Ranji Trophy, Super league, 2007-08 [Ranji SS available]

[Mr. Wicket]

F*ck. Amol got out right after I typed that post. Ah well, we're still going strong - Nayar and Rohit batting solidly, with Rohit playing some lovely shots. 411/4

[Chandan]

ROUND VII, DAY FOUR Delhi and UP top respective groups Cricinfo staff December 28, 2007 Gautam Gambhir's 40 meant there were no hiccups as Delhi secured a place in the semi-finals © Cricinfo Ltd Delhi and Uttar Pradesh finished their league engagements with outright wins over Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad respectively to top their groups. Saurashtra and Baroda duly played out draws in their final games to end up second in their groups. The top two teams in each group ended tied at the same number of points, and were separated on the basis of outright wins and better quotient. UP had won one more match than Baorda, while Delhi had a better quotient than Saurashtra. In the semi-finals, UP will face Saurahstra in Vadodara while Delhi will take on Baroda in Indore. Delhi 338 and 105 for 2 (Gambhir 40) beat Tamil Nadu 268 and 174 by 8 wickets Scorecard With Delhi needing 95 runs to win the match, the only contest in Chennai was whether Delhi would get a bonus point. That contest ended when Aakash Chopra got out in the 11th over of the day, even as Delhi cruised to an eight-wicket win over Tamil Nadu. With Saurashtra drawing their match against Mumbai, the bonus point proved immaterial as Delhi still ended at top of Group A. Gautam Gambhir scored 40, and Mithun Manhas a quick 32 off 21 balls. Uttar Pradesh 336 and 294 for 3 dec beat Hyderabad 193 and 305 (Ravi Teja 133*, Praveen Kumar 6-65) by 132 runs Scorecard Coming in at No. 7, Dwaraka Ravi Teja scored an unbeaten 133 off 112 balls, including a last-wicket partnership of 84 with Vishal Sharma who contributed 12, but could only delay the inevitable as Uttar Pradesh won by 132 runs with time to spare. Teja came in to bat at 121 for 5, after Praveen Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi had taken three quick wickets in the morning. But Teja took the attack to the bowlers, scoring his highest first-class score and his second century. Praveen Kumar, though, kept chipping away, and steadily brought Hyderabad close to their end and finished with career-best figures of 6 for 65. With the win, UP assumed the top position in Group B. Karnataka 545 for 9 dec beat Maharashtra 276 and 140 (Vinay Kumar 6-38, Joshi 4-18) by an innings and 129 runs Scorecard A season that had started brightly ended in gloom for Maharashtra as they folded meekly in the second innings to lose to Karnataka by an innings and 129 runs in Ratnagiri. R Vinay Kumar, who had rattled Maharashtra with a hat-trick yesterday, took three more wickets to extend his lead in the wicket-takers' list, the 6 for 38 being his best bowling figures. Vinay Kumar, who has 40 wickets at an average of 18.52, will take no further part in the Ranji Trophy, though, as Karnataka had been knocked out even before the start of the match. The other four wickets went to Sunil Joshi, who is currently the third-highest wicket-taker with 34 wickets. Resuming the day at 18 for 3, needing another 251 to make Karnataka bat, Maharashtra never looked like they would make a fight of it. Although there was a fifth-wicket partnership of 68 between Venugopal Rao and Yogesh Takawale, once Takawale fell at the team score of 107, the rest added only 33. Rao scored 56. Saurashtra 484 drew with Mumbai 463 (Muzumdar 187, Rahane 149, Jobanputra 5-116) Scorecard The match between Mumbai and Saurashtra ended for all competitive purposes the moment Delhi completed their chase against Tamil Nadu in Chennai. Mumbai's captain Amol Muzumdar made 187 in his 100th Ranji Trophy match © Cricinfo Ltd It's official. Saurashtra have clinched a place in the Ranji Trophy semi-finals at the expense of the defending champions Mumbai and, as Group A runners-up, will play Uttar Pradesh in Baroda next week. Once news came in that Delhi had also made the last four, shutting out Mumbai in the process, this match lost any significance and the captains had no hesitation in calling it off before the mandatory overs. By then Amol Muzumdar had celebrated his 100th Ranji game with an aggressive 187 and Ajinkya Rahane compiled 149 but it was Saurashtra who took the honours with the first-innings lead. Muzumdar, Mumbai's captain, who yesterday said he wanted to go out and enjoy the last day, played a refreshingly positive innings with shots around the ground but will be disappointed with what followed his exit. Rohit Sharma survived a confident appeal for caught behind off Sandeep Jobanputra before playing a casual shot to the covers. Ramesh Powar attempted an atrocious pull off his first ball and Vinayak Samant fell in a similar manner. When Abhishek Nayar (41) fell edging a cut and Mun Mangela top-edged a pull to Jaydev Shah, Mumbai had folded up and denied themselves some consolation points as they left the tournament. Jobanputra turned in a tidy spell in the late afternoon to pick up a deserving five-for as Mumbai's recent woes against left-arm seamers continued. He got the ball to straighten off a length and sent down a few short ones as Mumbai's batsmen committed hara-kiri. The seam bowlers, barring an incisive Jobanputra, were guilty of bowling short and Muzumdar made them pay with some powerful cut shots. He brought up his hundred with one such stroke and the ensuing celebration - the wind-up of the fist, a hop of joy, the bat raised high to the dressing room and to the sparse crowd - showed how important the occasion was in his 14-year first-class career. His joy, however, was nothing compared to the elation expressed by at stumps by the Saurashtra players, who got into a huddle before shaking hands with the opposition. Their dream season continues. Baroda 255 and 424 for 9 (Shah 148, Pawar 91) drew with Orissa 294 (Das 114, Pawar 6-66) Scorecard Baroda opted for batting practice in another inconsequential draw, as only an outright result between Baroda and Orissa could have altered the table standings. With three days gone and only a lead of 81 to Baroda's credit, going for a win was always going to be improbable. Pinal Shah made his first century of the season, to go with two half-centuries, as he scored 148. Rajesh Pawar scored 91 as Baroda had reached 424 for 9 when play was called off.

[msb1991]

Praveen Kumar must be knocking on the doors of Test selection if he keeps up his bowling form into the finals and the Duleep Trophy and continues smashing the odd quick fifty. 20 wickets at 19.05 is a terrific performance and a fine addition to his already strong FC record. On the topic of UP, Sudeep Tyagi seems to have really been a find for them, taking 31 wickets this season at 22.03. Anyone have footage or have seen R Vinay Kumar bowl? I was just looking through the top wicket takers list for this season and he cruises it with 40 wickets at 18.52 (the next closest being Pragyan Ojha with 36 wickets). I bet Irfan Pathan is cursing his luck that he misses this semi final because he is in Australia with little to no chance of playing in any of the Tests.

[apocalypse]

[Mr. Wicket]

Gutting. Absolutely gutting. Congratulations to Saurashtra.

[kabira]

Saurashtra v/s UP Baroda v/s Delhi hope its all Gujarat final.. :D

[apocalypse]

It will be Delhi vs UP bhau :D

[Guest Hiten.]

Damn Mumbai collapsed to 463 all out. RG Sharma has to lift his game now.He averaged only 27 in this Ranji series

[Chandan]

The stonewaller Kotak Defence as the best form of defence Sriram Veera in Mumbai December 26, 2007 Slow and steady: Shitanshu Kotak's 12-hour 162 dented Mumbai's hopes of making the semis © Cricinfo Ltd Venkatapathy Raju, the national selector, calls from Kolkata asking about the lunchtime score at Wankhede Stadium. On hearing that Shitanshu Kotak, unbeaten overnight, is still batting, he bursts into laughter. "What a fellow! He will keep on batting," he says. Kotak's reputation as a stonewaller precedes him. It is well earned - and it is something he accepts with typical humour. "Bore kiya, lekin kaam to hua na? (I bored you, but I got the job done, right?)" Kotak said yesterday in his broad Saurashtran twang. He has for years been a prime example of the dogged domestic batsman who puts a big price on his wicket. Not that he can't play shots either; he once hit five fours off consecutive balls in an Under-19 game. Watching Kotak in action brings to mind what Neville Cardus wrote about Trevor Bailey. "Before he [bailey] gathered together 20 runs, a newly-married couple could have left Heathrow and arrived in Lisbon to enjoy a honeymoon. By the time Bailey had congealed 50, this pair could easily have settled down in Surbiton; and by the time his innings had gone to its close they might have been divorced. Nonetheless, Bailey was a character...He stonewalled passionately, inveterately; and where human passion is in action, there can be no evaporation of dull, anaesthetic air..." In a world of big hitting and fast scoring, Kotak gives the feeling of being rooted in the past. There is a lazy air to him as he stands at the non-striker's end; the hunch of the left shoulder, the slow transfer of weight from one leg to the other. One can almost hear him humming a song from the 1950s. And yet the man is supremely fit, fit enough to bat for 747 minutes in the Mumbai humidity. In the off season, he works extensively on his fitness while playing for Kenilworth Wardens, a club in the Birmingham league in England where he has been an overseas cricketer for the past 14-odd years. By lunch today, he was on 102 and gave a thumbs-up sign, by tea he had pottered along to 138 and accepted the bear hug from his coach. By the end of the day, even the Mumbai players were praising his knock. That's nothing new for Kotak. In the Irani Trophy match in 1999/2000, Javagal Srinath was so exasperated by his inability to get through the Kotak wall that, at one point, he just stood and lobbed the ball over. Kotak, en route a 302-ball 118, was not to be taken in; he just patted it gently away with a big smile on his face. Srinath still remembers that knock. "Kotak! That lefty?" he exclaims down the wire. "Yeah, I remember that innings now. He was such a pain in the neck!" Kotak carries the story forward. "Srinath and [Anil] Kumble came to Rajkot later to play for India and, after a look at the paata track, told Niranjan bhai (Niranjan Shah, president of the Saurashtra Cricket Association and secretary of the BCCI), we couldn't get Kotak out on a green top, how can anybody get him out here?" Kotak rates that Irani knock as his best. Karnataka were bowled out for 170 on a green top and Rest of India were tottering at 110 for 5 - VVS Laxman, SS Das and Hemang Badani had fallen cheaply - when Kotak pulled the shutters down. However, neither this knock nor his 961 runs the previous season were enough for the ultimate prize. He recalls, with audible sadness, what transpired next. "India were about to tour Australia and India A were going to West Indies. The chairman of selectors, Chandu Borde, made an announcement that I was not considered as I was 37. I was 27 then! Later, realising the folly, they sent me to West Indies as a player got injured. But continuous rain meant I got to play one limited-over game." The fallout has been borne by domestic bowlers, against whom he has an average of 43.36. He just loves that feeling of seeing the opposition tearing their hair apart while he is batting. Amol Muzumdar, Mumbai's captain at the receiving end today, explained his frustration. "He plays with a closed face of the bat and very rarely jabs his bat out at the ball. As a result he might be beaten a lot, but the ball just flies past the outside edge. The bowlers get really frustrated, but it makes no difference to him. What a temperament to play an innings like this." Even as his team-mates offered their tributes, the best reaction came from Muzumdar. As he was trudging out of the stadium, he said, "I need a massage now. Not aisi waisi (ordinary), but a Kotak (referring to the duration perhaps) massage." Kotak had really bent Mumbai's back. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Just can't believe the faux pas of the chairman of selectors then. So the story has been same since the days of Chandu Borde it seems!!

[varun]

Borde is the biggest nincompoop in Indian Cricket

[Chandan]

A look at the Ranji semi-finalists 07-08 Collision course Cricinfo staff December 30, 2007 Mixing up with the big boys: Who would have expected Saurashtra to make it to the semi-finals? © Cricinfo Ltd A Ranji Trophy is always hard to predict, what with so many teams playing in a league format. To make it even more unpredictable was the loss of players to the Indian Cricket League. Living up to the expectations and in truly unpredictable style, the Ranji Trophy 2007-08 went right down to the last round with as many as 10 teams still alive in the competition. Halfway through the league matches, nobody had expected two of the four teams that eventually reached the semi-finals to get there: Uttar Pradesh were hopeless after a bright start, Saurashtra didn't just have the firepower. And although Delhi and Baroda made it comfortably in the end, they were far from being overwhelming favourites at the start of the season. Delhi were struggling to win matches last season with much the same personnel and were universally regarded as a muddle house of dirty politicking and infighting. Baroda, semi-finalists for the last two years, are the only team that was expected here, but as the relegation of Bengal - runners-up in the previous two seasons - shows, nothing can be taken for granted in the Ranji Trophy. UP: the strife lovers They fought to avoid relegation during their title defence last season, and midway through this season they were candidates again for demotion to the Plate League. With eight points to their credit and two matches to go, they couldn't have chosen a better time to peak. There has been an uncanny similarity in their late-season rise to the 2005-06 season when they won the Ranji Trophy - they had four points from four matches then when Mohammad Kaif joined the team. Throughout the season they have sat on extremes, huge wins in three matches and listless shows in the other three. Best batsmen Kaif, with 562 runs, and Suresh Raina, with 555, have been the major run-getters, and have carried an inexperienced and an inconsistent batting line-up, which has always been a major concern for them. Piyush Chawla and Praveen Kumar have provided useful runs down the order, making them adequate allrounders at the domestic level. Best bowlers Their bowling is a much more potent aspect of their game. Sudeep Tyagi, who has played all their games, has carried on from a dream debut where he took 10 wickets against Orissa. Tyagi and Chawla were their main bowlers for the earlier half of the season, while Praveen Kumar and left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta have added extra sting in the latter half. The Praveens have been a major factor in their last two outright wins. Best match The moment of truth, their last chance, the match against Bengal in the penultimate round. They needed to win their last two matches to have any chance of progressing and that's exactly what they did, gaining a bonus point in one of them as well. The match against Bengal was pretty close if not perfect: they shot Bengal out in two sessions, batted for nearly two days, and needed a bit more than two sessions to bowl Bengal out for a second time. All the bowlers and the batsmen, right till Praveen Kumar at No. 9, contributed. Delhi: so far so good Delhi had an anxious last two rounds with rain washing out their penultimate game, against Karnataka, allowing the other contenders in the group to catch up. Eventually they went through with an emphatic win over Tamil Nadu. In the initial half of the season, they let the opposition off the hook twice to give themselves some anxious moments. First they couldn't take the last two Saurashtra wickets in 48 overs and had to be content with a first-innings lead. Then, in Dharamsala, the batting imploded as they were bowled out for 75. Apart from those two glitches, their batsmen have done well and the bowlers have done enough to help them emerge leaders in Group A. Batmen Inc.: Chopra and Gambhir have been the best opening combination in this season's Ranji Trophy © Cricinfo Ltd Best batsmen Aakash Chopra has been his stable best, Gautam Gambhir mercurial in the three matches he has played, and going into the semi-finals each one of their top five has made two centuries. The only batsman to have failed in the three matches he played is now in Australia with the Indian team. Best bowlers The earlier victories against Rajasthan and Mumbai were built not on the batting, but bowling and the main architect was debutant left-arm swing bowler Pradeep Sangwan, who has 24 wickets at 21.20 from six matches. The bonus for Delhi has been Rajat Bhatia's bowling which has been economical while collecting 20 wickets at a stellar average of 10.30. Bhatia is handy with the bat as well, as a century against Maharashtra shows, and provides the team much-required balance. Best match First morning of Ranji Trophy and Delhi are bowled out for 113 and a familiar story looks in store. The bowlers bring them back into the game by bowling Rajasthan out for 85 and the batsmen put up a much-improved show in the second innings to put the matter beyond Rajasthan. That was essentially the turning point for them and the main difference between another lukewarm season and one where they are now the favourites to go all the way. Baroda: cruising along Baroda have had a smooth run leading up the semi-finals. The campaign was off to a great start with two wins in three games: they began with a crushing win against Bengal before beating Uttar Pradesh by 48 runs. Coached by the astute Paras Mhambrey, it has been an all-round display from the batsmen and the bowlers. The only concern is they might have peaked too early and the bowling is definitely feeling the absence of Irfan Pathan. The last two games have not gone according to plan. They followed-on - but hung on to a draw - against Andhra and gave away a first-innings lead to Orissa, but the batsmen bailed out them again in the second innings. Best batsmen Rakesh Solanki and Connor Williams, the captain, have each amassed over 500 runs in this season and have found support from the likes of Yusuf Pathan, Pinal Shah and Azharuddin Bilakhia. Shatrunjay Gaekwad too has come on nicely with 206 runs from three games. Satyajit Parab, the opener, has had an off-and-on season, but Williams has ensured that they get off to a good start more often than not. Yusuf has attacked with vigour in the middle order to make full use of the starts. Best bowlers It's the spinners who have stolen the show. Yusuf has been the leader, claiming 25 wickets with his offspin, while the left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar has bagged 20. The pair has even opened the bowling on occasions. In the absence of Irfan Pathan, Sumit Singh, with 15 wickets, has been the lone seamer who has pulled some weight. Best match It has to be their third game of the season when they clinched a close game against UP. Parab top scored with 77 as they posted 334 before Yusuf combined with Irfan to bowl out UP for 209. But the batting collapsed in the second, giving UP a target of 275. It was Yusuf again who led the charge, supported this time by Pawar, as Baroda succeeding in bowling UP out for 225. Saurashtra: the bolt from the blue Last season, they lived with the fear of relegation. Things changed with the Moin-ud-Dowlah tournament, just prior to the Ranji campaign, where they beat Bengal. Self-belief and confidence kicked in and the team started to gel as a unit. With three outright wins and a No. 2 position in the group, they have surprised everyone by entering the final four. It is even more creditable as they have played away from home all season. They are a bunch of amateurs enjoying the journey towards professionalism. Can they continue their dream run? Best batsmen Cheteshwara Pujara is the undoubted star with 796 runs, highest by any batsman this season, while Shitanshu Kotak has been the backbone of the team, scripting some typically gritty knocks that have worn down the opposition. Pujara, a natural opener, has been batting down to strengthen the middle order but with the aggressive Ravindra Jadeja, who hit 87 against Mumbai, slated to miss the semis, there is extra responsibility on the shoulders of Pujara and Kotak. Best bowlers Don't look further than Sandeep Jobanputra. The 25-year-old left-hand seamer has matured this season and has been their bowling spearhead. With the guidance of the coach Debu Mitra, a big influence over the team, he has been working on swinging it back in to the right-hand batsmen. Thirty-two wickets show that the hard work is paying off. The left-arm spinner Rakesh Dhurv, with 18 wickets, leads the spin department. His average has been under 25 in the last three seasons and the wickets tally has gone up steadily. Jadeja's absence could hit them again, but offspinner Kamlesh Makvana and Sandeep Maniar, a seamer with 13 wickets this season, will provide able support to Jobanputra. Best match If the game against Bengal gave them confidence, the fear of playing in the Elite group disappeared after a creditable draw against Delhi in the first Ranji game. Jobanputra grabbed a five-for, Kotak compiled a 203-ball 77 in the first innings and Pujara hit an unbeaten 148 in the second to stave off defeat. The last two wickets frustrated Delhi for more than 48 overs on the last day to earn that one point, which in the end proved crucial too. But more than that it brought them the self-confidence that they could come out victorious from tight situations. ------------------------------------------------------ It is extremely tough to predict the finalists. But looking at the teams it won't be wrong to predict that it'll be Delhi vs UP/Baroda.

[Chandan]

Why did Mumbai fizzle out? Fall-out of knockout Sriram Veera December 31, 2007 Mumbai performed as a collective unit at the start of the season but things fizzled out © Cricinfo Ltd The Mumbai dressing room door at the Wankhede Stadium slammed shut. Mumbai, the reigning champions, had just bowed out of the Ranji Trophy, failing to overcome Saurashtra in the final group match. The captain, Amol Muzumdar, was angry and is believed to have let rip against the players he thought failed the team. Later, along with coach Pravin Amre, Muzumdar told the hostile press it was a "collective failure." Let's get the excuses out of the way first. Injuries had indeed depleted the pace attack: Swapnil Hazare didn't play at all this season, Ajit Agarkar limped off in the crucial game against Himachal Pradesh and Aavishkar Salvi played only three games. There was also talk, led by Muzumdar, of being denied home advantage. All their games at the Wankhede Stadium ended in draws as compared to the last year when they won three games played at home. But when a team like Saurashtra enter the semis despite playing all their games away from home, you expect Mumbai to overcome these issues. What really let them down, though, was the often shocking attitude of the batsmen in crunch situations and the inability of the bowlers to rise to the occasion. In the crucial match against Maharashtra Ramesh Powar lost his head when it mattered. A few runs away from the lead, and three vital points, he played a careless stroke to get out. Vinayak Samant too erred in his shot selection and Mumbai were left stranded. To be fair to Powar, he had hit a fighting ton to pull the team out of jail but threw it away in the end. Their next game was against Himachal Pradesh, whom they couldn't bowl out even after they were forced to follow-on. "We should have finished them off there. Our bowlers just couldn't do it," says Muzumdar. Powar's bowling fortunes dipped after the first two games where he picked 15 wickets and that really hurt Mumbai this season. Then, against Saurashtra, in their final game, they could have found themselves an honourable exit route by getting the first-innings lead. The teams would have tied in points and Mumbai would have only gone out of semis because of more wins equation. Muzumdar did his best, hitting 187 in his 100th Ranji game, to take his team close. But a horror show followed. Rohit Sharma, who has had a bad season and faced only 294 balls in the middle, drove one straight to covers, Powar played an atrocious pull shot off his first ball and Samant too perished playing a similar stroke. After letting his ire out to his team-mates, Muzumdar said the right things to the press about the collective failure and barring that comment about the pitch, he didn't play any blame games. But he couldn't hold himself back when asked a specific question about Sharma. "If he's still in the mode of Twenty20 and one-day cricket, he needs to come out of it. We are professionals here, it doesn't matter whether he has played for India. He is playing for Bombay now and there is a responsibility to shoulder." Abhishek Nayar's batting was one of the bright spots this season © Cricinfo Ltd Meanwhile, the knives are out against the Amre, whose contract is till the end of the season. A whisper campaign has already started against him. A source close to the selectors and the cricket committee, says, "What has Amre done as a coach?" Amre has been blamed for a few selections and allegedly messing up the batting order - Prashant Naik was pushed up to play at No. 3, Hiken Shah was not given a proper run, and Vineet Indulkar was brought at the fag end of the campaign. Amre sees this as a normal course of events in a season: "Naik was pushed up as he had the technique to do well up there but he got injured. So we tried a couple of other players for that No. 3 slot as Rohit Sharma was struggling to get some form going." Mun Mungela, the seamer, who played in the last game against Saurashtra, is considered an Amre favourite. Amre answers the accusation: "Agreed I pushed for his case but only because I think he is good. I can only suggest names to the selection committee. In fact all I asked was that the chairman [Dilip Vengsarkar] to come and see him at the nets ahead of the selection meeting. He was impressed with the boy and picked him." Mungela, who impressed on the second day, getting lift and movement, had however looked out of sorts on the first day. He was warned twice for running on the wicket and that affected his performance. Mungela had similar problems in the only Ranji game he played before this, in the last season, and Amre's detractors wonder why this old problem has not been solved yet. Is the accusation akin to clutching at straws or is it a case for persecution? That is something for the Cricket Committee, comprising of Madhav Apte, Milind Rege, Sanjay Manjrekar, that chose Amre as a coach, to decide. What about the accusation that there is the Air India - the company that Amre works for - bias? "Look, that is complete rubbish. I want to have the best team and if that means we have no Air India boy or have lots of them, so be it. I am an honest and frank guy; I have no agendas." Before the last day of the season, when Muzumdar and Ajinkya Rahane hit tons, there had been just a solitary hundred from a top-order batsman (Sahil Kukreja) this season, the other two came from the allrounders Abhishek Nayar and Powar. Amre is disappointed by the commitment shown by some of the cricketers. "I was indeed surprised and sad by some of the shot selections and but as part of the management I do share the blame. However, as Amol said, it has to come from within. I can only suggest, point out the mistakes but they have to do it out there." Would he recommend a few changes then? Is he ready to take hard action? "I will tell the committee what I think and I would not like to discuss it in public now. It's upto the selectors to pick the team and I will give my feedback in my report." Amre is slated to meet the committee on January 2. Unlike Bengal, their opponent in the last year's final, they weren't relegated to Plate but it's clear that the Mumbai pride has been hurt. "Its time for introspection," says Muzumdar. Would the men in power feel similarly or are they itching to shake the setup and make some wholesale changes, starting from the top? And is the situation that dire to warrant a complete shake-up? We have to just wait and watch. ---------------------------------------------- Hmm........ I'll keep an eye on Rohit Sharma's performance in the one dayers. Also I hope the young lad M Hussain matures quickly and is looked after. He was one of the finds of the season.

[apocalypse]

Delhi v Baroda, Ranji Trophy Super League semi-final, 2007-08 Advantage Delhi Cricinfo staff January 4, 2007 It's an intriguing battle on cards in Indore. The two teams have taken slightly contrasting routes to reach the semi-finals. While Baroda cruised in the initial half of the season before spluttering a touch in the end, Delhi started off in a hurry, slowed down in the middle and then peaked again. The weather that washed out their penultimate game against Karnataka threatened to spoil Delhi's party, but they won convincingly against Tamil Nadu to storm into the final four with confidence. The absence of key players from both teams has levelled the field. Baroda lost Irfan Pathan to the national team mid-way during the season while Delhi, who were already without Ishant Sharma and Virender Sehwag, will lose the services of the promising left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan and the middle-order batsman Virat Kohli for the game as both are away playing for India Under-19. Rahul Sanghvi, the veteran left-arm spinner, and the former Haryana medium-pacer Sumit Narwal have been drafted in as replacements. "When we play Baroda we have a left-arm spinner in Rahul and a leg-break bowler in Chetanya Nanda. Our team has the right balance of experience and youth." Vijay Dahiya, Delhi's coach, told Indian Express. "This entire season we were without a left-arm spinner and we thought why not give him a call for this crucial encounter. We have got an opportunity to be the best domestic team in the country and Rahul will be of a great help." But it has to be watched whether Delhi go with a double-spin attack as the pitch has some live grass on it. Both teams are yet to decide the final eleven as they want to have a final look at the pitch on the morning of the match. "The wicket looks pretty good," Dahiya said. "There is some grass on the track." Baroda will look to their openers Rakesh Solanki and Connar Williams, who have each piled over 500 runs this season, to give them a good start. The middle-order has a few consistent performers - Yusuf Pathan, Pinal Shah and Azharuddin Bilakhia. The spinners have shouldered the burden for Baroda. They have been the strike-cum-stock bowlers. Yusuf has bagged 25 wickets while Rajesh Pawar, the left-arm spinner, has taken 20. Sumit Singh, with 15 wickets, has done his best to cover the absence of Irfan, but it has to be seen whether the attack can keep the strong Delhi batting line-up in check. Apart from the consistent opening pair of Aakash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir, they have the likes of Mithun Manhas, Mayank Tehlan and the allrounder Rajat Bhatia. The presence of Bhatia, who has claimed 20 wickets at 10.30, and has a century this season, gives Delhi the right balance. You would have to pick Delhi as the slight favourites but in a season of surprise, where the previous year's finalists have been forced to eat the humble pie, you can never be sure.

[apocalypse]

Uttar Pradesh v Saurashtra, Ranji Trophy Super League semi-final, 2007-08 Might versus grit The Preview by Sidharth Monga in Vadodara January 4, 2007 When the Saurashtra team reached the Moti Bagh Stadium for their practice, Uttar Pradesh were about to end theirs. While Piyush Chawla was walking out of the adjoining practice wickets, Shitanshu Kotak was walking in. Chawla caught hold of Kotak and said, "Bahut rulaya aapne Mumbai ko Shitanshu bhai." Kotak just smiled. Chawla went on: "Khoon ke aansoo rulaye hai unhe aapne." The smile got bigger. An English translation won't do justice to the sentiment, but in effect Chawla paid tribute to how Kotak frustrated the hell out of Mumbai bowlers for more than two days in the previous match. Chawla was speaking for a whole community of bowlers here and also summing up the story of the season, as far as Saurashtra were concerned. Of course, Saurashtra's amazing run to the semi-finals has not been about Kotak alone; Cheteshwar Pujara, in fact, has done the majority of the scoring. But Kotak represents the way Saurashtra have played: disciplined, playing out time, and frustrating the opposition. The semi-final starting at the Moti Bagh Stadium tomorrow will be one familiar tussle: the Uttar Pradesh bowlers will go hard at the Saurashtra batsmen, something all the teams have tried so far and met resolute defence. The difference here will be that this being the semi-final, Saurashtra will have to keep the fight on for five days. And UP's attack is better than any Saurashtra have faced so far, bar perhaps Delhi against whom Saurashtra hung on to a draw in the dying minutes of the fourth evening. UP are a dangerous team when they have the momentum, something they are in possession of right now. After four matches of the league stage, they were at the bottom of their group and looking to avoid relegation. Two almost perfect matches against Bengal and Hyderabad later, they have everything going for them: the pace attack looks potent with Praveen Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi, the fifth-highest wicket-taker in Ranji Trophy so far, working well with the new ball. Chawla has found a new spin partner in Praveen Gupta, the left-arm spinner who has got only three matches this season but has taken 11 wickets from three innings that he has had a chance to bowl in. Kumar's batting ability gives them the room to play another medium-pacer - either Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Abid Khan. UP's batting will revolve around Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif in the middle order; the two are, not surprisingly, the leading run-getters for them so far. Just when they seemed to have found an end to their opening problems, Tanmay Srivastava, who scored two half-centuries in their last match, has left to play for India Under-19. Rahat Elahi is the man likely to replace him. For Saurashtra, while their batsmen have been the focus with their dour batting, Sandeep Jobanputra, the left-arm medium-pacer, has quietly taken 32 wickets to become the fourth-highest wicket-taker. In helpful conditions, which the conditions here are likely to be, he can prove to be a handful with his ability to straighten the ball into the right-hand batsmen. The wicket is a typical Moti Bagh wicket, Kaif said, which meant it was a hard surface with some live grass, which should assist the fast bowlers earlier on, but a true wicket at the same time, something the batsmen should enjoy. To support Jobanputra, Saurashtra have the stable right-arm medium pace of Sandeep Maniar, the left-arm spin of Rakesh Dhurv, and the offspin of Kamlesh Makvana, who has not been able to repeat the success in the first match when he took six wickets to run through Himachal Pradesh when they looked like running away with the first-innings lead. Like UP, Saurashtra too have been hit by exodus to the India U-19 team - Ravindra Jadeja, the left-arm spinning allrounder who hit 87 against Mumbai, has gone to South Africa. While two traditional powerhouses - Delhi and Baroda - meet in Indore, it's the clash of Indian cricket's backwaters here in Vadodara. The only other time Saurashtra have come as far as the semi-finals was in 1980-81 when they took the first-innings lead against Delhi, but collapsed in the second innings to lose by eight wickets. UP have only won the Ranji Trophy once and when they did in 2005-06, they were in a similar state as this season: after four matches then, they were at the bottom with four points. They simply won everything after that, and have done the same so far this year. On paper, given the presence of big stars and the momentum, UP will have an upper hand against Saurashtra, but then again not many haven't. Teams have even made the mistake of putting them in, thinking they can easily be rolled over and have gone on to find the contrary. It never hurt being an underdog, did it? Teams (likely) Uttar Pradesh: Rohit Prakash Srivastava, Rahat Ealhi, Mohammad Kaif (captain), Suresh Raina, Ravikant Shukla, Amir Khan (wk), Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Sudeep Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Saurashtra: Sagar Jogiyani (wk), Kanaiya Vaghela, Shitanshu Kotak, Cheteshwar Pujara, Jaydev Shah (captain), Nikhil Rathod, Chirag Pathak, Rakesh Dhurv, Kamlesh Makvana, Sandip Maniar, Sandeep Jobanputra

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Salil read this :D

When the Saurashtra team reached the Moti Bagh Stadium for their practice, Uttar Pradesh were about to end theirs. While Piyush Chawla was walking out of the adjoining practice wickets, Shitanshu Kotak was walking in. Chawla caught hold of Kotak and said, "Bahut rulaya aapne Mumbai ko Shitanshu bhai." Kotak just smiled. Chawla went on: "Khoon ke aansoo rulaye hai unhe aapne." The smile got bigger.

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UP reeling at 5/2

[Chandan]

Shocking semifinals in progress at the moment. UP were 188 all out and Saurashrtra 99/8, while Baroda was 199 all out and Delhi finished the day one with the score at 49/3. Honestly, which minefields are they playing on and what purpose is it going to serve?

[Mr. Wicket]

I watched large chunks of the Baroda/Delhi game, and it is not a minefield. Fairly decent if slightly low bounce, a bit of seam movement and the conditions generally helping the swingers. The batsmen have all struggled in the conditions. Bowling has been good, never great. The batsmen are incapable of performing in slightly juicier situations, and it's not the pitch. Gambhir fell to his usual "fall over front pad and get out plumb LBW" method, Chopra poked outside off and was caught behind, and none of the other batsmen did much to impress either.

[Chandan]

I watched large chunks of the Baroda/Delhi game, and it is not a minefield. Fairly decent if slightly low bounce, a bit of seam movement and the conditions generally helping the swingers. The batsmen have all struggled in the conditions. Bowling has been good, never great. The batsmen are incapable of performing in slightly juicier situations, and it's not the pitch. Gambhir fell to his usual "fall over front pad and get out plumb LBW" method, Chopra poked outside off and was caught behind, and none of the other batsmen did much to impress either.

How about Pujara Salil? Did he struggle in those conditions too against the most mediocre bowlers? Can't believe that Bhandari can trouble a good batsman no matter what assistance he gets from the condition!

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UP v Saurashtra, Ranji Super League semi-final, 1st day UP take charge on bowler-dominated day January 5, 2008 Saurashtra 116 for 8 (Shah 57, Praveen Kumar 3-35, Tyagi 3-43) trail Uttar Pradesh 188 (Kaif 80, Maniar 6-88, Jobanputra 3-60) by 72 runs Scorecard Saurashtra's new-ball bowlers Sandeep Jobanputra and Sandip Maniar were the stars with the ball as Uttar Pradesh were bundled for 188, but by stumps, one of them was batting and the other - the last man - was padded up, as UP had Saurashtra tottering at 116 for 8. On a day when eighteen wickets fell - including four occasions when two fell in the same over - Saurashtra will rue letting UP recover after having them at 69 for 7. Saurashtra's decision to field seemed to have paid off, with Maniar using the early morning freshness and the life in the wicket intelligently. He struck with the first ball he bowled, as Rohit Prakash opened the face and edged to wicketkeeper Sagar Jogiyani. A loose drive from Suresh Raina resulted in another edge to Jogiyani, before Amir Khan, playing in the absence of Tanmay Srivastava, was done in by one that pitched on the stumps and moved away. The first three dismissals had all come in similar fashion - caught Jogiyani bowled Maniar - as UP were reeling at 15 for 3. Mohammad Kaif and Ravikant Shukla then put together a sensible partnership, lifting the total to 69 in quick time. Kaif got a reprieve on 20 when he drove uppishly to wide mid-on; Rakesh Dhurv was late in moving and only got his fingertips to the ball. Shukla scored 29 off 28 balls with six cleanly struck boundaries, before he was out shouldering arms to Jobanputra off the first over after drinks. Piyush Chawla, promoted to No. 6, was caught on the crease to his first ball and Rahat Elahi didn't stay long, edging a widish delivery off Maniar to Jogiyani. Praveen Kumar hit two fours before missing one from Kanaiya Vaghela as UP were reduced to 110 for 7 five minutes before lunch. The Moti Bagh wicket has a reputation for assisting the bowlers in the first and third sessions, and the first day's play followed the script, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, playing his third first-class match, hung around with Kaif after lunch. He stuck to his task of playing second fiddle to Kaif: his first run came off the 17th ball he faced, the second off 29th, and the third from the 38th. The two put together 28 runs as Saurashtra let the game drift, allowing Kaif to take singles even off the fifth or sixth ball of the over. Kaif top scored with 80, and the lack of a third seamer hurt Saurashtra as Jobanputra and Maniar operated for the majority of the innings. Kaif, the UP captain, finally fell to a good diving catch by Jaydev Shah, his Saurashtra counterpart. They were lucky to nail him immediately after he had been reprieved: off the previous ball, Firoze Bhambhania had spilled a chance at mid-off off Maniar. The eighth-wicket partnership cost Saurashtra 49 crucial runs, with Bhuvneshwar contributing 14. UP were finally dismissed for 188, with Bhuvneshwar unbeaten on 33. Maniar took 6 for 88 and Jobanputra 3 for 60. Saurashtra were on top after bowling out UP for a low score, but it was now their turn to struggle with the bat. Praveen and Sudeep Tyagi took three wickets each while Bhuvneshwar took two. Praveen struck first in the third over, when Kanaiya Vaghela edged one which moved away. Shitanshu Kotak, who had batted for 796 minutes without getting out against Mumbai in the previous match, spent only two minutes and two balls in the middle this time. He was superbly set up by Praveen: the first ball moved away, and Kotak let it pass, but the next one straightened and trapped him plumb in front. Sudeep Tyagi then scalped the big wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara, who played on to one that was quicker and rose more than expected. Saurashtra were reeling at 7 for 3. Shah, who in a surprise move opened the innings and was the best batsman of the day, then began to rebuild the innings. He played with soft hands, and didn't miss out on any scoring opportunity. With Jogiyani, Shah added 31 for the fourth wicket before Praveen struck again as Jogiyani missed an offcutter. Shah dominated another brief partnership but Bhuvneshwar took two in two to pull Saurashtra down again. Soon after Shah reached his half-century, Mohammad Kaif brought Tyagi back into the attack and he delivered, removing Shah and Kamlesh Makvana off successive balls. Jobanputra survived the hat-trick and hit a few lusty blows in an unbroken 29-run ninth-wicket stand with Dhurv, who was not out on 21 at the close.