Irani Trophy , 2012

[Sidhoni]

Vijay 266 :hatsoff: Came at right time for him with our first choice openers in awful form. The bowling was toothless though.

[SLICKR392]

Rajastan : 253 Vijay : 266 What a dabba team :facepalm:

[Vilander]

Was watching in ESPN. There was a match stat scroll and it said Fastest ball of the match Ishant Sharma 151.8 kmph ! , he was largely around 130 in the second innings toda swinging it away. Yadav bowled quick with a few good directed balls and mostly wayward, his fastest 142.x

[Trundler27]

Good to see Umesh doing well..... I haven't watched the game but is Ishant looking any good? Ojha should really do some damage in this second innings. Pujara and Rahane :wall: missed a good chance to score hundreds. Murali vijay is another shikhar dhawan.... plays well in useless matches and sucks when given the chance

[Crookbond]

Rajastan : 253 Vijay : 266 What a dabba team :facepalm:

+1 Bists century would rather carry more weight as it is against international bowlers.

[carnish]

The BCCI speed guns are crap ... No way Ishant is bowling those balls at 120 ... It seems definitely 130+ :headshake:

[Sidhoni]

Rajasthan 149/2 @ Lunch. Bist survives on last ball of the session with outside edge between keeper and first slip.

[MCcricket]

The BCCI speed guns are crap ... No way Ishant is bowling those balls at 120 ... It seems definitely 130+ :headshake:

There was a discussion amongst the commentators and I have seen all 4 days play, other then initial few overs where one delivery from Ishant was showing as 153 k, Ithink the speed gun is not an issue, shows Umesh bowling around 138 to 140 k, Chahar and Binny, bwling in late to early 120s .Ishant was bowling 125 k's but he is getting bounce because the track offer some bounce.

[Magneto]

Three run-outs and one stumped in Rajasthan's 2nd innings Beast gets a sixty. Umesh gets nothing. And yeah, Harmeet gets a couple. And oh, Karthik is keeping. Edit: Harmeet ends up with four And Yadav ends up getting carted by Mathur :--D

[NareshK]

Murali Vijay looked a good batsman when he started out. He had good footwork and could play shots all around the ground. Some of his shots, the flick and cover drive were very similar to VVS Laxman. But as he started playing IPL, his temperament got worse and he started playing too many shots and would also poke outside off stump. If he concentrates only on the longer version of the game, we could see some good results from him.

[vvvslaxman]

Murali Vijay looked a good batsman when he started out. He had good footwork and could play shots all around the ground. Some of his shots, the flick and cover drive were very similar to VVS Laxman. But as he started playing IPL, his temperament got worse and he started playing too many shots and would also poke outside off stump. If he concentrates only on the longer version of the game, we could see some good results from him.

He started deteriorating when he started playing those hoicks over midwicket in the IPL. He became less patient. Don't say he is going to be good in all surfaces. But on certain pitche he is utterly at ease against both pace and spin regardless of quality.

[Sidhoni]

Harmeet has a strong case now for the national side! 4-4! What happened to Yaddu - NO WICKETS! Bist played really well in both innings against international level bowlers.

[SLICKR392]

It's useless to judge the players against these schoolboys. The whole positive out of this match is Bist. Ishant needs to continue warming up the bench.

[Crookbond]

I would much rather rate Bists century than Murali Vijay's double hundred.

[BeautifulGame]

He started deteriorating when he started playing those hoicks over midwicket in the IPL. He became less patient. Don't say he is going to be good in all surfaces. But on certain pitche he is utterly at ease against both pace and spin regardless of quality.

IPL hasnt changed much of Vijay's technique.In the last test he played in India he scored a high quality century against Australia under immense pressure.And that was well after his IPL exploits. He just doesnt have the technique to succeed overseas.But atm i would take Vijay over Gambhir or Sehwag for Eng series.Atleast Vijay can score runs in India and is coming with great form in test cricket

[Magneto]

Harmeet has a strong case now for the national side! 4-4! What happened to Yaddu - NO WICKETS! Bist played really well in both innings against international level bowlers.

Not really. His victims were RR Parida, Khatri, Singh and Chowdhary - only Parida is a batsman. The other three are club-class tailenders and getting their wickets mean nothing. Harmeet needs a good first class season before he can stake claim for anything.

[Magneto]

IPL hasnt changed much of Vijay's technique.In the last test he played in India he scored a high quality century against Australia under immense pressure.And that was well after his IPL exploits. He just doesnt have the technique to succeed overseas.But atm i would take Vijay over Gambhir or Sehwag for Eng series.Atleast Vijay can score runs in India and is coming with great form in test cricket

Though Vijay showed good temperament, this knock against a bunch of absolutely ordinary bowlers on a batting wicket does not prove much. Still needs to perform consistently at the Ranji level to get a look-in.

[Chandan]

Dominant Rest of India retain Irani Cup Siddarth Ravindran in Bangalore September 24, 2012 Rest of India 607 for 7 declared (Vijay 266, Rahane 81, Pujara 78, Karthik 56, Badrinath 55) beat Rajasthan 253 (Bist 117*, Umesh 5-55) and 275 (Kanitkar 73, Bist 67, Harmeet 4-45) an innings and 79 runs Scorecard and ball-by-ball details The margins of defeat for the Ranji champions in five of the previous six years in the Irani Cup: 404 runs, 361 runs, 187 runs, nine wickets and nine wickets. This season was just as comprehensive, as Rest of India completed a comfortable innings-and-79-run victory on the fourth day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Rajasthan's batting and bowling were both not at the level of Rest of India's, but what really hurt them as they tried to at least take the match to the fifth day was their appalling running between the wickets. There was an early alarm when Hrishkesh Kanitkar and Vineet Saxena had a communication breakdown, but both had the time to return to their creases. That wasn't the case in the 26th over when Saxena nudged the ball towards square leg and took off, but Kanitkar didn't respond and a sprawling Ishant Sharma fired in the throw to end the overnight partnership. Till then they had been largely untroubled by the pace of Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav, and a wicket had looked unlikely. Kanitkar and the batsman who had his reputation most enhanced in this the game, Robin Bist, were then comfortable against everything Rest of India threw at them. A few overs before lunch, Rest of India had resorted to having three men deep on the leg side when the left-arm spinners were operating, allowing Kanitkar to push the ball around and accumulate. Bist was more aggressive, unleashing some powerful drives and the partnership swelled towards a hundred. That stand also ended through a mix-up. Kanitkar pushed the ball towards point and wanted the single, but Bist didn't. Though the return from Badrinath was a tough take for wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, there was enough time for the bails to be taken off and two of Rajasthan's most adhesive batsmen had given away their wickets recklessly. Bist wasn't as solid as in the first innings, edging several past the keeper in the middle of some crisp striking. With Pragyan Ojha getting the odd ball to turn and bounce, much depended on Bist if Rajasthan were to avoid an innings defeat. His footwork had been precise in much of the match, but on 67, he was caught on the crease to a delivery from Ojha that neither jumped nor turned dramatically, but still managed to sneak between bat and pad. That brought together the last pair of recognised batsmen, RR Parida and Dishant Yagnik. That pair, too, was separated by a run-out. Parida played the ball out towards sweeper cover; Yagnik ambled through the first run, assuming there was only an easy two to be taken before Umesh Yadav fielded; Parida pushed for the third but Umesh, who unlike most Indian fast bowlers has a strong arm, rifled in a throw that caught Yagnik short. Rajasthan were soon down to 226 for 8, on a track which was still not spiteful, against an attack which was not exactly fearsome. Ishant was disciplined, keeping the ball around off but wasn't able to regularly clock above 130kph, Umesh continued to bowl too wide to worry batsmen consistently and the spinners were steady though not menacing. Even without Rest of India's bowlers being at their best, Rajasthan were overwhelmed in the match, again highlighting the vast difference in between the two sides. Siddarth Ravindran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The standard of Irani Cup has fallen alarmingly. This match was so one sided that it wasn't even worth watching and one was often forced to wonder what the point of this tie was! Was this tie really between the champion domestic team and rest of India?

[Magneto]

Dominant Rest of India retain Irani Cup Siddarth Ravindran in Bangalore September 24, 2012 Rest of India 607 for 7 declared (Vijay 266, Rahane 81, Pujara 78, Karthik 56, Badrinath 55) beat Rajasthan 253 (Bist 117*, Umesh 5-55) and 275 (Kanitkar 73, Bist 67, Harmeet 4-45) an innings and 79 runs Scorecard and ball-by-ball details The margins of defeat for the Ranji champions in five of the previous six years in the Irani Cup: 404 runs, 361 runs, 187 runs, nine wickets and nine wickets. This season was just as comprehensive, as Rest of India completed a comfortable innings-and-79-run victory on the fourth day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Rajasthan's batting and bowling were both not at the level of Rest of India's, but what really hurt them as they tried to at least take the match to the fifth day was their appalling running between the wickets. There was an early alarm when Hrishkesh Kanitkar and Vineet Saxena had a communication breakdown, but both had the time to return to their creases. That wasn't the case in the 26th over when Saxena nudged the ball towards square leg and took off, but Kanitkar didn't respond and a sprawling Ishant Sharma fired in the throw to end the overnight partnership. Till then they had been largely untroubled by the pace of Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav, and a wicket had looked unlikely. Kanitkar and the batsman who had his reputation most enhanced in this the game, Robin Bist, were then comfortable against everything Rest of India threw at them. A few overs before lunch, Rest of India had resorted to having three men deep on the leg side when the left-arm spinners were operating, allowing Kanitkar to push the ball around and accumulate. Bist was more aggressive, unleashing some powerful drives and the partnership swelled towards a hundred. That stand also ended through a mix-up. Kanitkar pushed the ball towards point and wanted the single, but Bist didn't. Though the return from Badrinath was a tough take for wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, there was enough time for the bails to be taken off and two of Rajasthan's most adhesive batsmen had given away their wickets recklessly. Bist wasn't as solid as in the first innings, edging several past the keeper in the middle of some crisp striking. With Pragyan Ojha getting the odd ball to turn and bounce, much depended on Bist if Rajasthan were to avoid an innings defeat. His footwork had been precise in much of the match, but on 67, he was caught on the crease to a delivery from Ojha that neither jumped nor turned dramatically, but still managed to sneak between bat and pad. That brought together the last pair of recognised batsmen, RR Parida and Dishant Yagnik. That pair, too, was separated by a run-out. Parida played the ball out towards sweeper cover; Yagnik ambled through the first run, assuming there was only an easy two to be taken before Umesh Yadav fielded; Parida pushed for the third but Umesh, who unlike most Indian fast bowlers has a strong arm, rifled in a throw that caught Yagnik short. Rajasthan were soon down to 226 for 8, on a track which was still not spiteful, against an attack which was not exactly fearsome. Ishant was disciplined, keeping the ball around off but wasn't able to regularly clock above 130kph, Umesh continued to bowl too wide to worry batsmen consistently and the spinners were steady though not menacing. Even without Rest of India's bowlers being at their best, Rajasthan were overwhelmed in the match, again highlighting the vast difference in between the two sides. Siddarth Ravindran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The standard of Irani Cup has fallen alarmingly. This match was so one sided that it wasn't even worth watching and one was often forced to wonder what the point of this tie was! Was this tie really between the champion domestic team and rest of India?

Not really. Because Rajasthan didn't have four crucial players who helped them win the cup - Akash Chopra, Pankaj Singh, Ashok Menaria and Rituraj Singh. At a Ranji level, 4-5 players usually make all the difference. With Chopra and Menaria they probably would have scored 150 runs more and with both the Singhs they probably would have got the opposition by 500 in the first innings. They fielded pathetically as well. This scorecard is anyway not unexpected, because this has been happening for the last 7-8 years.

[Crookbond]

Can't Irani Trophy be played between the best 32 cricketers of the country rather than the Ranji Trophy winner versus Rest Of India? This list of 32 are the ones most likely to be on notice for selection in India colors.