of batting, Raina sure looks a safe bet for Test matches as well.

[Sir john]

Chance for Bhajji to grab wickets

If Uttar Pradesh will be looking to their skipper Suresh Raina to lead from the front, Punjab will have the advantage of having Harbhajan Singh as their captain as the two sides meet in the Ranji Trophy match at the PCA Stadium here from tomorrow. Punjab coach Vikram Rathour is at a loss to explain why Harbhajan is not the Indian Test side at the moment but at the same time he’s not complaining. “I really don’t know from where these reports are coming that Harbhajan needs to rediscover his hunger for cricket. I spoke to him and even he does not know why he is not in the Test team. “He should at least be told why he is not there,” Rathour added. “But it’s a big plus for us to have him leading our side. It’s a big motivation for the young players of our team. Harbhajan is a fighter and a world class player. I’m sure he will soon be back in the Test side. But till such time he will help us get the best results in the Ranji games,” he said. “Rahul Sharma is in the Test squad and we would have missed him. But now with Harbhajan there I don’t think we will really miss him that much,” added Rathour. Other players to watch out for from the Punjab camp include promising batsman Mandeep Singh and fast bowler Manpreet Gony. As for UP, Raina's presence will strengthen the batting and Mohd Kaif will want to get back to form without the pressure of captaincy. UP's strength remains on their bowling. They will miss Praveen Kumar, but will like to think they have one of the best domestic attacks in R.P. Singh, Sudeep Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Piyush Chawla. Despite being - on paper - one of the top three sides of their group, despite having secured 14 points from their first four matches, UP failed to make it to the quarter-finals from a group of six the last time around. When even a first-innings lead might have been enough in one of the two last matches, they registered just one point. In all they managed just one century, and that too came off Chawla’s bat. Raina harbours Test ambitions, R.P. Singh will eye redemption after the embarrassing Test comeback earlier this year, but it's an even more interesting season for Kaif. The selectors' message has been clear that he is not in their plans, and his own dipping returns haven't helped either. With 203 runs at 22.55 the last season was one of the worst for him.

[BeautifulGame]

Neo arent showing any speed guns for Ranji trophy:headshake:

[The Dark Horse]

Is it raining in Chennai?

[rkt.india]

Neo arent showing any speed guns for Ranji trophy:headshake:

who is batting first.

[BeautifulGame]

Is it raining in Chennai?

Not where i am.Not sure about Chepauk.

[BeautifulGame]

who is batting first.

Punjab 66 / 2 .Both to RP singh.Good swing on offer to RP.But still he cant bowl consistently :banghead:

[Sir john]

Matches starts.any update about teams.

[Chandan]

Eye on Ranji - II Mumbai Wasim Jaffer, Mumbai's spirit, voice and captain for many years now, put it succinctly after crashing out of the quarter-finals last season when he said his team had taken Rajasthan - a team that had qualified from the Plate group - lightly and were a bit arrogant for doing that. Mumbai, one short of lifting the crown forty times, are no more the elite, no more the clear favourites. In a way it is a completely new path Mumbai will walk this season. Praveen Amre, a hardworking simple man who coached Mumbai over the last five years - three times to victory - has decided to take a break for a year; Ajinkya Rahane, Mumbai's best batsman of the last three years is busy learning the ropes in the India dressing room. Ajit Agarkar and Abhishek Nayar are injured. So it is time for change. A time for Mumbai to discover new talent. A lot will depend on their captain Jaffer's success in the middle order, a position he exchanged his opener's slot for last year somewhat erroneously - he harbours hopes of a national call-up once the Big Three of India's Test team make way. It might sound a tad selfish, but Mumbai's inexperienced batting line-up can learn a lot from Jaffer's fighting spirit. It is the bowling that would be a constant worry for Mumbai. Aavishkar Salvi and Dhawal Kulkarni are not outright fast bowlers, and both have been susceptible to injury in the past. The bench-strength is thin. The spin pair of Ramesh Powar and Iqbal Abdulla would be key if Mumbai are to go the whole hog. The selectors, too, need to have the right strategies. Last year Mumbai tried out 23 players. They tried three openers, one of which Sahil Kukreja has retired. Sulakshan Kulkarni, their new coach, once a wicketkeeper for Mumbai, is known for his sound tactics. Last year he was the brain behind Vidarbha, a Plate team, reaching the semi-finals of the Ranji one-day competition as well as the knockouts in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Mumbai can do with fresh ideas. What they did last year Till the first day of their quarter-final contest against the eventual champions Rajasthan, reigning champions Mumbai were well on course to defend their crown. They had endured a tough ride through a difficult group with four out of their seven matches being away, including trips to Tamil Nadu and Delhi. Two victories and five draws ensured Mumbai would finish at the top of Group A. Despite possessing an inconsistent bowling unit, Mumbai's top three batsmen - Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma, and Ajinkya Rahane - looked in good shape, supported by sound numbers. So a clash with rank outsiders Rajasthan seemed to be just another stepping stone in Mumbai's march to the summit. But the problem was, Mumbai had assumed their opponent was a lightweight. Jaffer elected to bat on what turned out to be good pitch for the new-ball bowlers. Medium-pacer Pankaj Singh stunned Mumbai with a six-for on the first day that restricted them to a modest total, which Rajasthan overhauled patiently over the following three days. By the end Mumbai were left deflated. Men to watch Last season Rohit Sharma finished as the second-highest run-getter. He followed it with an equally strong performance in the IPL. Then a freak injury in England, at the start of the ODI series, dashed his hopes of a possible Test call-up. So Rohit now finds himself back where he started last year, and is bound to be hungry for runs. Iqbal Abdulla was named the Under-23 player of the 2011 IPL. Abdulla bowled aggressively, even with the new ball, for Kolkata Knight Riders and played a crucial role in his team finishing in the top-four. Last year, Abdulla was Mumbai's best bowler with 27 wickets. Given their current line-up of bowlers, Mumbai need him to click like never before. Team: Wasim Jaffer (captain), Ajit Agarkar (vice-captain), Ramesh Powar, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Sushant Marathe, Suryakumar Yadav, Kaustubh Pawar, Nikhil Patil (Jr), Onkar Gurav, Dhaval Kulkarni, Avishkar Salvi, Iqbal Abdulla, Kshemal Waingankar and Ankit Chavan. Rajasthan How do you top a fairytale? Not only did Rajasthan win the Ranji Trophy for the first time in their history last season, they did it after starting in the Plate League. They were the underdog's underdog, yet the team, led by their professional captain, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, had been carefully crafted to maximise their chances of success. Getting to the top of the mountain, though, is always easier than staying there. As the defending champions, Rajasthan won't be able to sneak up on anyone and the other teams will all want to knock them off their perch. But that's exactly the position they want to be in. "Everyone likes to be an underdog," Aakash Chopra, their veteran opener, told ESPNcricinfo. "But you don't want to be an underdog for too long. This is a rare opportunity. You get to see the world from a different side." Rajasthan have retained the same core of players who took them to the title last year. The three professionals - Kanitkar, Chopra and Rashmi Parida - return and they will have the use of Ashok Menaria, who scored a century in each of the knockout games last year, for the entire season. Add Robin Bist to the mix and the batting has a very formidable look to it. They will also be boosted by the belief that comes from winning. "You start believing you are as good as or better than your opponents," Chopra said. "You back yourself to perform and win games." That self-confidence will be crucial as there will be no easy games in the Super League. With Rajasthan drawn in the same group as heavyweights Mumbai and Karnataka, even a spot in the quarter-finals is not guaranteed. The team does have a couple of injury problems, most notably to legspinner Vivek Yadav who took 22 wickets last season. They will look to offpsinner Madhu Katri to fill the void. They are a pace-dominated bowling attack though and Pankaj Singh and Deepak Chahar, who picked up 83 wickets between them, are both fit. They also have 21-year-old Aniket Choudhary, a left-arm seamer who is six feet, five inches tall, and could surprise a few people. "It [the season] is about putting runs on the board," Chopra said. "We have the bowling attack to bowl people out." What they did last season Rajasthan began the season in spectacular style with a rout of Hyderabad, bowling them out for 21 as then debutant Chahar took 8 for 10. They followed that up with draws against Goa and Madhya Pradesh before trouncing Tripura. One more draw against Jharkhand ensured they topped their group and progressed to the quarter-finals. Drawn against defending champions and perennial nemesis, Mumbai, nobody expected them to go any further. But Pankaj Singh took 6 for 64 to bowl Mumbai out for 252 and centuries from Kanitkar, Saxena and Menaria gave them an insurmountable advantage. A first-innings lead saw off Tamil Nadu, this time Chopra, Kanitkar and Menaria made the hundreds. Menaria delivered again in the final, hitting a crucial second-innings 101 to see off Baroda's challenge and give Rajasthan's fairytale journey the perfect ending. Men to watch Menaria returned after back surgery and eight months on the sidelines last season to score 373 runs in three knock-out games at an average of 93.25. His contributions were vital to Rajasthan's success and whether he can duplicate that kind of consistency will play a large part in how far Rajasthan go this year. The new-ball pair of Singh and Chahar was the best in show, with only Baroda spinner Bhargav Bhatt taking more wickets. Chahar, especially, will be hard pressed to replicate his brilliant debut season, where he took 30 wickets at 19.63 in the Plate League and 10 wickets at 25.80 in the Super League. If these bowlers can produce the same sort of incisiveness against higher quality opponents, Rajasthan will be hard to beat. Team Hrishikesh Kanitkar (capt.), Aakash Chopra, R.R. Parida, Ashok Menaria, Vineet Saxena, Robin Bisht, Pankaj Singh, Deepak Chahar, Shamsher Singh, Sumit Mathur, Vaibhav Deshpande, Dishant Yagnik, Rohit Jhalani (wk), Aniket Choudhary and Madhur Khatri. Delhi Delhi's Ranji Trophy campaign began with a spectacular display of fireworks - appropriate given that the Diwali season is just winding down and not surprising because it is after all, Delhi. Two days before their first match against Haryana, coach Manoj Prakbhakar was given the sack, after he criticised his players in the press. The chance of Prabhakar having had a civilised discussion before leaving are far less than that of the DDCA winning a governance award. Outside this routine chaos, though, Delhi's cricket could be a reason for delight. Despite everything, they continue to generate a stream of talent: four Delhi players were on India's World Cup winning team, more than any other state. At the moment, though, with its headline-generating administration and a drama-generating dressing room, Delhi's cricketers can only wait for the simple business of play to begin. Delhi begin the season with injuries to two key players: Sumit Narwal, who is not just an opening bowler but all-round performer, and left-arm quick Pawan Suyal, who was picked for the Irani Cup despite having undergone a knee surgery in the summer. Captain Mithun Manhas believes it will be a tough season for his team; the India players are tied up with higher duties and the experienced Ashish Nehra is out of the four-day game. So, the burden lies with the younger men - batsman Unmukt Chand is suddenly in the spotlight after his showing with the India Under-19 side and the bowling will rely heavily on Pradeep Sangwan and Parvinder Awana. Narwal is expected to be up and running half way through the league phase. What they did last season Underachieve. Manhas believes that Delhi suffered a combination of misfortune and cricket's cruelty to miss out on the knockout round completely. Early on, Delhi lost first-innings' lead points to Bengal and then struggled to make the most of their matches against the weakest teams in their group, Gujarat and Saurashtra, after play was curtailed - two days against Saurashtra and 140 overs against Gujarat. In their last league match, Delhi needed just a single point from a draw to make it through to the last eight. With the northern winter closing in and Manhas indisposed, Railways drove Delhi into the ground with a fiercely determined defence of 135. Men to watch Unmukt Chand, 19, will be put through his second-season examination, to see if he is the next big thing from the Delhi batting battery. Manhas describes him as a 'flashy, hard-hitting 21st century prototype'. "It will be a good season for him to learn, and we will know in another two-three first-class seasons as to how far he can go," Manhas said. Newcomer Rishit Saini's medium-pace for the Under-22s has raised hopes in Delhi's pace department. Manhas and Rajat Bhatia are the only two players above 26, in a team that has an average age of 22. So, even away from the familiar names, Delhi are loaded with plenty of possibility. Team: Virender Sehwag ©, Gautam Gambhir (vc), Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Ishant Sharma, Puneet Bisht, Chetnya Nanda, Gaurav Chhabra, Yogesh Nagar, Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan, Parvinder Awana, Sunny Sehrawat, Rahul Yadav, Farman Ahmed, Shawez Khan, Joginder Singh, Ankur Julka, Tushar Pant, Rakshit Pant, Abhishek Singh, Kunal Lal, Abhishek Sharma, Unmukt Chand, Mohit Sharma. Tamil Nadu Every year, Tamil Nadu enters the Ranji Trophy as one of the favourites on paper. Their talented line-up lives up to the billing through the league phase, before inevitably failing in the knockout stages. The theme occurs with remarkable consistency every year - in the last 11 years, they have made the knockouts eight times, including two finals, without going all the way. The pressure to break their big-match jinx will weigh heavy on Tamil Nadu this year, and to make matters worse they will be without some of their big players, while some others are not in the best of form. S Badrinath is out for at least two weeks with a rotator-cuff injury, while R Ashwin will miss out for extended periods, having made it to the national side. Dinesh Karthik and M Vijay come into the season low on confidence, having lost favour with the India selectors. L Balaji, who has carried the attack on his shoulders for many years, will be saddled with the added burden of captaincy, and will have to work with an inexperienced attack, with C Ganapathy being axed. The absence of regular names like R Sathish and S Anirudha means TN will be fielding more than their share of new names. While the bowlers will ease their way into the season, batting will form the key for Tamil Nadu's progress. Vijay and Abhinav Mukund form a formidable opening combination, while the Karthiks - Dinesh and Arun - have the pedigree to fill the void left by Badrinath in the middle order. Ashwin's absence is an opportunity for left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas, who topped Tamil Nadu's wicket-charts in the 2010-11 Ranji season. Will the new-look combination click for Tamil Nadu as they resume their hunt for the trophy that has eluded them since 1987-88? What they did last season Tamil Nadu made the knockouts despite winning only one of their seven league games. The victory came in their season opener, when L Balaji and Sunil Sam starred with the ball against lowly-ranked Assam. Ashwin snared 10 wickets against Delhi, but a batting implosion meant Tamil Nadu lost first-innings points despite a Badrinath century. A double-ton from Abhinav and 195 from Badrinath ensured Tamil Nadu got the decisive lead against Saurashtra, and the pair was among the runs again in the rain-marred encounter with Railways. Rain at home continued to spoil their fixtures, as points were shared against Bengal, but they managed to get the lead against Mumbai and Gujarat. They held off Haryana in a rain-marred quarter-final in Rohtak to set up a semi-final showdown against Rajasthan. The bowlers, who had been lulled into a comfort-zone by now, struggled to dislodge Rajasthan's stubborn line-up in Jaipur. Aakash Chopra, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Ashok Menaria made tons to lift the score to an imposing 552 for 7, and despite a fighting 175 from Badrinath, Tamil Nadu fell well short. Men to watch Abhinav Mukund's first tour with the national team, to the West Indies, suggested he was overawed by the quality of the opposition and the big stage. By the time he came to grips with that challenge, he was facing an attack of far greater pedigree at the most-anticipated match of the year - the 2000th Test at Lord's. There he showed superb composure to overcome the gravity of the moment and work his way to a start. Despite the promise, Abhinav is back on the fringes after failing to display his ability to bat on and on at the highest level. The break can only do Abhinav good, as it gives him another chance to return to the familiar grind of domestic cricket, and revive his confidence and appetite. A good start to the season could see him regain the third opener's slot in time for the tour of Australia. Team: Laxmipathy Balaji (captain), Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, M Kaushik Gandhi, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), B Aparajith, K Shri Vasudeva Dass, R Prasanna, Vijay Shankar, V Yomahesh, Sunil Sam, J Kaushik, R Aushik Srinivas, Sunny Suresh Gupta.

[BeautifulGame]

50 for Mandeep.Good knock :clap:

[ganeshran]

Is there live score on cricinfo

[ganeshran]

Where are the live scores?

[BeautifulGame]

^ No

[BeautifulGame]

Nothing on cricinfo so far. Btw Punjab 140 odd for 2 at Lunch

[rkt.india]

Is Sudeep Tyagi playing?

[Chandan]

Eye on Ranji - III Haryana The days of the likes of Kapil Dev, Rajinder Goel, Chetan Sharma and Amarjit Kaypee are gone. The days of being title contenders - or champions as they were in that great 1990-91 final - are gone as well. Nowadays, Haryana come in with the aim of managing to stay in the Super League. There, however, is a lesson to be learnt from Rajasthan's triumph last year. They came up from the Plate league and the new format provided them with three possible matches of their lives. They ended up on the right side of all three; they didn't even necessarily need to take 20 wickets. This new format is surely easier than the old one of two teams from groups of seven or eight making it to the semi-finals. The knockouts might be the tough yet short route, but the longer route precedes. That of playing six matches and ending up in the top three. To help Haryana do that, the likes of Amit Mishra and Joginder Sharma need to step up. Mishra is coming off a poor England tour, and has lost the reputation of being the second-best Test spinner in the country. He will be the captain of the side, and will want to do something special before the tour of Australia. Apart from the two, it's a fairly young side, with Sunny Singh and Sachin Rana being the moderately experienced players. Like last year, Haryana will have three goals going into the season. Firstly, make sure you don't end last and avoid relegation. Then, try to get into the top three. Then, it's anybody's tournament. What they did last year Last year Haryana would have realised anything is possible in this format. Having made sure they won't be relegated, they put in a surprise result by beating Uttar Pradesh. That took them into the quarter-finals on home turf against Tamil Nadu. Weather interruptions made it shorter than a one-innings shootout, and had they won the toss and known what run-rate to maintain batting second, they would have found themselves in the semi-final. As it turned out, Haryana batted first, and lost out on the basis of run-rates of uncompleted innings. Men to watch Mishra will surely be the one to watch, and he will have an understudy in Yuzvendra Chahal. Sunny will be their batting mainstay. Sunny is the only Haryana batsman to have scored a triple-century, but that was in the Plate League. In the Super League last year, he scored a total of 300 runs. He will want to address that situation. Team: Amit Mishra Rahul Dewan Yuzvendra Chahal Dhruv Singh Joginder Sharma Abhimanyu Khod Harshal Patel Prateek Pawar Sachin Rana Nitin Saini Sandeep Singh Manav Sharma Sunny Singh Priyank Tehlan Amit Vashisht Gujarat After the high of 2008-09, when they reached the quarter-finals, and the low of 2009-10, when they finished second to last on points, Gujarat had a middling 2010-11 season. They mustered five draws, a win and a loss in their seven matches. Gujarat lacked consistency with the bat: only two batsmen, Sunny Patel (who is not in the current squad) and Priyank Panchal, hit hundreds during the season, while none of those who played more than two games managed to average above 38.00. The bowling was over-dependent on legspinner Salil Yadav and medium pacers Ishwar Chaudhary and Siddharth Trivedi (also not in this season's squad). None of the other bowlers claimed more than four wickets in the season and even among the top three, only Yadav averaged below 32.00. What they did last season Gujarat's 2010-11 season was off to a promising start. In their opener against Railways they played themselves into a position to enforce a follow-on, and then came from behind in the second round to beat Saurashtra in a tight game. During the course of the competition, they drew with Bengal at home, and with Assam and Tamil Nadu away. They had two off games however, when they capitulated woefully, to spoil any chance they had of progressing to the knockouts. Against Delhi, they imploded for 71 - the season's lowest total - within 24 overs. In a show of substance, though, they managed to bat out 129 overs in their second innings and deny Delhi an innings victory by one wicket. There was no such resolute comeback against Mumbai. They were handed a crushing innings and 167-run defeat, the worst loss of the season. Men to watch Gujarat are a bit light on experience, with only captain Parthiv Patel, Niraj Patel and Bhavik Thaker having played more than 20 first-class matches. Their 14-man squad includes debutant Faisal Dudhat, a 23-year-old fast bowler. In what is a big blow for the team, pace spearhead Siddharth Trivedi has transferred to Saurashtra this season, leaving the bowling looking vulnerable. The fast-bowling requirements will have to be primarily met by Amit Singh and Ishwar Chaudhary, who have played 27 first-class games between them. Parthiv, the batting mainstay, had a poor last season, averaging 21.60 in six matches. In the team's best Ranji Trophy showing so far, in 2008-09, he led from the front, averaging 47.81 with a top score of 206. They will hope he shows some of that form again, after his summer with the national limited-overs team. While Parthiv must provide the flare, Gujarat will hope the experienced Niraj anchors the batting once more, as he had done in the previous two seasons. team: Parthiv Patel (capt), Niraj Patel, Bhavik Thakar, Priyank Panchal, Rajdeep Darbar (wk), Amit Singh, Ishwar Chaudhary, Rikin Chauhan, Salil Yadav, Rujul Bhatt, Sunny Patel, Prathmesh Parmar, Mehul Patel, Jayesh Makla, Faizal Dudhat. Coach Jayendra Sehgal. Orissa It is difficult to imagine an Orissa squad without Debashish Mohanty and Shiv Sunder Das but that is precisely the kind of challenge confronting new captain Halhadar Das, as Orissa face up to a future without their two stalwarts. While Das was dropped midway last season, Mohanty has stepped in as coach after Orissa decided to part ways with their high-profile appointee Michael Bevan. Bevan coached the side in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament and also took them on a training tour to Australia, but his departure just as the domestic first-class season is about to begin has raised eyebrows. The advantage for Orissa is that Bevan's replacement knows the side better than almost everyone. Mohanty's first task will be to get his batsmen to perform significantly better than the two centuries they managed among them in the previous season. With only two batsmen making more than 300 runs in 2010-11, it was no wonder that Orissa continued to languish in the lower reaches of the Super League. With Mohanty no longer available to share the new ball, they will also need to find some support for Basant Mohanty and Alok Chandra Sahoo. Orissa are placed in Group A alongside defending champions Rajasthan and heavyweights like Mumbai, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Add to that the presence of plucky sides like Railways and Saurashtra, and Orissa will do well to avoid relegation this season, something they have managed to do in the recent past without threatening to go further. What they did last year Orissa finished just above relegated Himachal Pradesh last season, failing to win even one of their six games. They began promisingly when they took a big first-innings lead against Baroda but were made to follow-on by UP in their next game, before being losing by an innings to Karnataka. They had to follow-on against Punjab as well but scrambled to take the lead against Himachal Pradesh. A disappointing season ended with a seven-wicket loss to Haryana. Men to watch Basanth Mohanty has been carrying the Orissa attack and has hovered around the 20-wicket mark for the past few seasons. He needs a stronger performance to make his presence felt though. Natraj Behera - who made the most runs for Orissa last season, and was also the BCCI Under-22 cricketer of the year 2009-10 - is one whom Orissa would expect to make the big scores. Team: Haladhar Das (c & wk), Natraj Behera (v-c), Bikash Swarup Pati, Sumitosh Praharaj, Paresh Patel, Biplab Samantray, Abhilash Mallick, Deepak Behera, Basanta Mohanty, Alok Sahoo, Jayanta Behera, Alok Mangraj, Preetamjeet Das, Dhiraj Singh, Subit Biswal, Subhrajit Sahu. Railways Railwaymen pride themselves on being the unheralded long-distance men of Indian domestic cricket in this new millennium. Only Mumbai have won more Ranji titles in the 2000s, Railways winning two of their three finals. They also own a record that gives them bragging rights over Mumbai. In the last 13 years, Railways are the only Ranji champions to have won the Irani Cup - they did it not once but twice, both their Ranji wins followed up by Irani triumps in 2002-03 and 2005-06. Yet, the clutch of players who formed the Railways engine room in the previous few seasons has dwindled down to five with the retirement of off spinner Kulamani Parida last season. The quintet of captain Sanjay Bangar, Yere Gowd, Murali Kartik, Jai P Yadav and Shreyas Khanolkar approach the new season with one eye on the matches ahead and the other on identifying which of their younger players are up for a confident baton-change. With five of seven league games at home, this season is when the best of the next generation must wave the flag that gets the Railways side going. "We've lost a lot of players in the last few years and we want the next lot to come through to for the team and for themselves, to push for higher honours," Kartik said. "As a Railways man, you have to work extra hard to get noticed and all of us know that." What they did last year Railways began with a stumble, conceding first-innings' points at home to Gujarat and Assam, before dropping not just Rohit Sharma but the chance of a win against Mumbai who squeaked home in the 89th over. By the time they got to the last two rounds, Railways had mustered four points from five matches. Relegation to the Plate Division loomed, at which point, they located their missing bullet train. Railways first defeated Delhi, defending 135, and then Bengal with Yadav grabbing a second-innings five-for. In the quarter-final Baroda put Railways in, Munaf Patel ate up their middle order and Railways Ranji season ended. Men to watch The gen next men need to become the performers of the present. Khanolkar's opening partner Faiz Fazal could do with some hefty scores, while fast bowler Anureet Singh can take over some of Jai P Yadav's load. Anureet's 4 for 53 was the foundation of Railway's successful defence of 135 against Delhi, which prevented relegation. One of the new men in the yard this season is opening batsman Shivakant Shukla, who has transferred from Uttar Pradesh. Until now, Shukla is best remembered for batting UP into the 2008-09 final, with the fourth-longest innings in the history of first-class cricket. Team: Sanjay Bangar (captain) Anureet Singh Ranjitkumar Mali Prashant Awasthi Nitin Bille Nileshkumar Chauhan Faiz Fazal Yere Goud Murali Kartik Shreyas Khanolkar Arlen Konwar Mahesh Rawat (wicketkeeper) Dhiran Salvi Shivakant Shukla Jai Prakash Yadav

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http://cricketarchive.com/Kerala/Scorecards/347/347609.html