Indian domestic cricket/ players

[prasen9]

You are right. Pieter Malan's visa issues have been resolved. So, they do not need the cover and they obviously prefer him to Vihari because of the latter's and generally this generation of Indian batsmen's inability to play swing and pace.

[jaydeep]

Manoj Tiwari's first interview (on rediff) after winning election.

Cricket to MamataDi: Manoj Tiwary's Journey

[prasen9]

I am so glad that Manoj clearly said that BJP's politics does not jive with his values. My parents now live in Howrah Shibpur and that is where home is now, although I grew up in Hugli. Our house was always in Shibpur where we would spend the three school holiday months as kids ...

Go Manoj. Now, if he can get some stuff done and not get bogged down by the petty politics of who can grab how much from the exchequer that will be great! He seems like a nice, straight-forward guy. He said he wants to do something for the youth and sports and give something back. Good. He good the sports ministry as he should have. Sports projects should, in principle, be non-contentious. And, he being a sportsman of some repute should hold some sway in making things happen. Let's hope.

[PKBasu]

I too have a Shibpur connection. My mother's "mamarbari" is in Shibpur -- it used to be a large mansion (with two pukurs) at 1 Shibpur Road (called "Amrito Bati"). I have many fond memories of Shibpur, although getting there was always quite an ordeal -- as Howrah is really an overgrown village with nothing approaching the rudiments of town-planning.

My maternal grandmother's father (i.e., my great-grandfather) Dhruba Kumar Pal was Principal of Uttarpara College for 25 years; he taught Chemistry, but also had great interest in Physics, and worked closely with Prof JC Bose. Uttarpara College is now called Peary Mohan College in Uttarpara, close to where Sri Aurobindo gave his famous Uttarpara Speech (at Uttarpara Library). In fact the college is located at 1, Acharya Dhruba Pal Road, and there is a bust of my great-grandfather at the entrance to the college.

[PKBasu]

Correction, my ancestral home was at 21, Shibpur Road. (Couldn't correct it before the time for editing had passed). The house was demolished about a decade ago sadly. I bought some of the old memorabilia such as a grand four-poster bed that belonged to my great-grandparents. There is still a small road called Dhruba Kumar Pal Lane (probably shortened to DK Pal Lane by now) in Shibpur bazar. In Darjeeling, there is a road named after my great-granduncle (Dhruba Pal's brother) Dr Sisir Kumar Pal, on the road leading to the old Lowis Jubilee Sanatorium (where Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das spent his last few months, and died). It survived Subhas Ghising's attempt to de-Bengalify Darjeeling, because the road is called "Dr SK Paul Road"...

[Kumar]

Notable failures free first match Mushtaq Ali tournament - Prithvi Shaw, Mayank, Padaikkal, Umran Malik(58 runs in 4 overs)

Big success - Srihari Bharath, Manish Pandey

All round performance Abhishek sharma 7-3, 54 runs 163 strike rate albeit against puducherry)

Bowling - Harshal Patel 3-27, Avery Khan 3-18 (lower order bat) both of them getting their wickets in end overs when batsman were trying to hit out.

Some other performance, Gaikwad 50 runs of 30 balls, V iyer 37 off 24 balls and a wicket(he needs to move himself back to MO to make Indian team, Vijay Shankar 42 off 20 balls , but bowling mediocre, Hanuman Vihari 2-16 and 26 runs with 140+ strike rate, Rahane 75 runs with 138 strike rate

[prasen9]

Well, one off performances are usually flukes. We should look at the longer term.

[Kumar]

Well, one off performances are usually flukes. We should look at the longer term.

Yes, I understand. Want to see top performers

U think Harshal Patel is going to be successful in International arena. Something tells me that he looks primarily like death over specialist so far. Wondering if that skill set will take him far in into arena

[prasen9]

I have no idea. I am not a good human eye guy. I am usually a good numbers guy. Unless, I have watched someone a lot. But, I have not watched Harshal that much. He seems to be making some noise but expensive. Let him keep knocking on the door and we can then pick among the next gen.

[Kumar]

Today’s matches


Just noticed that Abhishek dharma is captain of Punjab and not Gill


Some of the big names and performances

V I yer 50 off 41 balls, and 2-13 off 2 overs
Ashwin Hebbar 103
Gaikwad 80 off 50 balls
Deepak Honda 50 off 28 (scored 75 off 39 day). Flopped big time in IPL for Punjab though
Tanmay Agarwala 97
Padaikkal 42 offf 44
Mayank 23 off 22
Harshal Patel 21 off 13 and 2-45 ( trying to get that all rounder slot ?) he opened for Haryana
Prithvi 14 off 16
Siraj 1-9 off 3 overs
Avesh khan 3-23
Nitish Rana 50 off 25

[Kumar]

Most runs

Ashwin Hebbar 221 SR 153
Gaikwad 212 SR 161
DJ Hooda 195 SR 189
M Vohra 190 SR 131
Tanmay Agartala 186 Sr 155

Big names
Rahane 146 SR 128 avg 48
V iyer 118 SR 134 avg 59
M pandey 137, 115 avg 45
Sanju Sampson 105 Sr 150 avg 105
KS Bharath 120 sr 114 avg 40
N Rana 82 sr 180 avg 82

Names like Mayank, Padaikkal , Prithvi are missing from this stats as their runs, average or SR is not in top

Bowling

CV Milind 12.85 avg, ER 9.82
S Kaul 7.27 avg, ER 5.18
Krunal Pandya, 8.66 ER 4.3
Avesh Khan, 14 avg, ER 7
Abhishek sharma 13.5, Er 6
U Malik 18.6, Er 9.08
Harshal Patel 17.9 ER 8.90
Siraj 13.4, Er 6.09

I guess the stats could fluctuate based on the ground. So these are probably not very useful



So far Y chahal has not done well,

[PKBasu]

Prithvi Shaw has failed in every match, and Rahane (who opened with him) has been in blazing form. Yashaswi Jaiswal too has failed, and Mumbai have lost two matches (to Karnataka understandably, but shockingly also to Chhattisgarh!!). Varun Nair has played a couple of good knocks for Karnataka.

[PKBasu]

The first stage of the Mushtaq Ali Trophy is complete, and the knock-outs will begin next week. The top team from each Elite Group (pool of 5) goes through to the QF. In addition, there is a PQF round, where the second teams from each group will play, along with the winner of the Plate group. Since there are only 3 PQF matches, one set of group winners play each other in the QF (Gujarat vs Hyderabad).

Maharashtra topped Group A, pipping Tamil Nadu on run-rate. Punjab finished 3rd. Ruturaj Gaekwad was in blazing form (and has been rewarded with a T20I call-up). Former Hong Kong captain Abhishek Rath top-scored for Odisha in a couple of games, but couldn't stop his side from finishing at the bottom of the pool.

Bengal topped Group B, ahead of Karnataka (who they beat in the final game yesterday). Mumbai finished third, with Shaw making 83 in the final game (after failing in all previous ones), and Rahane showing great form. Manish Pandey was in good form for Karnataka, as was Karun Nair. Baroda (led by Krunal Pandya) finished 5th in the strong group, surprisingly behind even Chhattisgarh.

Rajasthan topped Group C by a clear margin, with Deepak Hooda top-scoring in each match. Himachal was second, ahead of Jharkhand, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.

Gujarat topped Group D comfortably, and Madhya Pradesh (for whom Venkatesh Iyer top scored in each match) were second (beating Kerala on NRR). Panchal top-scored in 2 matches for Gujarat, Piyush Chawla was their dominant bowler in several matches and Nagwaswala got a 3-for in one match. Avesh Khan got a 3-for in one match for MP.

Hyderabad topped Group E, with skipper Tanmay Agarwal top-scoring for them in every match (and Siraj was key bowler in one match). Saurashtra finished second, with Sheldon Jackson (transferred back from Puducherry) their key batsman. Delhi finished third despite several excellent bowling performances by skipper Pradeep Sangwan (who, at one time, was an India under-19 star who outperformed Tim Southee in the junior world cup). UP finished 4th.

Vidarbha won the Plate group. Tripura finished second.

[Kumar]

PKB, when two teams are tied on the score, I think the head to head is used to terming tie breaker rather than NRR. I saw that Kerala made the pqf over MP becoz I’d their head to head win and same way TN made the QF, while Maharashtra has to play PQF

[prasen9]

Head to head is the first tiebreaker. If there is a three way then head to head does not work as well and we have to go to NRR.