The battle of the south zone begin today at Chinnaswamy stadium Bangalore. Both teams failed to make any impression at the national level in the past 2 seasons. While Karnataka's strength was dented by retirements and players on national duty, TN suffered due to ICL. TN almost pushed Maharashtra to defeat while Karnataka managed to draw despite a second innings collapse (scorecard). They also conceded first innings lead to Railways. But unlike Group A, where Mumbai and Delhi registered good wins, none of the Group B contenders registered a win in the first round of super league round robin matches.
Coming to today's match, TN put up yet another good show on day 1 after winning the toss. The triple centurion at Nashik, Abinav Munkund, fell cheaply to Vinay kumar scoring just 8 runs. TN was tottering at 51 for three after losing Mukund, Badrinath for 7 and DK for 7. But the other opener Arun Karthik, who made is debut to replace Murali Vijay, scored 149 and shared a 246 runs stand with Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan who remains unbeaten at 115. At the end day's play TN is in a good position having scored 325 for the loss 4 wickets. They however can't relax and a lot depends on Vidyut and SS Kumar. They must carry on and eye a totall 500 to be gain in dominancy in the match.
Arun Karthik is 22 and looks like an aggressive batsmen. His century came in jsut 115 balls and his 149 took only 189 deliveries. Remember he is making a debut. Vidyut is doing a good job for TN. He is more consistent nowadays. IPL outing must have helped him. Surely IPL has some benefits and the notable one is Amit Mishra.
It seems DK has forgotten how to bat. His poor form continues. Badrinath's return must bolster TN batting, though he failed today. Long journey from Nagpur and getting dropped from the ODI side, that too replaced by his under study, must have impacted him.
L.Balaji has to come good for TN to win matches, not only here but in this season.
Sunil Joshi's distinction
The veteran Sunil Joshi has joined the 8 member elite club of 400+ wicket takers in Ranji trophy. Congratulations to him for the 400th and the long service. DK is his 400th wicket while current CoS, Kris Srikkanth, was his first wicket.
Top 10 wicket takers in Ranji Trophy
1. Rajinder Goel 637
2. S Venkataraghavan 530
3. Narendra Hirwani 441
4. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 437
5. VV Kumar 418
6. Bishan Bedi 402
7. Utpal Chatterjee 401
8. Sunil Joshi 400
9. Erapalli Prasanna 370
10. Venkatapathy Raju 367
Day 1 - Scorecard
Update - Day 2
TN ended the first innings at 531 and Karnataka were 82 for 1 at close of stumps. TN's left arm spinner Suresh picked up the lone wicket that of Chipli, who left the armer strike him plumb. Karnatak now faces a tough task of matching 531, with their skipper down with the viral fever and on drips. Balaji and Yomahesh must cash in early morning dew at Chinnaswamy stadium.
Day 2 - Scorecard
Update - Day 3
TN gained the upper hand by restricting Karnataka to 267 and gaining a big first innings lead of 264. Karnataka, following on, are 48 for no loss at the end of day 3. L.Balajhi picked up 3 wickets, Suresh 4 and Ashwin picked up 3 for TN in Karnataka's first innings. Only Raghu with a 76 managed a fifty for Karnataka. Robin Uthappa was out to a first ball duck, lbw B. Ashwin.
Karnataka has to bat the whole day tomorrow. TN has to make the morning dew work for them. Hope Balaji shines in the second innings too. There was a time when teams batted a whole day comfortably to draw match. But the advent bang, bang cricket resulted in more attacking play, more mistakes and less tenacity among batsmen today. It will be interesting to see how Karnataka fares tomorrow.
Final update
The match has ended in a draw with Karnataka scoring 269 runs for the loss 4 wickets. R.Ashwin picked up 3 wickets for TN. Karnataka was bit shaky at 181 for 4 with 30+ overs to go but Raghu and Pandey batted valiantly to earn a draw and a point. TN's batting looks good for the season but the bowling is short on delivery.
Scorecard
Elsewhere in the Ranji
Group A
Mumbai piled 486 with Wasim Jaffer scoring 192. Gujarat tottering at 77 for six at the close of play on day 2. D Kulkarni picked up 4 for Mumbai. Parmer picked up 6 for Gujarat. Gujarat thrashed Saurashtra in the first match and now suffering at hands of the big boy.
Final Update
Mumbai cleans up Gujarat for 44 in the second innings. All Mumbai bowlers share the spoils. Seems like a professional performance by them.
Scorecard
Saurashtra's top order failed yet again to provide a good start and lost 3 wickets for 27 and almost repeated their performance against Gujarat last week. But not this time said the resolute Pujara. They were 100 for 4 when R Jadeja joined Pujara. These two together put up a grand show against Orissa and remained unbeaten after adding 520 runs together. Saurashtra declared at 620 for 4 with Pujara scoring his 3 triple of the season and first in this Ranji season. R Jadeja scored a double. Orissa have made a quite beginning. They are 42 for 0 at close of play.
Update
Sourashtra has made Orissa follow on. Orissa is 4 for 0 at stumps with a whole day and 314 runs to match. Looks like Sourashtra will register a big win. They sufferred a huge loss in the hands of Gujarat in the first match. Today it was Gujarat's turn at the hands of Mumbai while Sourashtra looking to decimate Orissa.
Final update
Sourashtra wrapped up the match against Orissa. A confidence boosting win after the first match loss to Gujarat. Saurashtra trailing by 318 runs were bowled out for 234 with Jadeja, the first innings double centurion, picking up 5 wickets.
Scorecard
Delhi has some worries against Hyderabad. Hyd were all out for 334 with SA Pai scoring 130. Sangwan led the wickets tally for Delhi with 4 wickets. In reply Delhi are 124 for 3 with both openers Chopra and Dhawan back in the pavilion. Ashwin Yadav picked up 2 wickets. No idea about who he is though his name suggests that he could be the another son of the famous Shivlal Yadav playing for Hyderabad. Arjun Yadav continuing to lead Hyderabad with a first class average of around 28 with bat.
Update
Delhi surrendered the first innings lead to Hyderbad. They were all out for 284 with Ashwin Yadav picking up 6 for 52. Who is he? Offie form Shivlal's stable?
At close of play Hyderabad were 31 for no loss and has a lead of 81. But for some sterling performance by Delhi bowlers, this match is heading into a draw. It's going to be second draw for Delhi this season. With Mumbai, Punjab winning and Sourashtra looking to wrap it up tomorrow, Delhi has to lift itself in the coming matchs
Final Update
As expected the match ended in a draw. Hyd scored 230 for the loss of 3 wickets. Mithun Manhas picked up all three for Delhi while Ravi Teja scored 113 and remained not out for Hyderabad.
Scorecard
Punjab are in a strong position after taking a 129 run lead against Rajasthan in the first innings. Rajasthan likely to perform worse than their first innings (133 ao) and are in shamble at 57 for 6 at the of day 2. Gony and Gagandeep stared with ball taking 4 wickets each in the first innings. In the second innings Kakkar picked up 3 so far for Punjab. Now Greg is really having some problem with his presence, irrespective of the team is working for.
Final update
Punjab has wrapped up the match against Rajasthan pretty comfortably. They needed just 41 to win the match and scored them for the loss of one wicket. It was a team performance.
Scorecard
Group B
UP vs Baroda is almost even stevens with UP having just its nose ahead. Praveen Kumar for UP and Irfan for Baroda picked up fivers.
Update
UP took a 51 run lead against Baroda. Irfan finished with 6 wickets. In their second essay Baroda has responded well and are 239 for 4. They now have a lead of 188. What will they do? Declare with a lead of 220+ and declare? I think they should. For a draw they will only get 1 as UP took the first innings lead but if they set a sporting target, they may as well pressurise UP and win the match and pocket 6 points. What would Connor Williams do? Go for 6 man. I am looking forward to this result. Interesting 4th day's play on the cards
Final update
The match ended in a draw. Asked to chase 264 UP ended with 151 for 6. They were once 97 for 6 in 30 overs. After that Kaif and Wicket Keeper Amir Khan saved UP valiantly. Kaif scored 45 while Amir scored 7 of some 90 odd balls. Both remained not out. Irfan could manage only 1 wicket in the second innings.
Scorecard
Maharashtra is in a strong position against Andhra Pradesh after surviving the scare given by TN in their first match. AP were all out for 348 while MH are 205 for 1 at stumps on day 2. MH's seamer Fallah took 6 wickets while their opening batsman Khadiwale scored 103 and was the batsman to be dismissed. For AP Whatekar scored 142.
Update
This game is heading for a draw. With an overnight score of 205 for 1, Maharashtra were bundled out for 393. That's pathetic. They not only failed to score big but also consumed lot of overs to ensure a first innings lead. In the end they gained 45 runs lead and AP are 2 with out loss at stumps.
Final Update
The match ended in a draw. Andhra declared at 210 for 5 leaving 10 odd overs for Maharashtra to chase 166.
Scorecard
8 comments:
TN is on a roll this year what? Has Dhoni's association with TN rubbed off on them? :)
Let's hear a bit more about Arun Karthik. What a fine way to kick off, rather stright drive, your career!
Bala where is the telecast? My vacations will go waste...I planned to take in some Ranji!
DK will have to dig out the same character which brought him up. He, or any other keeper, may have to wait for at least two - three years, when Dhoni may give up his big gloves.
Badri is spiralling down and that's a worry.
Congratulations to Joshi.
It looks like SB but the true test will be against in form and strong teams like Mumbai and Delhi. But definitely the start is impressive.
Pujara scored a ton yesterday. That's a good one after the dismal performance against Gujarat in the first match.
I would say DK should take a break from cricket and come back. He must back himself to come back instead of feeling insecure and hanging on to the position. It applies to Dravid too if he wants to play for another few years. He will be better off taking a break from cricket and attempting a come back later.
Badri's form is worrying SB. That's where, I think, Vijay gained. He got the call when he is in touch. He was scoring runs when he got the call. Badri got the call based on past domestic record. He is a good batsman but do not seem to possess the temperament required at the highest level.
DK was caught after a shot he played bounced off the shoes of a close-in fielder and went to covers. Freakish dismissal one must say and one that needs to be filed along with "Sani Dasa" failure.
I wouldn't write Badri off so soon and Pujara hit another 300...watch out for him...
-Prabu
So true Prabhu. He must be going through proper "Sani Dasa". You are right we cannot right off Badri but then he may need few matches to settle down from the supposed highs and lows of his career in the last 6 months.
Pujara is in some form. I hope he makes it to the national side sooner. In fact Srikkanth said, he is keeping an eye on the youngster.
Wow! Great analysis, Balajhi. I'm curious now, are you watching these matches live? You certainly sound that way.
Thanks VM. In fact the last match I saw on TV was the Lankan series. My cable operator robbed me the BG trophy.
I just go by the scorecard and type whatever comes to my mind. On day I read the bulletin and posted. From yesterday onwards I am just going through the scorecard.
Btw, which team you support?
Wow, amazing man! I can understand your cable TV woes. Back when I was in Chennai, I had hathway and almost always got most of the channels, I paid for. If i couldn't sleep, I would watch some old match on Star Cricket, but now, in Bangalore, I can only watch what my cable operator deciedes for me. I am livid about this, but can't do anything about it for the moment. Fortunately he did not rob me of the BG trophy. Perhaps I shouldn't complain, but i miss my Star Cricket.
As for who I'm supporting, TamilNadu, because I hail from there, and Karnataka for Dravid and for the quality they have produced so far. Uthappa is a disgrace to Karnataka. Waiting for the next classy from Karnataka.
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