Indian domestic cricket/ players

[Kumar]

Eden Apple Tom , 17 year old from Kerala got 6 wickets in his first match against Meghalaya
Last week. This week he has one wicket

Rahane, Pujara, Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull all fails this week

Sarfaraz a lone warrior for Mumbai … seriously why is he not in the test team?
Gani on verge of second century! What is pathway for players from plate league to garner attention? Switch teams?
Baba brothers score century for TN

My guess, this Ranji will have lot of players with very high averages skewing selections. This abbreviated format is not a very good idea. Should have played the original format

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Eden Apple Tom , 17 year old from Kerala got 6 wickets in his first match against Meghalaya
Last week. This week he has one wicket

Rahane, Pujara, Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull all fails this week

Sarfaraz a lone warrior for Mumbai … seriously why is he not in the test team?
Gani on verge of second century! What is pathway for players from plate league to garner attention? Switch teams?
Baba brothers score century for TN

My guess, this Ranji will have lot of players with very high averages skewing selections. This abbreviated format is not a very good idea. Should have played the original format

May be through Duleep Trophy and if they perform then India A

[PKBasu]

In the second round of Ranji matches, there were good outright wins for Punjab (over Haryana) by 10 wickets, Bengal (over Hyderabad) by 72 runs, Mumbai (after conceding a big first innings lead to Goa) by 119 runs, Saurashtra (over Odisha) by an innings and 131 runs, Karnataka (over J&K) by 117 runs, Kerala (over Gujarat) by 8 wickets, Madhya Pradesh (over Meghalaya) by an innings and 301 runs (!!), Uttar Pradesh (over Assam) by 6 wickets, Uttarakhand (over Rajasthan) by 299 runs, and Jharkhand (over Delhi) by just 15 runs in a pulsating match.

Among the star performers were Karun Nair (175 and 71*), left arm spinners Shahbaz Nadeem (5/58 and 5/83), Mayank Mishra (career-best 11/70 for Uttarakhand), Dharmendra Jadeja (11/136 for Saurashtra) and Shams Mulani (career-best 11/167 for Mumbai, plus 50 with the bat), Chirag Jani (235 for Saurashtra, for whom skipper Unadkat also had 4/50 and 2/42), and allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed (40 and 51, 1/21 and 3/41 for Bengal). Pujara failed. Rahane made 0 and 56, while Sarfaraz Khan made 63 (top score out of 163) and 48. Yash Dhull failed after his brilliant debut in the previous match.

[vidhyashankar]

Rohan Kunnummal scored century in both innings to lead Kerala to victory over Gujarat. He has scored 3 consecutive hundreds in first class matches and has played only 4 matches.

[PKBasu]

Madhya Pradesh and Kerala have 13 points each (from two outright wins, one each with bonus points) and will play off with each other to top Elite Group A. Rohan Kunnumwal has indeed made a century in each of the 3 innings he has played for Kerala this season (including 107 in the first match against Meghalaya).

Bengal are likely to win Group B: they have 12 points, with Hyderabad second with 6 points. This year's truncated Ranji trophy gives each team just 3 group matches, and only the toppers of each group qualify for the QF (actually 7 of the 8 toppers qualify for the QF; the group winner with the fewest points in the group stage will have to play against the Plate group winner to determine which of them goes to the QF). Uttarakhand in Group E are similarly placed (like Bengal), with 12 points -- 6 clear of second-placed Rajasthan (while AP and Services are out of contention).

Mumbai has 9 points and Saurashtra 8 in Group D, despite Mumbai's spectacular come-from-behind win over Goa. Karnataka (Group C) also has 9 points, but is 3 points ahead of 2nd-placed J&K. Punjab (10) is just ahead of HP (8) in Group F. In both Group G and H, there are 3 way fights: Maharashtra, UP and Vidarbha (on 8, 7 and 6 points respectively) in G, and Chhattisgarh (7), TN (6) and Jharkhand (6) in H, with Delhi (1) almost out of contention.

[PKBasu]

Sarfaraz Khan again top-scored for Mumbai -- as he has in 3 of the 4 innings Mumbai have batted in this Ranji season. Since he and Rahane were playing for (hence against) the same team(s), we have had a perfect experiment. Rahane made a duck in this innings, his second of the 4 innings. Rahane top-scored in the second innings against Goa (56, to 48 for Sarfaraz), otherwise has been heavily outscored by Sarfaraz (who made 275 against Saurashtra, to 129 for Rahane, and top-scored with 63 in the first innings against Goa, an innings in which Rahane got a duck). Sarfaraz also top-scored in one of the 2 innings he played for India A against South Africa A (71*).

Sarfaraz Khan averages 77.74 now after 22 first class matches -- the best batting average of any batsman who has played more than 20 matches since Don Bradman. How is he not in the Indian team??

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Sarfaraz Khan again top-scored for Mumbai -- as he has in 3 of the 4 innings Mumbai have batted in this Ranji season. Since he and Rahane were playing for (hence against) the same team(s), we have had a perfect experiment. Rahane made a duck in this innings, his second of the 4 innings. Rahane top-scored in the second innings against Goa (56, to 48 for Sarfaraz), otherwise has been heavily outscored by Sarfaraz (who made 275 against Saurashtra, to 129 for Rahane, and top-scored with 63 in the first innings against Goa, an innings in which Rahane got a duck). Sarfaraz also top-scored in one of the 2 innings he played for India A against South Africa A (71*).

Sarfaraz Khan averages 77.74 now after 22 first class matches -- the best batting average of any batsman who has played more than 20 matches since Don Bradman. How is he not in the Indian team??

Still he is in not in contention as this team management is planing for Gill taking the middle order spot after Shreyas / Vihari fails.

[prasen9]

After three matches in the league phase, the following are the batting leaders in the Elite Group with their averages in parenthesis (qualifying average: 125):

Mandeep Singh (179), Manish Pandey (163), Y Dubey (141), Kunnumal (139), Sarfraz (138), Wadkar (136), KK Nair (126).

Bowling (qual: 15 wickets, by avg.):

Mayank Mishra (10), Prasidh Krishna (12), Ravi Teja (15), Baltej Singh (15), Mulani (16), Gaja (19). Sarwate (19).

Obviously, we cannot draw any serious conclusions from three matches except that Mandeep, Manish, Sarfraz, Karun, PK among the India exes and probables are in good form.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

No Ishan Kishan for Jharkhand in Pre Semi against Nagaland. Thats how IPL money makes a player to neglect all important four day domestic cricket.

IPL is starting from 26th March. He could have easily played the game. BCCI should go hard against the ego of these young fringe players who are destroying the system

[PKBasu]

All the Ranji knock-out matches will be played in Bengaluru. What an excellent bit of planning. It is too hot in most of the country in June, but it is still quite pleasant in Bangalore (24-33C), so perfectly possible to play 4- or 5-day cricket. I just hope that Bangalore has 4 good first-class grounds to host the 4 quarterfinals simultaneously.

The QFs will start on 4th June, and will involve: Bengal vs Jharkhand, Mumbai vs Uttarakhand, Karnataka vs Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab vs Madhya Pradesh.

[PKBasu]

Pujara has made a decent start for Sussex in the county championship (second division), with scores of 6 & 201*, and 109 & 12 in his first two matches, both of which Sussex lost. Pakistan's Mohammed Rizwan is his team-mate.

[PKBasu]

Pujara has been sent in at #5 in his 3rd game for Sussex, and is enjoying that role. At tea on the second day, he is 88* off 142 balls.

[Atithee]

If only Pujara learned to reduce the dot balls, he’d still be a great candidate for the team.

[PKBasu]

Pujara's scores in county cricket this year for Sussex: 6 & 201* (saved the match); 109 & 12 (as his side lost); 203 (big first innings lead as a result, but bowlers couldn't take 20 wickets); 16 (ongoing match). Still averaging 109.4 despite the latest failure.

[prasen9]

Phenomenal. But effectively in the second division though.