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On day 3 of the Ranji Trophy final, Karun Nair batted and batted like the Duracell/Energizer bunny and is currently unbeaten at 318 (more than doubling his previous first class high of 151). Rahul scored 189 and Karnataka are at 618/7. Karnataka are going to repeat as champions.

Yes, Karnataka are a long way ahead of the rest of the Ranji field, and have dominated this year. They have some excellent young batsmen, and a very balanced bowling attack.

But the Ranji final exaggerates the difference between TN and Karnataka. TN batting first got the brunt of a lively pitch on the first day, and their excellent batting line-up (Vijay, Mukund, Aparajith, DK, Indrajith, Prasanna) couldn't cope.

Karnataka won the Ranji Trophy by beating TN by an innings and 217 runs. TN got two 411 with centuries from Vijay Shankar and Dinesh Karthik. Vijay Shankar was the bright spot batting wise this season. Aparajith needs to go back and work on his game and hopefully next year will be better.

The Irani trophy between the Ranji champs (Karnataka) and Rest of India is coming up. Here is the RoI team:

Rest of India: Manoj Tiwary (captain), Unmukt Chand, Jiwanjot Singh, Paras Dogra, Kedar Jadhav, Naman Ojha, Rishi Dhawan, Jayant Yadav, Pragyan Ojha, Shardul Thakur, Varun Aaron, Rush Kalaria, Baba Aparajith, Jalaj Saxena and Vijay Shankar. Coach: Lalchand Rajput.

Here is a take on the RoI selection:

Batsmen who have scored over 750 runs this season have been ignored while those who have averaged less than 30 have been selected. If a batting average of 29 and four wickets in an entire season can get a player into the Rest of India team, then there is something amiss in the approach of the selection committee. Mind you, all the selectors are paid handsomely with very good perks. They are expected to watch matches and they do watch them. However, when there is such evidence of inconsistencies, shouldn’t the BCCI hold them accountable for encouraging nepotism?

Source: Karnataka could serve well for other teams too by Makarand Waingankar

Yeah, I don't understand how Aparajith (implicitly referred to above) makes the team while SS Iyer (Agg: 809 Avg. 50.56) of Mumbai, for instance, misses making the RoI team. There must be some reward for playing well during the season. I can understand Dogra or Vihari who played in group C at the lower level not making the RoI team.

The top 10 batsmen in the domestics this season have been (qual 630 runs, by avg.): Dogra, Rahul, Vihari, Jaggi, Naman Ojha, SP Jackson, Gurkeerat Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Ganesh Satish, SU Srivastava.

Of these only Dogra and Ojha got rewarded with a Rest of India berth. I am not saying that all of these guys should be in RoI. For example, Jaggi is 26 and has had a mediocre-ish career in FC. So, this shows that the selectors are looking beyond this season. I believe Vihari should have been given a chance to play. He does play against the weaker sides. So, we should try him out against the big boys to see where he stands. He was after all an India U-19 player. So, he does have some talent.

The Irani Trophy match is interestingly poised at the end of day 2. RoI score 264 in response to Karnataka's 244 thereby gaining a lead of 20 runs. Varun Aaron was responsible for this lead thanks to a 25 at the end of the order. Aaron strikes early on the third day and Karnataka are 54/1 in the second innings. Looks like we will have a result in this contest.

Karnataka comfortably won the Irani Trophy, after a big 123 by Manish Pandey enabled them to put up a big 422, and the RoI top order were soon reduced to 65/5. The impressive young legspinner Shreyas Gopal then finished off the innings with four wickets for 39 runs. If we are looking for a classy test spinner, Shreyas Gopal is the obvious choice!

Invest in him rather than Chawla?

I would certainly not forget Piyush Chawla, as you know. He has been neglected, but is still good enough to be a decent test leggie -- given a proper run, like everybody else is given. (He has never played more than one test at a time, ludicrously). But if Chawla is (as he is now) forgotten by the selectors, the one guy who has shown very clear promise is Shreyas Gopal -- who will hopefully be groomed as a test leg-spinner, not one whose brain is addled by one-day cricket (like Piyush is, to some extent).

Thanks, PKB.

I think this season's FC matches are over. So taking stock.

Batting Leaders (qual: 600 runs, by avg.): Dogra, Rahul, Vihari, Jaggi, Jackson, Ojha, Gurkeerat.

Note: Yuvraj, Gambhir, and Sehwag had very good seasons.

Bowling leaders (qual: 25 wks, by avg.): Siva Kumar (Andhra), B. Mohanty, Kalaria, S. Purakayastha, SS Mangalorkar.

Given that we need a left-arm pacer, is Rush Kalaria any good?

Rahane's Laxmanitis : LoI Problems The place to fix his issues should be in the domestics.

Pujara is showing his commitment to test cricket by skipping the IPL (involuntarily?) and playing county cricket instead (for reigning champions Yorkshire). He started with a duck (against Worcs), but made 57 in his second match (ongoing, against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge).

Pujara gone for 23 in his latest innings, falling to Rankin of Warwickshire. So 0, 57, 23 in his three innings so far. Not pulling his weight!

In the last innings, his edge was dropped by the wicket-keeper and then claimed as a catch.

Pujara made 33 in the second innings of that match. So still failing to really make a mark this season -- although April is really too early for cricket in England (they've moved the season forward just to spite the IPL -- unsuccessfully of course, because SkySports has an IPL channel, but no channel dedicated to county cricket...).