Indian domestic season 2016/17

[PKBasu]

Parthiv (88) led Gujarat to victory over Bengal yesterday, so only Karnataka finished unbeaten in the group stage. Bengal played Shami instead of the young tyro KK Seth (from the India under-19 team) and Sayan Ghosh, the other big wicket-taker in the group stage. Shami went wicketless.
The top two teams from each group go through to the QF now, which will be played in Delhi on 13th March. Does Delhi have 4 worthy Cricket grounds to stage the matches??!

[PKBasu]

It turns out that the first two semifinals will be on Sunday 12th March, and then next two on 15th March, all in Delhi. That makes more sense: finding two appropriate grounds in Delhi should be possible, not 4!

[Varma]

It turns out that the first two semifinals will be on Sunday 12th March, and then next two on 15th March, all in Delhi. That makes more sense: finding two appropriate grounds in Delhi should be possible, not 4!

You mean, Quarter-finals?

-Varma

[PKBasu]

Yes.

[prasen9]

In the List-A season thus far, we have the following leaders.

Batting (qual: 274 runs, by avg.): Kohli, Karthik, Gurkeerat, Easwaran, Poddar, Rayudu, RD Gaikwad

Easwaran has been very good for Bengal in the LOIs and pretty good in FC cricket too (though not India-A-team good). Govinda Poddar just had a good year. Though, he has had a good LOI career too. Gurkeerat and Rayudu must be hoping for an injury here or there to be back in the ODI team. Karthik may be in the running after Dhoni retires as the wicket-keeper again. Maybe lower down the order, he may be fine. But, I think the selectors are already looking to blood Pant.

Bowling (qual: 12 wickets, by avg.): Pankaj Rao, Karnewar, S. Nadeem, Amit Mishra, Khejrolia, SN Thakur

Pankaj Rao is a 27-year old newbie. Total newbie, I mean. Karnewar is a slow left-arm spinner, 24. Nadeem has been knocking at the door. He is 27. Mishra is a much better LOI bowler than test bowler. He was just overplayed in tests and under-played in LOIs. Khejrolia is another rank newbie playing for Delhi at the age of 25. He has done well though as a left-arm seamer. We need a few of these. Hope he develops to something given that we have pretty much deserted Sran and Unadkat. Shardul is the other guy knocking on the door.

At the end, all you have to say is that this is garbage because of the small sample size. But, for the batsmen, it seemed to at least identify several of the decent bats. And, among the bowlers Mishir, Nadeem, and Thakur.

[PKBasu]

On Sunday, Baroda (helped by Krunal Pandya's 3/23 and 70 runs) beat Karnataka in the Hazare trophy QF, while Tamil Nadu beat Gujarat (who were without skipper Parthiv).

Today Jharkhand (with Nadeem returning 1/13 in 8 overs) beat Vidarbha quite comfortably, while Bengal won a high-scoring thriller making 320/6 in 49.5 overs against Maharashtra. Sudip Chatterjee (60* off 51 balls) steered Bengal home, helped by Anustup Majumdar (66 off 59), Shreevats Goswami (74 off 88) and Manoj Tiwary (40 off 50). I watched the early overs on TV, and was impressed by young left-arm pacer Kanishk Seth (who matched Dinda for pace, 130-136kph, and had good control of swing and length). Chatterjee seems to be diversifying from being a dour first-class grafter to a more accomplished List A player too.

[PKBasu]

So the first SF is tomorrow at the Kotla between Baroda and Tamil Nadu, while the other SF will be on the 17th between Jharkhand (led by Dhoni) and Bengal.

[prasen9]

PKB, what happened to Shreevats Goswami? He was supposed to be a great keeper-hard-hitting-bat too. He is the best batsman in List-As among the keepers. I do not recall anyone performing better than him in the List-As. But, how is his keeping now? I guess nobody really cares about domestic List-As. Ranjis and IPL are perhaps the only thing that matter I think we need to prepare for life after Dhoni. If Goswami's keeping is good, he should be tried for the A-team (List-As only) at least as a stopgap until Risabh's keeping improves.

[PKBasu]

He is a tidy 'keeper and a fine batsman. So he should certainly be in the mix for consideration as an India A 'keeper. The problem for him is that he is overshadowed in Bengal by Saha. But he is definitely a quality player.

[prasen9]

He is a better List-A batsman than Saha. If his keeping is acceptable, then he should be in the India-A teams ahead of Saha for the ODIs. We need Saha's keeping for tests, but, it may not be that important for ODIs. Goswami's hard hitting batting style should be more useful. Unfortunately, after the India U-19 matches, he has not been "rated" highly for whatever reason. Possibly the same reason why Pujara (or Vijay) never got a decent run in ODIs. Somehow they don't "look" great. And, have not done anything in the IPL.

[PKBasu]

Shreevats played for RCB in the first season of IPL, I think, and didn't set the Kaveri (Caurvery) on fire. He was in and out of the Bengal side thereafter, so his name naturally faded. In the past two years, he has fought back very well, and this year he has been spectacular (despite not being a certainty in the first-class side).

[prasen9]

Like I said, he is more of an ODI player. We should not mix the three formats, but, people often do.

[PKBasu]

I agree that we shouldn't mix formats, but Shreevats isn't just an ODI/List A player. He was dropped for one match this year, but in the six Ranji matches he played, Shreevats averaged 54.66. He has consistently got better in all formats, and should now be a contender for India A in all formats. He had 23 catches in 6 matches, so was doing reasonably well behind the stumps too (Saha had 3 catches in the one match he played).

[prasen9]

He is certainly good in the other formats. However, he is the best (at least most consistent at the domestic level) among the wicket-keepers in List-As. With respect to FC cricket, Risabh Pant has had a phenomenal season. While Sreevats' performance has been good, we cannot say that his FC batting is the best among the wicket-keepers.

[PKBasu]

Shreevats made 101 off 99 balls, and his partner Easwaran made 101 off 121 balls. Then Manoj Tiwary smashed 75* off 49 balls to take Bengal to 329/4 in the Hazare trophy semifinal against Jharkhand. Aaron 2/89 in 10 overs.