Indian domestic season 2013/14

First topic message reminder :

This kicks off with the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy on the 26th.  

ShankyCricket wrote:I would pick Gambhir and indeed go with him ahead of Vijay too,

 
but cricket doesn't run like this......there are principles consistency and fair run.
 
Vijay has done all that was asked of him....and has to be given a chance to fail before he can be dropped.

I can undertsand you have a wish....but unfortunately selectors can simply move people around even if they agreed with your wish.
every one has to be given a fair run once they are selected and especially in Vijay's case he performed as an opener.

Rishi Dhawan continues his impressive run...plucks out anotehr 5-for against Assam

Ranji Trophy round 5, day 1.
Group A.
On a day when Mumbai’s batting had a tough day in office, including failures for Ajinkya Rahane, Suryakumar Yadav and Abhishek Nayar, veteran Wasim Jaffer stood up with an unbeaten 133 that guided his side to 254-8 at close against Vidarbha. Sandeep Singh picked up 3 wickets for Vidarbha, but India seamer Umesh Yadav went wicketless.
Former India fast bowler VRV Singh generated a lot of excitement when he first emerged in the mid-2000s as he, along with Munaf Patel, was one of the quickest bowlers that the country had produced up to that point. He got to play for India at a young age, but never really got going at international level and then was hit by aseries of injuries. For the lost 5 years, he was away from even domestic cricket, but today, VRV made an unforgettable comeback to domestic cricket. On a lively Lali track, VRV’s 5 wickets helped Punjab bowl Haryana out for 163, with able support from Sandeep Sharma who picked up 3 wickets. But Punjab lost 3 for 50 at close, including Jiwanjot Singh for 8. Great commitment from the 2 India players from Haryana, skipper Amit Mishra and seamer Mohit Sharma, both were involved with team India yesterday, Mohit even played yesterday’s ODI against the West Indies, but here they are, back playing for their state side. Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh isn’t playing this game, and Punjab are captained by Mandeep Singh.
Abhimanyu Mithun ripped through the Odisha top order by picking 6 wickets, but Abhilash Malik brought back a sense of respectability to Odisha’s score after they looked pretty much on course to get bowled out for a sub-100 total. Malik made 98 as Odisha stretched their innings to 226. Karnataka’s bowling might have struggled before this game, but their batting has been in good form, and Mayank Agarwal and Robin Uthappa saw the day through at 22 without loss.
Saurabh Tiwary made yet another half-century (75 not out) and Rameez Nemat contributed a half-century of his own as Jharkhand closed a slowish day at 194-5 against table toppers Gujarat. Jasprit Bumrah picked up 2 wickets. Jharkhand are missing India seamer Varun Aaron. Hope he’s not injured, Not again!.
Group B.
The game between Baroda and Madhya Pradesh has moved on to the 3rd innings already, at stumps on day one!. Batting first, Baroda collapsed from 90-1 to get bowled out for 152 as Jalaj Saxena picked 6 wickets and Ishwar Pandey found some form after a couple of rather indifferent games with 3 wickets. Then Madhya Pradesh bettered the collapse, without even bothering for a platform to collapse from, they duely collapsed for 61 all out, as Ketul Patel and Yusuf Pathan picked up 4 wicket hauls for Baroda. Baroda have reached 9 in their 2nd innings, and surprisingly, all 10 wickets are in tact!.
India opener Murali Vijay scored a confident 62 on a lively looking track and Abhinav Mukund scored runs when it mattered for the first time this season with an unbeaten 103 as Tamil Nadu ended the day at a strong 268-2 at stumps against Saurashtra. Baba Aparajith is batting on 40. India seamer Jaydev Unadkat is playing, but he went wicketless.
Rajasthan seamers Aniket Chaudhary, Pankaj Singh and Deepak Chahar combined well to bowl Uttar Pradesh out for 226. Aniket picked up 4 wickets, Chahar took 3 and Pankaj 2. Rajasthan however, lost their rock Vineet Saxena for nought as they are yet to get their innings going.
Bengal opener Arindam Das made an unbeaten 139 on a flat looking track as they reached 242-3 at close against Services. This is Bengal skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s hundredth Ranji game, the first Bengal cricketer to go that far.
Group C.
If he’s to have any say in the matter, Rishi Dhawan won’t let the India selectors to ignore him much longer. Continuing his outstanding season, Dhawan picked up yet another 5 wicket haul, his 4th of the season, to help Himachal Pradesh bowl Assam out for only 81. And then when HP lost 3 quick wickets, the captain was at hands yet again, scoring an unbeaten 36 to stretch the total to 199-4 at close. Dhawan has so far taken 34 wickets this season, and is averaging 57 with the bat.
Goan openers Amough Desai scored 102 and Swapnil Asnodkar chipped in with 75 and they put together a 176 run first wicket partnership, but all unraveled very quickly for them when Tripura hit back with 8 wickets for 55 runs as they ended the day at 231-8. Rana Dutta was the wrecker-in-chief with 4 wickets.
Jammu & Kashmir reached a very strong 312-4 at close against Kerala. Ian Dev Singh made 98, and Manzoor Dar and Hardeep singh chipped in with 50s.
Andhra openers Srikar Bharat made 82 and his opening partner Prashant Kumar went 4 runs better as their side reached a solid 232-3 at close against Maharashtra. Amol Muzundar is out in the middle in the company of B Sumanth.

Jharkhand are missing India seamer Varun Aaron. Hope he’s not injured, Not again!.

I read on CI that he has been rested to acomodate an extra spinner.

Re: Rishi Dhawan...while I appreciate his efforts with the ball everytime he goes out....we have tro normalize his performances on 2nd thouhgts for two reasons:

1) His base his Himachal so he plays a lot of his games in seaming condtions

2) He is in group C playing sevrices, Assam Tripiura type of low skill and weak sides.

compared to Pandey for example in a stronger group....and with home base on Patta pitches .

also Jalaj Saxena has been consistently in wickets.....the best amongst the second line spinners

@KP fan: its harsh to say that about Rish Dhawan...you can only play whats put infront of you...so the only way to see how good he really is, is to put him up against some quality oppo and see how he does..IMO he should get a run for india in whatever format..

Breaking into India-A is his best bet
alternatively a lo profile ODI series like one against Zim

I do think he should switch to a smaller IPL side where he gets more chance to shine unlike the star studded Mumbai

KPF, agree on the seaming conditions in Dharamshala to an extend. But when we say that, we also have to account for the fact that he's averaging 57 on that very track and has been very very consistent with both bat and ball. Parwez Rasool's performances also came in group c last season it has to be remembered. Kerala opener VA Jagadeesh got an opportunity with India A recently, admittedly the opening came because many of the regulars were involved in the CLT-20 and that included Rishi Dhawan. But a season this good can't be ignored for long. MSD has always been talking about the lack of a good seam bowling all-rounder.

His runs have come against Tripura, assam, services etc....
again as CF said...no fault of his.
he has done well enough to be given a chance against tougher opponents....
Rasool got a lucky break for Ind-A against Aus where he took a 7-fer...and that's what dhawan warrants now a run in India-A side preferably overseas where his bowling can shine

And your suggestion of a better IPL opening is also important. Hopefully he'll get to play with RR or SH, or CSK that has a good contingent of Indian bowlers.

msp83 wrote:And your suggestion of a better IPL opening is also important. Hopefully he'll get to play with RR or SH, or CSK that has a good contingent of Indian bowlers.

Mohit sharma is a prime example of being picked by CSK and shining under Dhoni.
Gony also had a similar good show under Dhoni and actually ended up playing for India...but then lost his way

Why do you not want Rishi Dhawan in the ODI side when the alternatives are as bad Ishant, Yadav and Vinay? I agree that a test callup would be too early. But ODIS at least? Not as if we have a plethora of seam bowling allrounders.

ShankyCricket wrote:Why do you not want Rishi Dhawan in the ODI side when the alternatives are as bad Ishant, Yadav and Vinay?  I agree that a test callup would be too early. But ODIS at least? Not as if we have a plethora of seam bowling allrounders.

 
I wish he was in the ODI side....I would pick him on potential that I see.
 
My wishes aren't enough.
However as per realistic processes that are followed these days by the selectors.....Dhawan will have to break into A side and do well.......OR be lucky that there is a Zim like second string ODI series...OR have a booming IPL with the ball and bat like Gony, Mohit sharma, Amit Mishra have had to jump in the reckoning of national selectors.....for which he should move to a weaker IPL side like Hyderabad or Pune ...or better managed one like Chennai

Bumrah gets anotehr 5-fer and he is in the strong Group-A.....he is having a bumper season

Round 5, day 2.
Group A.
Wasim Jaffer could only add 6 more to his overnight 133 as Mumbai were bowled out for 261 in their first innings against Vidarbha. But the Mumbai attack reset the balance of the game quickly as Vidarbha were bowled out for only 113 in their first innings. Shardal Thakur took 3 wickets and Zaheer Khan took 2. Mumbai lost Kausthubh Pawar early, but Aditya Tare sped away to a hundred and Ajinkya Rahane scored a half-century. Both are unbeaten at stumps and Mumbai are 179-1 in the 2nd innings. India seamer Umesh Yadav failed to take a wicket and leaked runs.
Manish Pandey scoredan unbeaten 108 and KL Rahul chipped in with 67 as Karnataka marched to a first innings lead against Odisha. They are 288-4 at stumps and are leading by 62 runs. Rain might play a part in the game on the last couple of days though.
Jharkhand were bowled out for 289 in their first innings against Gujarat. Saurabh Tiwary scored 91. Jasprit Bumrah picked his 2nd successive 5for of the season to lead the bowling effort for Gujarat. Then opener Samit Gohel and skipper Parthiv Patel consolidated Gujarat’s position in the match by taking them to 168-2 at close. both have gone pass their half-centuries and are unbeaten.
Lali continues to produce exciting games with the ball having a considerable say in things. A knock of 51 from Gurkeerat Singh and 43 from Mayank Sidhana helped Punjab weather an early collapse to take a first innings lead of 21 against Haryana. Harshal Patel and Sanjay Budhwar took 4 wickets each. India seamer Mohit Sharma couldn’t add to his 1 wicket yesterday, and on a seaming track, India spinner and Haryana skipper Amit Mishra bowled just the 1 over. But Mishra will have to play a larger role with the bat, as he’s unbeaten on 13 along with Sachin Rana on 21 as Haryana lost half their side for 117 in their 2nd innings. Sandeep Sharma took 3 wickets for Punjab.
Group B.
Yusuf Pathan played a very decisive hand smashing 105 at better than a run-a-ball as Baroda survived a tricky track and Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Jalaj Saxena who took 7 wickets in their 2nd innings to end up with a match haul of 13 to post 244 in their 2nd innings, setting MP a daunting target of 337. But Saxena couldn’t replicate his good performance with the bat as he was first out followed by 4 others as MP ended the day staring at a huge defeat at 58-5.
Amit Mishra took 7 wickets, not the India spinner, but yet another seamer to have emerged from Uttar Pradesh as his side rapped up Rajasthan for 185 despite opener Siddharth Saraf’s 56 and take a first innings lead of 41. UP lost 2 early wickets though in their 2nd innings as they ended the day at 46-2.
The track had some grass cover, but underneath that the track was as horrendous as any other flat monsters in the world, as Tamil Nadu continued their terribly borring strategy of orienting their entire game plan around taking a first innings lead. Abhinav Mukund scored 240, Dinesh Karthik scored a ton and Baba Aparajith scored a half-century as TN declared their first innings closed at 565-8. India and Saurashtra seamer Jaydev Unadkat, to his great credit, took 4 wickets on this ridiculous track. Saurashtra gifted an early wickets through a needless run-out to close the day at 12-1. Cheteshwar Pujara is out there, and he needs to produce something massive if his side is to come close to the TN score.
Opener Arindam Das extended his innings to 165 and Saurashish Lahiri scored 108 as Bengal scored 431 in their first innings against Services. Services are 39 without loss in response at close.
Group C.
A poor last day proved costly for Himachal Pradesh in the last game, but this time they weren’t letting things slip that easily. Overnight batsmen, skipper Rishi Dhawan made 58, and Nikhil Gangta missed his hundred by a single. Bipul Sharma, who shifted to HP from Punjab this season, is getting regular playing opportunities with his new team, and though his bowling hasn’t been decisive, his batting has been consistently productive as he scored his 2nd hundred of the season, as his 102 not out helped HP declare their first innings at 463-9. Then Dhawan and Vikramjeet Malik got down to work quickly as Assam were reduced to 97-6 at close, Dhawan and Malik shared 2 wickets each.
Rana Dutta finished with 5 wickets as Goa were bowled out for 252 in their first innings. After a frustrating collapse from a strong position, the Goan bowlers hit back hard as Tripura’s batting floundered yet again, and despite Abbas Ali’s half-century, they were bowled out for 174. Goan openers batted out the last few overs of the day without incidents and they have an overall lead of 86 going into the 3rd day.
Kerala seamers Sandeep Warrier and Prasanth Parameshwaran shared 4 wickets each as Jammu & Kashmir let slip a strong position, losing their last 6 wickets for only 65 to be bowled out for 377. Kerala opener VA Jagadeesh then made an unbeaten 84 as his side ended the day at 184-2.
Kedar Jadhav continues his good season, as his unbeaten 97, along with 73 from young Vijay Zol has taken Maharashtra to 196-3 at close. Andhra couldn’t build on a good platform provided by the top order as their innings ended at 317.

Wins for Himachal Pradesh and Baroda before lunch on day 3.

bcci pitch comittee will inspect the baroda pitch......because match ended in under 3 days nd spinners took too many wickets.

well they should rather investigate the rajkot and chennai pitches where in 4 days even 1 inning does not complete.....and 1200 runs are scored

The Pune road on which Maharashtra play their home games isn't even worth an investigation, you can play a timeless test there and go on for a year at least!.

Round 5, day 3.
Group A.
Ajinkya Rahane (133) followed Aditya Tare (172) to a century and they almost batted Vidarbha out of the game on there own. Mumbai declared their 2nd innings at 381-4. Chasing a target of 530, Vidarbha managed to stay alive at the end of day 3, but only just, as they are 8 down for 177, leaving a Mumbai win as a formality to be completed on day 4. Zaheer Khan struck in his very first over it self, and Vishal Dabholkar picked up 2 wickets.
Lali yet again produced a thriller. Haryana were bowled out for 155 in their 2nd innings as Punjab youngster Sandeep Sharma took 6 wickets. Set a target of 135, Punjab were jolted by Mohit Sharma and Harshal Patel who shared 3 wickets each. At one point, Punjab were 46-6. But Sandeep wasn’t going to let his efforts vanish just like that, he made an unbeaten 37, and Gurkeerat Singh also made 37 as Punjab managed to get through by 3 wickets at the end.
Karnataka took a first innings lead of 153 against Odisha as their first innings ended at 379. Manish Pandey couldn’t go beyond 132, and the rest of the lineup couldn’t maintain yesterday’s intensity, had it not been for a quick-fire 43 from seamer Abhimanyu Mithun, Karnatak would have let slip a strong grip on the game. As it turned out, they have work to do for tomorrow. After losing 3 early wickets, Abhilash Malik combined forces with skipper Biplab Samantray as Odisha reached 169-4 at close, leading by 16 runs.
Parthiv Patel converted his overnight half-century to a massive 189, and Samit Gohel made 80, but the rest of the Gujarat lineup couldn’t match them as Jharkhand managed to restrict them to 352, and limited the first innings deficit to only 63 after it had threatened to be a lot more. Jharkhand are 28 without loss in their 2nd innings.
Group B.
Madhya Pradesh crashed to a massive 246 run defeat against Baroda as Bhargav Bhatt took 5 wickets to bowl them out for 90 in the 2nd innings. Yusuf Pathan, who made a brilliant 2nd innings hundred added 3 wickets to his kitty. BCCI doesn’t seem to be best pleased about the track though they never have issues with tracks that produce total borfests that can’t decide a first innings lead after 4 days.
Saurashtra lost an early wicket on day 3, and lost another mid-way into the first session and the ball did just a little bit under overcast conditions, giving Tamil Nadu some early hope. But Cheteshwar Pujara wasn’t one of the 2 batsmen who got out in the morning, and that was all what Saurashtra needed. Tamil Nadu provided some additional help when Murali Vijay dropped the Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Shah on 8. At the end of the day, Shah is giving Pujara company on 133, while the India batsman has moved along to 152. Saurashtra are 326-3 at stumps, still 240 away from taking the first innings lead. Morning session is going to be crucial in determining the first innings lead.
Prashant Gupta scored his maiden Ranji ton as Uttar Pradesh declared their 2nd innings at 319-5, setting Rajasthan a target of 361. Gupta made 144 and Parvinder Singh made an unbeaten 50. Rajasthan are 15 without loss at stumps.
Services are 261-6, responding to Bengal’s first innings score of 431. Vishnu Tiwary made 71 and Soumya Swain is batting on 56. India discard Ashok Dinda took 3 wickets for Bengal.
Group C.
Rishi Dhawan has been unstoppable this season. Dhawan took his 5th 5for of the season to complete 10 wickets in the game, in which he contributed 58 with the bat as Himachal Pradesh routed Assam by an innings to collect a bonus point win. Assam were bowled out for 161 in their 2nd innings as HP won by an innings and 221 runs.
Goa were bowled out for 177 in their 2nd innings, setting Tripura a target of 256 to win their first game of the season. It was number 11 Buddhedev Mangaldas who topscored for Goa with 41. Considering Tripura’s rather flakey batting, any total above 100 has to be considered not bad, but Tripura have got off to a relatively solid start as they reached 72-2 at close with KB Pawan unbeaten on 36.
VA Jagadeesh scored 106 and Rohan Prem made 86 as Kerala looked in control of their game against Jammu & Kashmir. But they had a massive collapse from 278-3 to get bowled out for 302, handing away the first innings lead that looked their’s for the taking. Samiullah Beigh picked up 4 wickets for J&K. They further consolidated their advantage as opener Adil Rishi made an unbeaten 68 to guide them to 111-1 at close.
Kedar Jadhav made 173 and skipper Rohit Motwani scored 95 before he ran out of partners as Maharashtra reached 440 in their first innings, taking a first innings lead of 123. Andhra lost opener Prashant Kumar early, as they ended the day at 27-1.

good to see Rahane score a ton!

Round 5, day 4.
Group A.
It took Mumbai less than 6 overs to take the 2 remaining Vidarbha wickets and finish off a huge 339 run win. Shardul Thakur took the last 2 to finish with 4 wickets.
Odisha skipper Biplab Samantray scored a defiant 106 to take his side to 279 in their 2nd innings, 126 ahead of Karnataka. Abhimanyu Mithun followed up his first innings 6for with a 5for, and his new ball partner HS Sharath took the other 5 wickets. Karnataka didn’t have it all smoothly in the chase, Robin Uthappa’s hamstring injury meant he couldn’t open, and the Odisha bowlers led by Suryakant Pradhan’s 3 wickets kept them in check. Uthappa had to emerge at 7 but couldn’t see the chase through. But Kunal Kapoor and Abrar Kazi finished the chase off eventually as Karnataka won by 4 wickets, their first win of the season.
Having taken a 63 run first innings lead, the Gujarat bowlers then reduced Jharkhand to 76-7. But Saurabh Tiwary, having retired hurd on 0 emerged at number 8 to join another injured batsman. He joined opener Bhavin Thakkar who had retired hurt on 2 yesterday. They both scored 50s, stitched together an unbeaten 90 run 8th wicket partnership that eventually earned them a hardfought and exciting draw. The draw meant Gujarat could only take away 3 points, a win would have taken them to the top of the group ahead of Mumbai.
Group B.
The talk at the end of day 3 was whether Cheteshwar Pujara, not out overnight on 152 will be able to score his 4th first class triple hundred. Pujara couldn’t quite reach there, but went pass 200 and 250 and took his side to the first innings lead against Tamil Nadu where the only possible good result for Saurashtra was the 3 points for the first innings lead as even a timeless test wouldn’t have produced a result on that road of a wicket. Pujara made 269, his 9th first class double hundred taking him to 2 behind the current record holder Vijay merchant, and 1 behind Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and Vijay Hazare who are in 2nd place. The Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Shah missed his double hundred by 5 runs, and Arpit Vasavada made a crucial 70. Like Shah yesterday, he was put down early in his innings, and again it was India opener Murali Vijay who had plenty of time to reflect about his mistake.
Robin Bisht, Rakesh Bishnoy and Chetan Bisht scored half-centuries as Rajasthan managed to hang on for a draw against Uttar Pradesh. Set a target of 361, Rajasthan ended the day at 253-6 with Chetan Bisht remaining not out on 61.
The game between Services and Bengal also was a draw, Services managed to avoid the follow-on as their innings ended at 304 in response to Bengal’s 431, and the Bengal top order took up the remaining time to have some batting practice as they finished the day at 126-3 with opener Arindam Das adding a half-century to his first innings ton and Subhomoy Das also chipping in with a 50.
Group C.
When Adil Rishi (160 not out) and Parwez Rasool (100 not out ) scored hundreds and dealt with the bowling without fuss, and declared the Jammu & Kashmir 2nd innings at 337-2 with just a session and a bit remaining, not many would have seen anything beyond a draw. With a 400+ target in 1 session Kerala had no chance of winning, but the 1 point from the draw seemed theirs, just like the first innings lead looked theirs for the taking for much of yesterday. But like it happened yesterday, Kerala did the incredible, collapsing for 129 in 40 overs to hand J&K a massive win that took him to the 2nd position behind Himachal Pradesh.
Harshad Gadekar was in he news in the last round when he batted out a day against Maharashtra after coming in as nightwatchman. But this time his primary skill stood out for Goa, as his 5for helped them to a 49 run win against Tripura. Chasing 256 for a win, Tripura looked in control at 120-2, but the familiar collapse arrived soon enough, as they were bowled out for 206.
After taking a 123 run first innings lead against Andhra, Maharashtra looked in a good position to take away 6 points when Andhra were reduced to 141-5 in their 2nd innings. But G Chiranjeevi and M Suresh scored fighting half-centuries to save the day for Andhra as they ended the day at 237-7 to earn 1 point from the encounter.
At the end of round 5, Mumbai are topping group A followed by Gujarat and Punjab. Railways are on top of the Group B table followed by Saurashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Himachal are leading Group C followed by J&K in the 2nd and Assam in the 3rd positions.

A good read from wisdenindia
look at the part in Bold......a century a half century and 4 wickets in his last 3 ODI outings and FC average of 60...was he given even half of the chances that Rohit got.....he would be a star by now

Manoj Tiwary: Out of sight, out of mind

Shamya Dasgupta
 |

2 December 2013

Despite performing well for India A, against the visiting English and Australian teams, Manoj Tiwary wasn't included in the central contracts for the upcoming season. © AFP

What do you tell a man, ten years younger than yourself, when he asks, “What have I done wrong? Tell me, what else do I need to do?”

It would be an easy question to answer if he had been bad at his game, had no drive, or was incapable of meeting challenges. But when it comes to Manoj Tiwary, none of it is true.

Tiwary hasn’t had the luck of the draw – primarily with injuries, definitely with opportunities at the highest level and, occasionally, even at the lower levels, where he could, and possibly should, have been a star.

At the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, where he is undergoing rehabilitation after suffering the latest in a long line of serious injuries – each of which has kept him out of the game for long periods – Tiwary was hoping for some good news.

Instead, he found out that he was not among the 25 players included in the central contracts of the Board of Control for Cricket in India for the upcoming season.

“I have no idea why I am not there,” he says, looking more shattered than puzzled. “Injuries are not in my hand, but have I not performed when I got the chances? Does it mean I am not going to be considered for selection any more?”

These are difficult questions to discuss with a man whose numbers don’t explain the stop-start career he’s had so far. His travails – of warming the bench, and injury – are well documented. But a 28-year-old with a century and a fifty as well as a four-wicket haul in his last three One-Day Internationals would expect to figure in the central contracts. On top of that, Tiwary also performed admirably for India A, against the visiting English and Australian teams, recently.

It’s probably not because they don’t consider you a part of the plan, maybe it’s because they don’t know if you are physically in a position to play enough, I offer by way of explanation. He isn’t convinced.

I bring up the fact that his participation in the Ranji Trophy is almost entirely ruled out and, considering the contracts are for the upcoming season, he would also be short of chances to return to the top anytime soon.

“It’s the IPL,” he eventually answers himself. “If I had done well in the IPL, I would have stood a chance.”

But he didn’t have a good IPL. An average of 18.25 from ten matches – he was injured midway through the 2013 season and then dropped – is far from acceptable for an ‘India’ cricketer.

That makes him open up; he has an explanation: “The team (Kolkata Knight Riders) was trying different people at No. 4 and No. 5, and it seemed like the captain did not have faith in me. I performed well in 2012 when we won. I got chances. I played in the top of the order. The kind of game I play, batting at No. 7 is no good. I need to bat higher up the order. All my contemporaries like Virat (Kohli) and Rohit (Sharma) and Shikhar (Dhawan) and (Suresh) Raina bat in the top four. That hampered me. And IPL performances matter when it comes to the Indian team – no one can deny that.”

Tiwary also admits that he didn’t do his own cause much good by messing up at times. “I was not happy and I was not focussed. I showed my frustration both on the field and in the dressing room. I know I shouldn’t have become frustrated. It affected me and no one else. I have a tendency to get too involved and emotional – I realise now that I shouldn’t have. But my frustration was because I wanted to do well and I was not getting a chance to do well.”

Outside of cricket, he’s doing reasonably well. Debts his family had run up when he was a kid have been cleared. He has bought flats in Kolkata, has been taking care of his parents, is happily married and much else.

And all of that’s happened because of cricket, which, he seems to feel, is fast slipping away from him. “Between the IPL and the injuries, I have lost one of the best years of my career,” he concedes.

But the questions he had asked right at the start – are there really any answers to them? Yes, he has to get back in the game, keep himself relatively injury-free, and focus on adding to his first-class average of 59.55 and List A average of 39.92. There are the domestic one-day tournaments and then the IPL, where he must gain prominence again. And then, well, and then he must hope.


Shamya Dasgupta is Senior Editor at Wisden India. You can follow him on @shamyad

Not sure whats the need to bring Rohit into all this. It seems you are just desperate to take digs at him even when he's doing well. Sigh.

Did Rohit rob your house or anything by any chance, KPF? It is perfectly possible to talk about a player not getting enough chances without bringing Rohit into it. I agree that there were times when MSD's persistence with Rohit was unreasonable and unjustified but at the end of it all, he IS PERFORMING NOW. No point cringing about past failures now. Also, while there's no doubt Rohit had his fair share of fortune with the ODI spot, you could equally argue that with his FC record being far better than his domestic limited overs record, he was kept away from the Test side far too long and if he had been given a chance earlier in Tests as opposed to limited overs cricket, he could've been a top Test batsman by now.

ShankyCricket wrote:Not sure whats the need to bring Rohit into all this. It seems you are just desperate to take digs at him even when he's doing well. Sigh.

Dig...where is the dig ?
it is a fact that he ( and Ishant) have gotten a very very loooooonnngg run from the selectors.
The likes of Tiwari and Rahane hve not gottent their fair due.

and Tiwari's is an amazing case 100,50 and 4-fer.....and yet dropped

triumph of mind over matter.......of the very human spirit of never say die.....Tambe to debut in Ranji aged 44

MUMBAI: Forty two years old leg spinner Pravin Tambe was today surprisingly included in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team to take on Jharkhand in the four-day Group A match starting at the Wankhede Stadium on December 6.

Lack of top quality spinners has apparently forced the Mumbai selectors to include Tambe, who made his mark in T20 cricket while playing for Rajasthan Royals in last season's IPL and Champions League but is yet to figure in first class cricket.

Tambe, who plays for the D Y Patil Sports Academy in local cricket, has picked up 13 wickets in 8 T20 games in his career. He will complement left arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar.

The defending champions made a few other changes in their squad that whipped Vidarbha by 338 runs yesterday.

The unavailability of captain and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who is to set off for South Africa, soon has once again opened the doors for Kshemal Waingankar to take his place in the squad.

All rounder Abhishek Nayar will lead the side in Zaheer's absence.

The squad: Abhishek Nayar (Captain), Aditya Tare (vice-captain), Wasim Jaffer, Hiken Shah, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Vishal Dabholkar, Siddhesh Lad, Javed Khan, Shardul Thakur, Akbar Khan, Kshemal Waingankar, Manish Rao, Pravin Tambe and Sagar Kerkar. Coach: Sulakshan Kulkarni.

Good for Tambe, hope he does get a game and does well. But what happened to Harmeet Singh? Injured? Out of form? Disappointing that Kuldeep Yadav and Harmeet, the 2 emerging spin prospects aren't getting an opening with their Ranji sides. Particularly unfortunate and even a bit unfair on Kuldeep who is sitting out for Piyush Chawla who has been struggling for impact and consistency for a long time now. And when Chawla took a game off to get married, the UP team management went for Ali Murtaza. He did have a good game and is an honest trier though a limited bowler, but........

good to see Tambe getting an opportunity, good bowler...also as we have seen with indian sides recently, age dosent matter

msp83 wrote:Good for Tambe, hope he does get a game and does well. But what happened to Harmeet Singh? Injured? Out of form? Disappointing that Kuldeep Yadav and Harmeet, the 2 emerging spin prospects aren't getting an opening with their Ranji sides. Particularly unfortunate and even a bit unfair on Kuldeep who is sitting out for Piyush Chawla who has been struggling for impact and consistency for a long time now. And when Chawla took a game off to get married, the UP team management went for Ali Murtaza. He did have a good game and is an honest trier though a limited bowler, but........

I read somewhere....Harmeet's attitude and discipline was not "up to the mark"
In Mumbai you don't go too far if you have attitude and seniors don't like you.

Kambli a super star.....could've gone further ....if his own Mumbai big guns had backed him.
He still finished with a career average higher than SRT thouhg

Ranji Trophy, round 6, day 1.
Group A.
Saurabh Tiwary was simply sensational and played an innings that can be a serious contender for the innings of the tournament as he fought a lonely battle against Mumbai. Jharkhand ended the day at 262-8. Tiwary has scored 175 of those runs, and is not out overnight, living to carry fighting on for another day. He has added 82 so far with Shankar Rao for the 9th wicket, 75 of which came from Tiwary’s bat. He hit the big 6s and smashed boundaries, left so very judiciously, kept refusing the singles in the first part of the over and kept taking them of the 4th ball of the over. Absolutely fabulous effort. A Mumbai attack missing Zaheer Khan who has been asked to fly out to South Africa early did well against the rest of the lineup, Javed Khan leading the charge with 4 wickets.
Veterans Mithun Manhas (92) and Rajat Bhatia (71 not out) helped Delhi weather early setbacks to reach 268-6 at close against Odisha. Virender Sehwag collected a duck and Gautam Gambhir made only 32 but the efforts of the old workhorses helped Delhi recover to some extent.
Mandeep Singh made 56, but the rest of the Punjab top and middle orders had a forgettable day as they were bowled out for 184 against Vidarbha. At 117-7, even that score looked far away, but Sandeep Sharma made 20 and VRV Singh score a brisk 30 to push Punjab thus far. Srikant Wagh and Amol Jangade took 3 wickets each for Vidarbha.
Nitin Saini made a fighting hundred (109) before he was last man out as Haryana ended their first innings at 247 against Karnataka. The Karnataka seamers shared the wickets around with Stuart Binny taking 3. Karnataka are 18 without loss at close.
Group B.
Madhya Pradesh batting is improving!, but the base has been set at a lowly 60 all out in the last game followed by 90 2nd time round. They bettered that effort today against Rajasthan, but not by much, as the Rajasthan seamers combined well to bowl them out for 115. The openers put on 66 at the top and then it all unraveled rather quickly for MP.. Jalaj Saxena topscored with 39. Pankaj Singh, consistently ignored by national selectors, collected yet another 5for, and Rituraj Singh with 3 wickets and Deepak Chahar with 2 gave him excellent support. Rajasthan managed to draw level by close, losing 3 wickets in the process.
The Uttar Pradesh bowlers got their act together as they bowled Services out for 164 in the first innings. RP Singh took 3 wickets, so did Piyush Chawla though he went for a few runs. Seamer Amit Mishra took 2 wickets. UP are 86-3 in response, with Digvijay Singh batting on 36. Mohammed Kaif was out for 5. Shadab Nazar took 2 wickets for Services.
Tamil Nadu at last played on a track with some life, and they bowled Baroda out for 162. Rahul Shah took 4 wickets and aushik Srinivas chipped in with 3 strikes. TN are 5 without loss at stumps as bad light forced an early close.
Railways opener Arindam Ghosh, who had earlier played a few games for Bengal, made an unbeaten 88 against his former side and his efforts along with a knock of 65 from Nitin Bhille and some poor catching from the fielding side took Railways to 210-4 at close. Ashok Dinda took a couple of wickets for Bengal.
Group C.
It was a relatively lowkey day for the player of the season so far, the Himachal Pradesh skipper Rishi Dhawan. HP bowled Kerala out for 214, with left-arm spinner Vishal Bhatia taking 5 wickets. Dhawan had dismissed Kerala opener Nikhilesh Surendran early, and then took out VA Jagadeesh after lunch when the opener looked set on 56. But it was the birthday boy Bhatia who did most of the damage otherwise. Vinoop Manoharan made 71 to stretch the Kerala total pass 200. Sanju Samson was out without scoring. Bipul Sharma, promoted up the order due to his superb form with the bat made 53, and Abhinav Bali smashed a quick 41. As Bipul was out in the last over of the day, captain Dhawan held himself back and send Bhatia as the nightwatchman to accompany Nikhil Gangta batting on 28. HP ended the day at 165-5.
Tripura’s batting has been a joke for most of the season, so they changed things around a bit by promoting Manisankar Murasingh, the seamer who can bat up the order to number 3, and he responded by scoring his first First Class hundred, an unbeaten 140 that took them to 285-2 at close. Yogesh Takawale, their best batsman of the season is giving him company on 65.
Goa seamer Harshad Gadekar ran through the Assam top order as they were reduced to 68-5. But J Syed Mohammad made an unbeaten 90 and Gokul Sharma gave him support with 46 as they ended the day at 236-8. Gadekar finished the day with 4 wickets.
Maharashtra bowled Jammu & Kashmir for 85, and then marched along to 185-3 by close. Samit Falla took 4 wickets and Srikant Munde took 3 as J & K lost the plot with the bat. Then Harshad Khadiwale made an unbeaten 79 and Sangram Atitkar made 62 to put Maharashtra in a strong position.

Round 6, day 2
Group A.
Saurabh Tiwary continued to dominate Mumbai and led Jharkhand’s charge with the bat in the first session, clubbing 63 more runs of 35 balls as his 238 propelled his side to 351. Jharkhand had lost their 8th wicket at 180. After their innings was done, Jharkhand looked to their other international, and Varun Aaron obliged. He was fast and furious in his first spell, got the ball to do just that little bit, got it to bounce big and peppered the wicketkeeper’s gloves. He took 2 early wickets including the big one of Wasim Jaffer. Shahbaz Nadeem, the Jharkhand skipper chipped in with another couple of wickets and Mumbai found themselves at 114-5 despite a counterattacking 67 from wicketkeeper Aditya Tare. But then Suryakumar Yadav and Hiken Shah, the last recognized batsmen then stitched together a 96 run 6th wicket partnership that took them to 210-5 at close.
Responding to Haryana’s 247, Karnataka were closing in on a first innings lead at 217-3 with KL Rahul nearing his hundred and CM Gautham gone pass his half-century. But then it all unraveled very quickly, Rahul fell for 98, Gautham’s knock was cut short on 54 and Harshal Patel ran through the middle and lower order to take 5 wickets. Karnataka lost their 9th wickets 2 runs adrift of the Haryana total, but Abrar Kazi and HS Sharath just got them over the line and the ended the day at 253-9.
Rajat Bhatia converted his half-century to 158 not out as Delhi posted 442 in their first innings against Odisha. Sumat Narwal and Ashish Nehra scored 40 each to support Bhatia. Nehra, Narwal and Parvinder Awana then took a wicket as Odisha ended the day at 121-3 with Natraj Bahera batting on 53.
Vidarbha’s 2nd wicket partnership between Ravi Jangid (104) and Faiz Fazal (99) alone combined to add more than the Punjab first innings score, but from 222-1 they lost their way to collapse to 241-7 as Sandeep Sharma took 4 wickets. But an 8th wicket partnership of 91 between Urvesh Patel and Amol Jungade took them to a solid 332-7 by stumps.
Group B.
Robin Bisht made 84 but there wasn’t much else from the Rajasthan batsmen as their first innings ended at 282, ahead by 167 against Madhya Pradesh. Ishwar Pandey took 4 wickets for MP. Jalaj Saxena made 65 as MP responded better in their 2nd innings to close the day 46 behind at 121-2.
Wicketkeeper Eklavya Dwivedi made 131 and Digvijay Singh scored 78 as Uttar Pradesh ran up a 205 first innings lead over Services as they ended their first innings at 369. Services are 19 without loss at close, with a big ask to save the game.
The Bengal batsmen adopted an approach that could bor out Chris Tavare and Geoffrey Boycott as they scored 65 -1 in 45 overs of the day, responding to Railways’ first innings score of 306. The Railways opener Arindam Ghosh couldn’t add to his overnight 88 but wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat made 68 to take the total pass 300. Ashok Dinda and Shiv Sankar Paul took 3 wickets each for Bengal before their batsmen organized the crawlfest later in the day.
Searching for their first win in the season, Tamil Nadu found themselves fighting the weather more than the Baroda bowlers as rain wiped out 2 sessions of play on the 2nd day. TN ended the day at 101-3, responding to Baroda’s 162 with Dinesh Karthik and Baba Indrajith (Aparajith’s twin) batting on 23 each. Yusuf Pathan took 2 wickets for Baroda.
Group C.
After spinners from both sides enjoyed themselves, Himachal Pradesh, yet again are looking to their skipper Rishi Dhawan to take them home in a very difficult chase against Kerala. HP lost their last 6 wickets for 10 runs, getting bowled out for 174 as they conceded a first innings lead of 40 to Kerala. P Prasanth took 7 wickets for Kerala. Kerala openers VA Jagadeesh and Sachin Mohan then added 38, but ones Mohan fell, it started another collapse as they found themselves at 98-7 before recovering somewhat to post 155 in their 2nd innings. Vinoop Manoharan made 39. The HP 2nd innings reflected the same pattern, openers Ankush Bains and Prashant Chopra adding 48 before they found themselves at 60-6 in a matter of minutes. Dhawan, in the company of Sangram Singh then resurrected the innings as they took the side pass the hundred mark, but just before close, Sangram was out, leaving Dhawan on 33 not out to somehow carry the side pass a target 86 runs away. Vinoop added 4 wickets in the HP 2nd innings. Though there was one collapse after another, and spinners P Prasanth, Vinoop Manoharan, Vishal Bhatia and Bipul Sharma enjoying themselves, this was not a minefield of a pitch, was more a case of pretty poor application from the batsmen from both sides.
Skipper Rohit Motvani added 84 to add to the efforts of Harshad Khadiwale (87) and Sangram Atitkar (62) as Maharashtra declared their first innings at 401-9, a lead of 316 against Jammu & Kashmir. Mohammed Mudhazir took 5 wickets and Samiullah Beigh took 4. Parwez Rasool went wicketless. J & K batted much better 2nd time round, reaching 131-1 at close.
J Syed Mohammed added 11 more runs to reach an unbeaten 101, but that’s all Assam managed to add to their first innings as they were bowled out for 247 against Goa. The Goan openers Amogh Desai (97) and Swapnil Asnodkar (57) again gave their a good start, and at close, Goa are 190-2.
Manisankar Murasingh was out early on day 2, adding only 10 more to his overnight 140, but Yogesh Takawale converted his half-century into a double hundred (212), and Abbaz Ali then made an unbeaten 105 as Tripura reached 588-6 at close against Hyderabad. Tripura has been struggling to get pass 150 overall in earlier games, but this time they have 3 centurions…….!

good to see Aaron hitting closert to peak pace:

How Aaron's spell shook Mumbai's top order
Abhishek Purohit in Mumbai

December 7, 2013

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File photo: Varun Aaron took the wickets of Wasim Jaffer and Sushant Marathe © Getty Images

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Report : Tiwary 238 gives Jharkhand control

Players/Officials: Varun Aaron
Matches: Mumbai v Jharkhand at Mumbai
Series/Tournaments: Ranji Trophy | Indian Domestic Season
Teams: India

Fourteen overs spread over three sessions is not much to go by but Varun Aaron's furious seven-over burst before lunch against Mumbai was another indication that his comeback from a long injury layoff is progressing well. Aaron returned to first-class cricket after two years this Ranji season following his recurrent back troubles. Into his fourth match, he's taken 13 wickets at an average of 20.30. More heartening than the numbers was the pace, bounce, seam and swing he generated in those seven overs before lunch that claimed Wasim Jaffer and Sushant Marathe.

Aaron was unplayable at times during that spell, straightening the ball on a tight line around off stump and getting it to climb sharply. He also slipped in the surprise yorker, nearly claiming Siddhesh Lad after making him think a short ball was forthcoming with a short leg in place. Often, deliveries took off from good length and flew high into the keeper's gloves.

"I think the first spell was very fast," Shahbaz Nadeem, the Jharkhand captain, said. "I was standing at point and there were one or two deliveries that I could not spot at all. I saw them being released and then straight in the hands of the keeper. He bowled even quicker against Karnataka. If Varun is in rhythm, the nature of the pitch does not matter to him. What he did in the first spell was tremendous. The first two wickets were very important for us."

This wasn't a helpful pitch, as Mumbai's seamers had discovered and their keeper Aditya Tare admitted. To beat as good a batsman as Jaffer with pace and bounce on the cut needed some effort. "That [Aaron's spell] shook us," Tare said. "Wasim bhai is a big batsman and in good form. That was a big wicket. The pitch isn't all that great for a fast bowler and is kind of slow. But he bowled quick. But I think Umesh [Yadav] bowled a bit quicker [for Vidarbha in Mumbai's previous game]."

Aaron was used quite sparingly after lunch. He bowled two spells of two overs each in the second session and sent down only three overs after tea. Given his frequent breakdowns, Jharkhand did not want to extend their premier fast bowler as he seeks to rebuild his career. Aaron also did not go flat out like he had before lunch.

"He is returning from injury after two years," Nadeem said. "He is not a bowler who can bowl long spells. He is a bowler who will come for three-four overs and bowl quick. He requires more effort. In the two overs he bowled after lunch, he saw that the ball was not swinging. So I suggested that you stop and I'll try the other bowlers.

Nadeem did not think Aaron was holding himself back at all. "He goes all out each time he plays a game," he said. "This season, every game he's delivered spells where you can see he's bowling quick and is on top of the batsmen. But as your shoulders tire, you automatically slow down. You lose your freshness. A fast bowler cannot bowl 145-146 kph every spell in days' cricket. It can happen in one-day cricket, but in days' cricket the second and third spells will come down to 140-141."

As long as Aaron can deliver a similar, energetic spurt on the third morning, Jharkhand will be glad to manage his workload for the remainder, if any, of the Mumbai innings.

Round 6, day 3
Group A.
Jharkhand, continuing an impressive game against champions Mumbai, managed to take the first innings lead. Mumbai were bowled out for 265 in their first innings as they replied to Jharkhand’s 351. After Suryakumar Yadav and Hiken Shah dismissed in the first hour of play after both crossed their half-centuries, Mumbai had not much of a chance to overhaul the Jharkhand score. With Varun Aaron terrorizing the lower order, there was no hope whatsoever. Aaron finished with 4 wickets, and also broke the bowling arm of Mumbai bowler Akbar Khan. Jharkhand finished the day at 176-5. Ishank Jaggi is batting on 51, and Saurabh Tiwary made 38, on top of his first innings of 238. Papu Singh, the Jharkhand wicketkeeper, who is rather dissimilar to a certain swashbuckling Jharkhand wicketkeeper who doesn’t play too much for them these days, blocked and blocked in the last hour, but left one in the last over and Javed Khan found enough shape in to take his off stump, leaving Mumbai hoping for a quick Jharkhand collapse tomorrow.
Jiwanjot Singh, the young Punjab opener had an outstanding season last year and has been tipped for a national role. But this has not been as good a season so far though he made runs in some tough and demanding, without putting together a substantive effort. But all that became yesterday’s story as he made an unbeaten 188 under pressure against Vidarbha. The pressure was down to the huge 176 run first innings lead Punjab had conceded. Vidarbha’s lower order couldn’t continue the resistance further in the morning as they could add only 28 more to the overnight score, losing the 3 remaining wickets in the process. Sandeep Sharma took 5 wickets for Punjab and VRV Singh gave him good support with 4 strikes of his own. Manan Wohra made a half-century and added 94 with Jiwanjot but got out soon after reaching his 50, and Punjab promoted wicketkeeper Uday Kaul to number 3, and he and Jiwanjot were unseparated at close with Kaul batting on 88 and Punjab reaching 330-1 at close.
Karnataka’s last wicket partnership added 3 more runs to their 253-9 in the morning to stretch their first innings lead over Haryana to 9. Then the familiar story played out as Haryana had yet another atrocious 2nd innings collapse. They were bowled out for 105 with Ronit More taking 5 wickets for Karnataka. Karnataka, set to score 97 to win, closed the day in a bit of trouble at 62-4.
Natraj Bahera made 158 and Abhilash Malik chipped in with 71, but Parvinder Awana’s 5 wicket haul meant that Delhi could still walk away with the first innings lead over Odisha. Odisha were bowled out for 379, conceding a 63 run lead to Delhi, and Delhi reached 49-2 with openers Gautam Gambhir (5) and Unmukt Chand (4) back in the hut already. Virender Sehwag made 32 not out, and his season’s tally has at last crossed the hundred mark!.
Group B.
Services needed 205 to make Uttar Pradesh bat again. But in just about 50 overs their challenge was over, as despite 95 from Rajat Paliwal, there were bowled out for 191, handing UP a win by an innings and 14 runs, and crucially, a bonus point as well. Imptiaz Ahmed took 3 wickets while Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla picked up 2 each.
Naman Ojha made 137 as Madhya Pradesh put up a much improved show with the bat after 3 back to back horrer innings, but Rajasthan seamers Rituraj Singh who took 4 wickets and Pankaj Singh who took 3 still found time to induce a mini collapse that saw them lose 4 wickets for 16 runs as the 2nd Innings came to an end at 314, setting Rajasthan a target of 148 to win their first game of the season. But Ishwar Pandey took 2 early wickets and they lost their rock Vineet Saxena minitus before close as they ended the day at 77-3 with Robin Bist batting on 39.
Dinesh Karthik made a confident 92 on a turning track but the rest of the Tamil Nadu lineup couldn’t quite deliver against a Baroda attack led from the front by skipper Usuf Pathan who took 6 wickets as they were bowled out for 233, ahead by 71 in the first innings. Baroda though wiped out the lead by the end of the day and reached 73-1 at close.
The game between Bengal and Railways stood out for Murali Kartik’s bravery as much as for a counterattacking innings of 87 not out from the Bengal skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla. The Bengal batsmen continued the Tavare cricket for much of the morning session, but Anureet Singh, who eventually took 4 wickets took 2 wickets in 3 balls and young Sandipan Das came in. As he was taking a start even before the bowler delivered, Kartik warned him to stay inside his crease. When Sandipan tried to take undue advantage again, Kartik duely ran him out. The Bengal coach Ashok Malhotra questioned’s Kartik’s spirit of cricket, but invoking spirit of cricket to justify cheating is pure garbage and he should shut up or else if he can’t help speaking, he should tell his batsmen to play according to the rules of the game rather than trying to take unfair advantage and complain when caught out. After all that, Bengal ended the day at 252-7, with Shukla holding the key to take them over the line for the first innings lead.
Group C.
Himachal Pradesh’s hopes of chasing down 196 from 110-7 was entirely dependent on skipper Rishi Dhawan, but he lasted all of 4 balls in the morning. He was out to P Prasanth. Prasanth combined with Vinoop Manoharan who took a 5for, as Kerala won by 61 runs to join Jammu & Kashmir in the 2nd place in the group.
Sagun Kamat and Rohit Asnodkar made half-centuries and there were handy contributions through middle and lower order as Goa took a significant 159 run first innings lead over Assam. Goa were bowled out for 406, and before close, Amit Yadav took 3 wickets to help them reduce Assam to 31-4, setting up an exciting final day.
After conceding a massive 316 run first innings lead, the Jammu & Kashmir batsmen applied themselves much better 2nd time against Maharashtra as they ended the day 17 a head. But it still is a tall ask to save the game as they are already 6 down. The J & K lower order can bat, and skipper Parwez Rasool hasn’t batted yet in the 2nd innings.
The game between Tripura and Hyderabad is turning into a big borfest. Tripura made 650-8 in their first innings, and Hyderabad are responding with 258-1. Akshath Reddy is batting on 138 and Ravi Teja on 90.

thanks for the updates msp....Tiwary's inning from all accounts is a superb one...he did play an ODI for India when he had a peak IPL season or two.

He is like  left handed version of Sandeep Patil at his best.

aaron's pace is also heartening to

KPF, what do you think of Murali Kartik's actions?

msp83 wrote:KPF, what do you think of Murali Kartik's actions?

it is OK to Mankad...to me it's no diffrent than running out  a player no in his ground

KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:KPF, what do you think of Murali Kartik's actions?

it is OK to Mankad...to me it's no diffrent than running out  a player no in his ground

Absolutely. I feel furious when people defend cheats in the name of spirit of cricket nonsense. Well done Murali Kartik!.

Round 6, day 4.
Group A.
Karnataka huffed and puffed, but they eventually reached the winning target of 97, losing 7 wickets on the way. Stuart Binny made a crucial 31 not out. Harshal Patel backed up his first innings 5for with another 5for to keep Haryana in the hunt up to the very end.
Ishank Jaggi made an unbeaten 103 to set Mumbai big 361 run target. Varun Aaron then created some trouble for Mumbai but they managed to hang on for a draw though they lost 5 wickets in the 2nd innings, prompting thoughts of what if Jharkhand had declared a bit early.
Jiwanjot Singh completed his double hundred, and after he was out for exactly 200, Uday Kaul completed his hundred and went on to score 133 as Punjab declared their 2nd innings at 469-6. Vidarbha didn’t press hard for the target of 294 and Punjab bowlers couldn’t make a match out of it either as the game then ended in a draw.
Delhi declared their 2nd innings at 221-6, and Odisha comfortably batted out the rest of the day as the match ended in a draw. Virender Sehwag made 44.
Group B.
Robin Bist made an unbeaten 64 and Ashok Menaria made 49 not out as Rajasthan comfortably closed out the chase of 149 to defeat Madhya Pradesh.
After conceding a 71 run first innings lead, Baroda had overhauled the deficit with only 1 down yesterday. But their crawl along approach came back to haunt them as they were bowled out for only 128 in their 2nd innings. M Rangarajan led the way for Tamil Nadu with 6 wickets. Tamil Nadu missed out on the bonus point, but they won by 9 wickets to take away 6 points from the game. They didn’t win anything last season, the story has been the same this season until today.
The Bengal camp looked to pick a fight with Murali Kartik at every available moment throughout the day, but Railways walked away with 3 points for the first innings lead. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was stranded on 95 as Bengal were bowled out for 270 in their first innings, conceding a 36 run lead to Railways. Anureet Singh picked up 5for. Railways then comfortably batted out the rest of the day, skipper Kartik rubbing it in by making the Bengal bowlers stay on the park beyond the mandatory overs as ill-feelings continued to mar the context.
Group C.
Amit Yadav took 7 wickets in the Assam 2nd innings to bowl them out for 208 despite a half-century from J Syed Mohammed. Set to score 50 for a win, Goa reached the target without losing a wicket, and pocketed the bonus point as well.
Jammu & Kashmir batted very well in their 2nd innings to make 439, but the first innings collapse was so horrendous that they couldn’t save the game with that effort. Maharashtra reached the target losing 1 wicket in the process, Harshad Khadiwale making his 2nd half-century of the game to lead the chase.
Tripura couldn’t bowl Hyderabad out neither could Hyderabad overhaul the Tripura first innings score of 650 as the game ended in a horrendous draw. Think the BCCI will be so pleased with that road of a wicket.

Mumbai are leading Group A with 20 points, followed by Karnataka with 19 and Punjab and Gujarat on 17. The relegation battle is between Jharkhand and Haryana at the moment.
Uttar Pradesh are leading Group B with 20 points, Railways also are on 20 but UP have a better NRR. Saurashtra are 3rd with 15 points. Services and Baroda have a big challenge avoiding relegation.
Himachal Pradesh lead Group C with 23 points, Maharashtra are 2nd with 19, closely followed by Kerala and J & K on 18.

isnt it Kartik Murali

Ranji Trophy, Round 7, day 1.
Group A.
Former India seamer Ashish Nehra took 6 wickets as Delhi bowled Vidarbha out for only 88 in their first innings. The pitch at the Roshanara Club Ground came in for a lot of attention, the Vadarbha batsmen walking off at one point on the basis of safety reasons. The heavy roller was then called in, and that seemed to have settled the green top a bit as Delhi openers Gautam Gambhir and Unmukt Chand put on 78 before they both failed to convert the starts, Gambhir falling 1 short of 50 and Chand was out for 37. Delhi ended the day at 96-2.
Mumbai gave a debut to 42 year old Pravin Tambe against Odisha but he’ll have to hold on a bit for his first bowl as the Mumbai batsmen, led from the front by a hundred (125 not out)from skipper Wasim Jaffer managed to bowl the Odisha attack to the ground. Mumbai weren’t really busy in the early exchanges and lost 2 for 70, but Hiken Shah (67 not out) supported the skipper as Mumbai closed the day at 242-2.
Punjab lost their last 9 wickets for only 68 as they collapsed from 106-1 to 174 all out in their first innings against Karnataka. The Karnataka seamers shared the top order wickets around with KP Appanna then taking the last 3. Karnataka ended the day at 59-2 at close.
Haryana’s batting clicked at last, as Sunny Singh led the way with an unbeaten 139 that helped them to 266-2 at close against Gujarat. Sachin Rana, promoted up the order is batting on 51, and Rahul Dewan made 68.
Group B.
A half-century from Prashant Gupta and some lower order hitting helped Uttar Pradesh post 212 in their first innings against Bengal on a green top. Sourav Sarkar took 4 wickets for Bengal. RP Singh then swung out 2 Bengal batsmen to show that the challenge for Bengal is significant despite UP not posting a big score. Bengal ended the day at 26-2.
Veteran Yashpal Singh yet again fought hard for Services with 58 and Soumya Swain made 62, but 4 wickets from Munaf Patel and 3 from Yusuf Pathan meant that Baroda were able to end the Services challenge in the first innings on 191. Baroda are 62 without loss at stumps. India all-rounder Irfan Pathan is making a comeback after a long injury layoff, but strangely, didn’t bowl in the Services first innings.
Anureet Singh and Ranjitkumar Mali took 3 wickets each as Railways restricted Tamil Nadu to 200-8 at close in their first innings. R Prasanna made an unbeaten 88 as the big names, Dinesh Karthik, S Badrinath and Baba Aparajith failed around him.
Jalaj Saxena is batting on 157 and Naman Ojha made 154 as Madhya Pradesh, dusting off some indifferent recent batting history posted 342-2 at stumps on day in their match against Saurashtra.
Group C.
Maharashtra spinners Akshay Darekar took 4 wickets and Chirag Khurana 3 as Kerala were shot out for 151 in their first innings. Maharashtra are replying strongly at 106-1, with Harshad Khadiwale batting on 67.
Prashant Kumar made an unbeaten 113 as Andhra reached 224-4 at stumps against Himachal Pradesh. Rishi Dhawan bowled economically without picking a wicket in his 17 overs, Vikramjeet Malik took 3 and Bipul Sharma 1.
Jammu & Kashmir seamer Mohammed Mudhazir took his 3rd 5for of the season as his side bowled Assam out for 263 in their first innings. Things could have been worse for Assam, but Gokul Sharma scored 108, stitching together some very handy lower order partnerships.
Akshath Reddy missed his hundred by a single and Ravi Teja made a half century as Hyderabad reached 234-3 against Goa.

Round 7, day 2.
Group A.
Hiken Shah made 170 to add to Wasim Jaffer’s 143 as Mumbai scored 501-9 in their first innings. Odisha in response are struggling at 79-3.
Mithun Manhas scored 100, and he got valuable support from Ajay Yadav (81), Virender Sehwag (56) and Ashish Nehra (57). These contributions took Delhi to 448-9 in their first innings, responding to Vidarbha’s 88 all out.
Manish Pandey and KL Rahul dominated Punjab bowlers as Karnataka took a big 193 run first innings lead over Punjab. Pandey made 161 and Rahul scored 97 as Karnataka ended the day at 367-7.
Sunny Singh converted his hundred to 201 and Sachin Rana and Nitin Saini also scored hundreds as Haryana posted a big 573-6 declared in their frist innings against Gujarat. Harshal Patel then dismissed Gujarat opener Priyank Panchal without scoring as Gujarat ended the day at 27-1.
Group B.
RP Singh took 5 wickets but a fighting hundred (117) from skipper Lakshmi Ratan Shukla and 66 from Sudip Chatterjee helped Bengal to a 72 run first innings lead over Uttar Pradesh. Bengal, reduced to 50-4 recovered eventually to be bowled out for 284, and their seamers further consolidated their position by ripping out 3 UP wickets for 50 in the 2nd innings.
Jalaj Saxena was out for 194, and then Mohnish Mishra made an unbeaten 158, and with another big ton from Naman Ojha yesterday, Madhya Pradesh managed to reach 619-8 before declaring their first innings. Saurashtra are 49 without loss at close in response.
Dhiran Mistry scored 118 and there were a few 40s, 30s and 20s through the lineup including 22 from comeback man Irfan Pathan who batted at 5 as Baroda ended their first innings at 369, 178 ahead of Services. Munaf Patel then took an early wicket in the Services 2nd innings as they went to stumps at 2-1.
Anureet Singh’s 5for ment Tamil Nadu were bowled out for 246 despite R Prasanna’s 117. But Railways couldn’t take advantage of it as they slipped to 101-8 in response, before recovering a bit to close the day at 152-8 with Karn Sharma not out on 50.
Group C.
Rishi Dhawan was back after a quiet first day, but the day belonged to Andhra skipper Prashant Kumar who made a fine 199 that took his side to 417. Dhawan finished with 5 wickets and Vikramjeet Malik chipped in with 4 wickets. Himachal Pradesh lost there way with the bat in the remaining overs of the day as they ended the day at a precarious 24-3.
Hanuma Vihari scored an unbeaten 201 as Hyderabad declared their first innings at 514-6. Goa are 9 without loss in response.
Ian Dev Singh 94 not out and Samiullah Beigh 65 not out took Jammu & Kashmir to 294-5, 31 ahead of Assam’s first innings effort.
Harshad Khadiwale made 97 but Maharashtra then lost 6 for 29 before their spinners Akshay Darekar and Chirag Khurana ones again combined to push Kerala back, this time with the bat as they put on 79 with Darekar scoring 52 and Khurana 45. Maharashtra were eventually bowled out for 314, 163 ahead of Kerala’s first innings score, with Vinoop Manoharan taking 4 wickets. Kerala ended the day at 23 without loss.

Round 7, day 3.
Group A.
Delhi seamers Ashish Nehra, Parwinder Awana and Sumit Narwal shared 3 wickets each as Vidarbha were crushed by an innings and 156 runs. Vidarbha were bowled out for 204 in their 2nd innings, Faiz Fazal made 90 to resist as much as possible. The innings win gives Delhi a much needed bonus point as well and they retain their chances of making it to the next round.
Natraj Bahera made 130 but Odisha couldn’t save the follow- on against Mumbai. They were bowled out for 256, conceding a 245 run first innings lead to Mumbai. Javed Khan took 4 wickets. Odisha batted better in the 2nd innings, reaching 115-2 at close. Both the wickets were taken by Mumbai’s 42 year youngster Pravin Tambe
R Vinay Kumar scored 105 to stretch Karnataka’s advantage over Punjab as they declared the innings at 505-9, 331 ahead of Punjab. Punjab batting floundered in the 2nd innings as well, and they are struggling for survival at 156-5 at close, still 175 away from making Karnataka bat again.
Gujarat are 314-4 in response to Haryana’s 573, Bhargav Merai is batting on 115.
Group B.
Munaf Patel was on a rampage as he burst through the Services batting with figures of 6-13 that bowled them out for only 31 in their innings, handing Baroda a massive innings and 147 run win that has given them a valuable bonus point as well. The Services 2nd innings lasted only 20 overs, and none of the top 5 could score beyond 2.
Ashok Dinda took 7 wickets in the 2nd innings as Bengal bowled Uttar Pradesh out for 140. The 7for took Dinda’s match tally to 10 wickets. Chasing 69 for a win, Bengal couldn’t take the bonus point as they lost 2 wickets.
Responding to Madhya Pradesh’s 619-8 declared, Saurashtra are 362-3. Sagar Jogiyani is batting on 137. Sheldon Jackson made 84 and Chirag Pathak scored 81.
Tamil Nadu bowled Railways out for 169 to take a 77 run first innings lead but a curtailed day meant they could add only 10 for the loss of Abhinav Mukund in the 2nd innings.
Group C.
Nikhil Gangta made 115 and VikramJeet Malik smashed 83 from number 10 as group leaders Himachal Pradesh posted 305 in their first innings, still conceding a first innings lead of 112 to Andhra. Rishi Dhawan struck early in the Andhra 2nd innings removing Srikar Bharat, but Andhra avoided any further damage as they closed the day at 39-1.
Ian Dev Singh made 170 to push the Jammu & Kashmir first innings to 427, 164 ahead of Assam. Assam lost6 for 102 but recovered somewhat to live on for another day as they went to stumps at 156-6, 8 runs adrift of making J & K bat again.

Responding to Hyderabad’s 514, Goa are 277-5. Rohit Asnodkar made 103 and was supported by Amogh Desai who made 71 and Kenan Vaz who made 58.
Nikhilesh Surendran made 83 and Sanju Samson returned to form with 66 before being run-out for the 2nd time in the match as Kerala mounted a decent recovery against Maharashtra. Trailing by 163 in the first innings, Kerala closed the day at 306-4 in their 2nd innings with skipper Sachin Baby batting on 54. Kerala are no strangers to collapses but they are ahead by 143 as of now.

Round 7, day 4.
Group A.
Gurkeerat Singh scored 157 and Gitansh Khera made 84 to revive hopes for Punjab, but after struggling for most of the first session, the Karnataka bowlers hit back. They bowled Punjab out for 361, and went pass the winning target of 31 without losing a wicket, the 10 wicket win handing them a bonus point as well.
When Haryana’s batting really fired for the first time in the series, their bowlers couldn’t extract enough life from a flat pitch as Gujarat overtook their 573-6 by scoring 578-8. Bhargav Merai made 198 and Venugopal Rao made 111, but Gujarat looked like they would miss out on the 3 points as they lost a few quick wickets. But Akshar Patel made an unbeaten 69, and Rujul Bhatt, batting with 2 fractured fingers came out at number 10 and fought through 56 balls to score a crucial 26 before returing hurt as Gujarat went pass the Haryana total.
Mumbai ran into Natraj Bahera for the 2nd time in the match as his his unbeaten 127 following his first innings hundred along with a few handy contributions from Niranjan Bahera and Abhilash Malik took Odisha to safety. After being asked to follow-on with 245 behind, Odisha reached 356-5 when the game was called off.
Group B.
Saurashtra couldn't make use of the platform set by the top order and ended up getting bowled out for 492, handing Madhya Pradesh a 127 run first innings lead and 3 points. Ishwar Pandey took 5 wickets for MP while Sagar Jogiyani missed his double hundred by 10 runs for Saurashtra.
Fog ones again played spoilsport in the Tamil Nadu Railways game as only 14 overs were possible in the day. TN were 28-2 in their 2nd innings when the match was eventually called off.
Group C.
Samiullah Beigh took 6 wickets including all 4 wickets today as Jammu & Kashmir bowled Assam for 195, thus setting themselves a target of 32 to win the game. Their batsmen accomplished the task without much fuss, but the loss of opener Adil Rishi in the process meant they couldn’t take the bonus point.
Shadab Jakati struck 80 from number 8 but that wasn’t enough to get Goa over the line in the fight for the first innings lead as they were bowled out 49 behind the Hyderabad total of 514-6.
Kerala skipper Sachin Baby made 96, helping his side stretch their 2nd innings to 432, setting Maharashtra a target of 270. Despite losing Vijay Zol and Harshad Khadiwale early Maharashtra batted out the rest of the day and reached 130-3 when the game ended in a draw.
An unbeaten 101 from M Sriram helped Andhra declare their 2nd innings at 232-3, setting Himachal Pradesh a target of 345. Though they lost a few quick wickets in the end, half-centuries from Prashant Chopra and Paras Dogra were enough for Himachal to earn a draw.

At the end of this round, Karnataka are leading Group A with 26 points, followed by Mumbai on 23 and Gujarat on 20.
Railways lead Group B with 21 points, followed by UP on 20 and Bengal on 19. J & K are on top in Group C with 24 points, same as that of Himachal Pradesh, but HP have played one additional game. Maharashtra are in 3rd place.
Haryana, Jharkhand and Services are pretty much in the relegation zone and Vidarbha and Madhya Pradesh also could end up there.

Ranji Trophy, round 8, day 1.
Group A.
The Delhi bowlers ones again created havoc at the Roshanara Club Ground. On a track where Vidarbha were bowled out for 88 last week, Punjab were shot out for 74 by the Delhi quicks, with Ashish Nehra leading the way with 4 wickets. Yuvraj Singh was out for a duck. It was Manprit Goni’s 29 in the lower order that took Punjab from 35-9 to 74. Delhi lost Gautam Gambhir early and reached stumps at 46-2. Vaibhav Rawal came in at 3 and Mithun Manhas at 4, and there was no sign of Virender Sehwag who seems to be running away as far as possible from the new ball. Whatever happened to the dashing opener who used to be a horrer dream for opening bowlers across the world!? Think its time Sehwag calls it a day.
Tabletoppers Karnataka ran into a Mumbai bowling lineup that was desperate to come out of the lackluster mode that characterized their last 2 outings as they were reduced to 228-7. Things could have been worse for Karnataka had not been for KL Rahul who scored an unbeaten 120 to hold the innings together. After getting out in the 90 in the last couple of games, Rahul ensured he’d overcome the nerves in the 90s and get over the line this time. Shardul Thakur took 2 wickets for Mumbai.
Skipper Parthiv Patel made an unbeaten 109 and Venugopal Rao gave excellent support with 68 not out as Gujarat reached 287-3 against Odisha.
Jharkhand, fighting to avoid relegation, reached 233-5 against Vidarbha. Rameez Nemat made 85 and Ishank Jaggi scored 52. Akshay Wakhare took 3 wickets for Vidarbha.
Group B.
Saurav Wakaskar scored 128 to lead Baroda’s charge against Saurashtra on a day that ended with Baroda 348-5 in a crucial game that could determine positions for the next round. Aditya Waghmode gave Wakaskar excellent support with 94. Irfan Pathan, playing only as a batsman scored 37 at number 5 and his brother Usuf moved along to a confident 32 not out by stumps.
Rajasthan seamer Pankaj Singh ripped through the Tamil Nadu top order with 4 wickets, but half centuries from S Badrinath (50), R Prasanna (56 not out) and Vijay Shankar (57 not out ) took TN to 231-5 at close.
Uttar Pradesh plunged to 6 for 4 to Madhya Pradesh opening bowlers debutant Puneet Datey and Ishwar Pandey, but Parvinder Singh scored 72 and then wicketkeeper Eklavya Dwivedi scored 80 not out as they eventually recovered to 250 all out in their first innings. Suresh Raina was part of the early collapse, getting out to Datey for 1. MP closed the day at 4 without loss.
Bad light again intervened in the Railways home game, this time against Services. In the limited time available, Services reduced Railways to 50-5 before they recovered a bit to close on 85-5.
Group C.
A good early season is turning into some serious difficulties for Himachal Pradesh. After topping the group for much of the league stage, they are slipping up towards the end and the trend continued against Maharashtra. After the openers put on 76, HP collapsed to 157-7 and then got bowled out for 228 as Samit Fallah took 3 wickets to lead Maharashtra’s charge. Maharashtra finished on 35 without loss at stumps.
Vinoop Manoharan made 87, Nikhilesh Surendran scored 84 and skipper Sachin Baby made 54 as Kerala were bowled out for 273 against Goa. Goa reached 11 without loss at stumps.
Andhra seamer P Vijaykumar took 4 wickets as Tripura put on their usual show of 3rd rate batting as they reached stumps on 165-9.
Poor weather did not allow play in the Jammu & Kashmir Hyderabad game.

Round 8, day 2.
Group A.
Sitesh Lad scored an unbeaten half century that revived Mumbai from 161-7 and took them to 217-7 at stumps, 34 short of the Karnataka first innings. Shardul Thakur finished with 4 wickets as Karnataka were bowled out for 251 with KL Rahul making 133.
Jiwanjot Singh scored a crucialhardfought unbeaten 105 not out in trying conditions to bring Punjab back into the game against Delhi. Unmukt Chande made 55 but the rest of the Delhi batting couldn’t do much as Delhi were bowled out for 150, 76 ahead of Punjab. But Jiwanjot then took over from the impressive morning’s work by his bowlers and took his side to 177-3 at close, a lead of 101 on a challenging track.
Venugopal Rao converted his overnight half-century to a knock of 177 as Gujarat piled up 479-8 declared in their first innings. Odisha are 111-1 in response, with Natraj Bahera, who scored hundreds in his last 3 innings batting on 64.
Kumar Deobrat made 69 as Jharkhand pushed their first innings to 332. Vidarbha are 101-1 in response.
Group B.
Baroda lost their last 5 wickets for 52 despite Yusuf Pathan scoring 68 as they were bowled out for 400 against Saurashtra with India seamer Jaydev Unadkat taking 3 wickets. However, the Baroda bowlers hit back and despite 74 from Sheldon Jackson, they reduced Saurashtra to 215-6 by stumps.
Though R Prasanna was out for 73 and Vijay Shankar for 60 early in the morning, lower order runs pushed Tamil Nadu to 318 against Rajasthan, with Pankaj Singh completing yet another Ranji 5for. Rajasthan openers then batted 47 overs to reach 89 without loss.
Fog prevented any play in the Uttar Pradesh vMadhya Pradesh game.
Group C.
Harshad Khadiwale made 92 and Ankit Bhawne is batting on 76 as Maharashtra took the innings lead against Himachal Pradesh. Responding to HP’s 228, Maharashtra are 319-4.
Kerala seamer Nizar Niyas took 6 wickets as Goa collapsed from 132-1 to 242 all out as Kerala managed a 31 run first innings lead.
Ravi Teja made an unbeaten 153 and Hanuma Vihari scored 109 as Hyderabad piled up 341-4 against Jammu & Kashmir as the match eventually got under way.
Tripura faced a serious competition for batting ineptness from Andhra as they responded to Tripura’s 179 collapsed with 163 collapsed. Not to be left behind, Tripura promptly lost 3 wickets by stumps, with 20 on the board.

Round 8, day 4
Group A.
Mumbai are not used to Ranji losses, particularly if they scrap their way to any advantage. They haven’t lost to Karnataka ever in the history of the tournament in their 22 previous encounters. But all that changed today as Karnataka earned a come from behind win against the domestic heavyweights. Karnataka lost their last 2 remaining wickets for not much in the morning to be bowled out for 299, setting Mumbai a target of 281. The Karnataka bowlers, led by R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun, both battling injureies, and HS Sharath the first innings hero didn’t let Mumbai settle, and when they just managed to survive the stranglehold of the seamers just a little bit, debutant all-rounder Sreyas Gopal provided them the break. Mumbai were eventually bowled out for 121 with no batsman passing 30. Sharath and Vinay took 3 wickets each, and Mithun and Gopal took 2 each.
Punjab, the original trendsetter of comebacks in this round, completed a remarkable comeback with a 98 run win over Delhi. Having set Delhi a 4th innings target of 326, Punjab had the advantage going into the final day as Delhi had lost 3 wickets yesterday. But then Rajat Bhatia is someone cutout for such scenarios and he yet again stuck it out for his side. But the Punjab bowlers successfully targeted the other end and dismissed Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag early in the morning itself. Nightwatchman Ashish Nehra hung around with Bhatia for some time and put together a half-century partnership, facing 128 balls for his 16. But ones he was out the rest of the lineup gave up without a lot of fight. Bhatia was the last man out for 100 as Delhi were bowled out for 228. Manprit Goni and Jaskaran Singh took 3 wickets each for Punjab.
Gujarat spinner Rakesh Dhurv took the 2 remaining Odisha wickets by the time they added 22 more to the overnight score to finish with a 6for as Odisha were bowled out for 367, handing Gujarat a 112 run first innings lead. Gujarat batted with intent 2nd time round, and promoted spinner Akshar Patel up the order and he responded with a 48 ball 54 that let Gujarat declare their 2nd innings at 137-7. Patel wasn’t done yet though, and he then proceeded to ran through Odisha in their 2nd innings, finishing with 5 wickets. As Dhurv and Jasprit Bumrah gave him excellent support, Odisha were bowled out for only 83 handing Gujarat a 166 run win that has helped them leapfrog Mumbai into the 2nd position in the group.
Faiz Fazal, who scored 89 in the first innings, missed another ton 2nd time round, this time by 9 runs, but his efforts saved Vidarbha against Jharkhand. Jharkhand declared their 2nd innings at 163-9, setting Vidarbha a target of 276, but Fazal’s efforts helped Vidarbha close out the day at 164-3.
Group B.
Baroda’s lower order stretched their 2nd innings to 265, setting Saurashtra a target of 355. The chase wasn’t really on in about 2 and a half sessions for Saurashtra, but rather than batting with sense, Saurashtra went into a shell and forgot to score. The Baroda spinners, led by skipper Yusuf Pathan took full toll of Saurashtra’s negative approach, and bowled them out for 115 in about 80 overs with the last wicket coming a few minutes before stumps. Yusuf led the pack with 6 for 40 in 27 overs and Bhargav Bhatt took 3 for 8 in his 12 and a half overs.
After conceding a 46 run first innings lead, a fighting 92 from wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat and some enterprising captaincy from Murali Kartik brought Railways back into the game. Kartik declared the Railways 2nd innings at 282-7, setting Services a target of 235. Then Karn Sharma, who got some attention in the last IPL took over, taking his first 5for in First Class cricket to bowl Services out for 200, despite opener Pratik Desai scoring exactly half of those runs by himself. With this win, Railways have qualified for the next round with one more game in hand.
If Murali Kartik was all enterprising with his declaration, the Uttar Pradesh skipper Suresh Raina was quite the contrary. UP batted for 30 overs without a lot of intent in the morning and eventually declared the 2nd innings at 178-5, setting MP a target of 313 in 2 session on a lively track. The negativity came back to bite them in the back eventually, MP closing the day at 140-7, the 7th and 8th wickets batting about 30 overs. UP have a game in hand and they need a win to qualify to the next round or at least take a first innings lead. Else, they’ll have to depend on favorable results from Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Baroda.
Skipper Hrishikesh Kanidkar added a half-century to the efforts of his other top order batsmen as Rajasthan comfortably took the first innings lead against Tamil Nadu. After Rajasthan declared their first innings, TN batted out the rest of the day without fuss.
Group C.
Paras Dogra made 62 and skipper Rishi Dhawan scored 60, but Himachal Pradesh were bowled out for 319 in their 2nd innings, setting Maharashtra a target of 63 that their openers Harshad Khadiwale and skipper Rohit Motwani knocked off without fuss to earn a bonus point win that has almost booked them into the quarters.
Harshad Gadekar made an unbeaten 57 and with some support from Ravikant Shukla, took Goa over the line in a tricky chase of 179 against Kerala. The 3 wicket win has given Goa a small hope of making it to the next round, but like Himachal Pradesh, after looking good in the initial stages, Kerala’s challenge is over for the season.
Jammu & Kashmir were bowled out for 299 and had to follow-on against Hyderabad, but as has been happening with them of late, they batted much better in the 2nd innings, reaching 127-1 at stumps to walk away with a draw.

Karnataka lead Group A with 32 points, and are assured of qualification to the next round and they have a game in hand. Gujarat are 2nd with 26 points, and Mumbai and Punjab are tied at 23 points each with a game in hand. Punjab play Jharkhand and Mumbai will take on Gujarat in the last round. Haryana with 7 points and Jharkhand with 9 are in the relegation zoan and they both have a game in hand. Odisha with 11 from 7 games aren’t quite safe either with their last game to be played against Haryana.
Railways have qualified from Group B with 27 points from 7 games, Uttar Pradesh are 2nd with 23 and they will be playing their last game against each other. Baroda are currently placed 3rd with 20, but Tamil Nadu, Bengal and Saurashtra also have a chance to take the 3rd position from the group into the next round in last round group games. Services are under serious relegation threat with only 6 points from 7 games, with their last game to be played against Saurashtra. If they manage to somehow produce a bonus point win at Rajkote, Madhya Pradesh will have to go out.
Maharashtra are leading Group C with 29 points and Jammu & Kashmir are 2nd with 25.

so msp thanks for the tireless updates.

per the current structure 3 teams from group A and B and 2 teams from group C will make it to the QF

I see Karnatak and Railways are thru from Group_A and B respectively

Ranji Trophy, round 9, day 1
Group A.
Mumbai, placed 3rd in the group, need to win their game against Gujarat so that they’d stay in control of their path to the next round. But their inconsistent batting let them down on day 1 as they were bowled out for 154 against a determined Gujarat attack. Akshar Patel picked up 3 wickets and Jasprit Bumrah took 2. Opener Kaustubh Pawar held on for dear life and was 9th out for 37, and Iqbal Abdullah, recalled to the side after a long time scored a brisk 30, but there was nothing much else for Mumbai. Gujarat reached 90-2 at close, with opener Samit Gohel batting on 36 with skipper Parthiv Patel for company.
Delhi, desperate for a bonus point win, changed a few things around. Virender Sehwag, after a failed attempt at reinventing himself as a middle order batsman, returned to the top along with Gautam Gambhir, and played his best innings of the season in terms of control, but unfortunately for Delhi and him, it didn’t last too long as he ws out for a 31 ball 32. Gautam Gambhir fought his way to a rather edgy 54, but there was nothing much else from the Delhi batsmen as they were bowled out for 202 against group leaders Karnataka. R Vinay Kumar took 4 wickets for Karnataka, and he was well supported by HS Sharath with 3 wickets and Sreyas Gopal with 2. Karnataka ended the day at 2 without loss.
In their must-win game against Jharkhand, Punjab got off to a blistering start as they ended day 1 at 380-4. Their effort was led by openers Manan Worah who smashed 187 in quick, well supported by his partner Jiwanjot Singh who made 78. Uday Kaul and Yuvraj Singh also chipped in with a few runs. Jharkhand need to take at least the first innings lead to stay out of relegation.
Haryana and Odisha are also in the relegation zone, and Odisha, despite 94 from opener Gurjia Rout, Odisha ended the day at 221-9, with India legspinner and Haryana skipper Amit Mishra taking 4 wickets, well supported by his spin partner offy Jayand Yadav who took 3.
Group B.
Bowlers dominated proceedings in group B games as well, nowhere more so than in the Saurashtra Services game. Electing to bat, Services were bowled out for only 72 in 21 overs as Saurashtra spinners Kamlesh Makvana and Dharmendra Jadeja shared 9 wickets between them. Saurashtra openers overtook that score, but then Services hit back through their parttime bowlers Yashpal Singh who took 5 wickets and Rajat Paliwal who took 3. Despite Sheldon Jackson scoring 52, Saurashtra collapsed from 80 without loss to 176-9 by stumps. Saurashtra need a bonus point win to progress to the next round. Services need a win to stay in the group.
Malalan Rangarajan took 6 wickets and Rahul Shah took 4 as Bengal were bowled out for only 130 against Tamil Nadu in a must win game for both teams. Bengal hit back through their spinners, Irish Saxena and Sourashish Lahiri as TN ended the day at 66-6.
Group leaders Railways, assured of a quarter berth already, took control of their game against Uttar Pradishh as they closed the day at 301-4 with Arindam Ghosh batting on 89 and wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat on 83.
Rajasthan, playing without injured skipper Hrishikesh Kanidkar, yet again depended on Pankaj Singh, and the seamer took 4 of the 6 wickets as Baroda ended the day at 163-6. Aditya Waghmode is batting on 79.
Group C.
Tabletoppers Maharashtra got off to a good start against Assam, as Kedar Jadhav’s 128 helped them post 343-8 at stumps J Sied Mohammed took 3 wickets for Assam.
Jammu & Kashmir, needing a win or at least a draw with first innings points, encountered strong resistance from Tripura. Tripura ended the day at 176-3 as Yogesh Takawle made an unbeaten 82 and Abaz Ali is giving him company on 46.
Kerala seamer Sandeep Warrier took 5 for 38 as Hyderabad were bowled out for 201 in their first innings. Ashish Reddy, not getting regular opportunities this season, made 55. Kerala ended the day at 45-3 after their openers failed to score.
Goa, needing to win the game to progress to the next round and win promotion for next season, bowled Andhra out for 148 as spinner Amit Yadav took 6 wickets. Goa ended the day at 56-2 at close.

Round 9, day 2
Group A.
Iqbal Abdullah took 6 wickets, but handy contributions from the Gujarat lower order besides a half-century from opener Samit Gohel helped Gujarat to a 99 run first innings lead against Mumbai as there were bowled out for 253. Though Abdullah took 2 early wickets in his first spell and looked dangerous, Mumbai skipper Wasim Jaffer took him out and Gujarat lower order prospered before Abdullah returned to take 3 quick wickets to end the Gujarat innings. Mumbai ones again had a top order collapse in their 2nd innings, with Kaustubh Pawar, Aditya Tare, Jaffer and Suryakumar Yadav all back in the hut with only 76 on the board.
After losing 4 early wickets for 73 responding to Delhi’s 202, group leaders Karnataka recovered to 226-5 at close. Opener Karun Nair is batting on 92, and Stuart Binny, called up to the India ODI squad for the New Zealand tour made a 94 ball 88.
Rahul Dewan made an unbeaten 136 as Haryana, battling to avoid relegation, reached 294-2 at stumps, responding to Odisha’s 242. Sachin Rana is giving Dewan company on 83 and opener Avi Barot made 60.
Punjab made 516 in their first innings against Jharkhand, as Siddharth Kaul added a brisk 50 to the efforts of the top order yesterday. Jharkhand were comfortably placed at 173-2 with opener Rameez Nemat making 81 and Ishank Jaggi scoring 51. But they soon lost their way as Gurkeerat Singh took 4 wickets and Rajwinder Singh added 4 more as Jharkhand ended the day at 210-9.
Group B.
Saurashtra, after taking a 105 run first innings lead over Services, bowled them out for 136, thus setting a target of only 31 for themselves. They needed to take the bonus point as well, but opener Chirag Pathak fell 6 runs away from the target, and Saurashtra were forced to be contend with only 6 points, and that might just prove to be not good enough, as the Tamil Nadu Bengal is heading towards an outright result.
Tamil Nadu were bowled out for only 85 in their first innings as Arnab Nandy took 4 wickets. Bengal were then bowled out for 139 in their 2nd innings, setting TN a target of 185. After the first 3 inningses saw major collapses, Tamil Nadu batted much better in their 2nd innings, Dinesh Karthik opening the innings with Abhinav Mukund adding 72 for the first wicket. Dispite Mukund’s loss, Karthik remained unbeaten on 56 as TN closed the day at 102-1.
Rajasthan went in to this game with 3 debutants, and one of them, the number 3 batsman Suryaprakesh Suwalka made an unbeaten 70 and their rock of the season, opener Vineet Saxena, surviving a confident LBW appeal from Munaf Patel made 54 not out as they reached 156-1 against Baroda’s first innings score of 236. Munaf, who took the only wicket of the day for Baroda was clearly angry at the turning down of the appeal and he had a long argument with umpire Subrat Das.
Fog and bad light prevented any play between Railways and Uttar Pradesh.
Group C.
Left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar took 6 for 53 as Maharashtra bowled Assam for only 152 in their first innings. Despite taking a 209 run lead and in a position to enforce the follow-on, Maharashtra batted and ended the day at 16 without loss.
Skipper Swapnil Asnodkar made 80 and Amit Yadav chipped in with a crucial 51 as Goa ended their first innings at 267, 118 ahead of Andhra. Andhra lost 3 early wickets in their 2nd innings, ending the day on 32-3.
P Prasanth made 106 from number 9 and Robert Fernandez made 78, as Kerala were bowled out for 264, 63 ahead of Hyderabad. Hyderabad were 46-1 at stumps in their 2nd innings.
Tripura, the perennial strugglers of Indian cricket, posted 280 in their first innings against Jammu & Kashmir. Though opener Adil Rishi made an unbeaten half-century, J&K have lot of work tomorrow as they are not so comfortably placed at 117-3 at stumps.