Indian Domestic : Season 2012-2013

First topic message reminder :

Irani Trophy is out of the way....Challenger is ongoing.......Duleep Trophy will start soon and then the entire Ranji season with a new 3 group and 2 tier structure.
In between there are A tours........India A in NZ and then Eng-A side comes to play India-A.

It warrants a separate thread

Besides Jadeja, the good all-round showings came from HP youngster Rishi Dhawan who took 36 wickets and scored 497 runs including 2 hundreds. Parwez Rasoll, the J&K all-rounder, scored over 500 runs and picked up 33 wickets.
Stuart Binny scored useful runs for Karnataka, scoring almost 600 runs so far in the season, but he would like to achieve greater consistency and impact with the ball.

J&K's Parwez Rassol has been rewarded for a good Ranji season as he's one of the 14 players selected to play a warm up OD against England. Besides Rassol, Ishwar Pandey, the season's highest wicket taker has also been selected. S Sreesanth, who returned after an injury lay off for a year is also selected after he did well for his Ranji team Kerala. Paras Dogra, Jalaj Saxena and Rishi Dhawan are also rewarded for their good Ranji showing.
The national selection committee selected no player from those teams that have made it to the knockout stage of the Ranji, and I think that is absolutely the right call.

Oh, and at the end of the group stages, we had a couple of retirements as well.
Sanjay Bangar, the Railways captain and former India opener announced his retirement after Railways failed to make it to the next round. But the team provided Bangar a nice send off by winning their last match against Bengal.
The other retirement was that of Vidarbha's (formerly Mumbai/Maharashtra and briefly India) leggy Sairaj Bahutule.

Sachin plays for Mumbai against Baroda in the QFs.

Baroda feature Yusuf Pathan, who has only played 1 game all season for some reason.

Shelsey Yusuf was injured but is back for the knockouts. But his brother Irfan continues to be unfit.

Quarter-Finals were played today:

- Jharkhand 310-6 v Punjab. Harbhajan Singh 1-90
- Mumbai 524-6 v Baroda. Jaffer 150, Sachin 108, Nayar 122*
- Saurashtra 469. Karnataka 45-0
- Uttar Pradesh 134. Services 263. UP 138-4

SRT scored a ton yesterday.

Thanks shelsey for keeping it going.
Services are closing in on an upset win over UP. They need to chase 113, this game should be over today.

Services are the first side through to the semi finals, beating UP by 5 wickets.
It was a fine effort from a team from group C. UP had come into the knockouts winning 4 matches outright and topping group B. They had a pretty good bowling lineup as well.
Services captain Saumik Chatterjee picked up a serious knee injury during the UP first innings and wasn't expected to bat. But braving all odds he came out at number 11 to try and extend the lead. He could barely walk to the middle and lasted only 1 ball.
So it was a massive surprise when he came out at 7 when the Services chase of 113 was floundering at 50-5. Not only did he come out to bat, but scored an unbeaten 34 to carry his side through to the semis, despite struggling to hold himself up throughout that innings. As they say, soldier, first, and a very brave one to the very core.

Karnataka 396 (Pandey 177, Uthappa 60, Makvana 3-91) trail Saurashtra (toss) 469 (Vasavada 152*, Jackson 83) by 73 in Rajkot

Baroda 167 for 5 trail Mumbai (toss) 645 for 9 decl. (Jaffer 150, Nayar 132, Tendulkar 108, Tare 64) by 478 in Mumbai

Punjab 150 for 1 (Jiwanjot 77*) trail Jharkhand (toss) 401 (Jaggi 132, Nemat 100, Ladda 4-118) by 251 in Jamshedpur.
Saurashtra have a crucial 73 run first innings lead over Karnataka. Cheteshwar Pujara and co would want to bat through the day tomorrow to take the game away from Karnataka altogether. Manish Pandey's hundred was his first of the season.
Baroda are struggling against Mumbai. They had a hundred run opening partnership and then proceeded to lose their way. Ambati Rayudu, who has been struggling with some fitness issue could bat only at 7, but he's the only hope for Baroda.
Punjab are replying strongly to Jarkhand, with Jiwanjot Singh, the young opener on his debut season leading the way yet again. The first innings lead could be decisive in this match, as bad light has already taken away a significant part of the game.

Msp - what do you know about Suraj Yadav who bowled Services to the win? I only ask because he's a medium-pacer who averages 23.75 after almost 20 games - there aren't many Indian seamers with those kinds of stats. (Awana averages 29, B. Kumar 26, U. Yadav 26 and Dinda 30)

Shelsey,
Suraj Yadav was not among the noted seamers in Indian cricket. But he has had a fine season so far, and perhaps greater recognition would follow.
Services hasn't been doing all that great up untill now, now that they've made it to the last 4, Yadav's and also young batsman Rajat Paliwal's performances might gain the deserved attention.
Since most of the matches aren't available on TV, I haven't seen Yadav bowl, hopefully he would be one for the future.

ladda 4-118

is that the same Ladda who plays for KKR in the IPL?

Yeah he's the same.

Today Mumbai bowled Baroda out for 271 to take a huge first innings of 374 and then batted on and are pretty much through to the semis. Ambati Rayudu was the only Baroda batsman who showed some application and remained not out on 89. Kaustubh Pawar and Hikan Shah scored 50s for Mumbai in their 2nd innings.
Saurashtra extended their lead over karnataka to over 500, thanks to a brilliant firey double hundred from Cheteshwar Pujara who did no harm to his ODI chances through some quick scoring throughout the day.
Young opener Jiwanjot Singh continued his dream debut season by scoring his 5th hundred of the season and Taruwar Kohli who is playing his first game of the season added another hundred of his own to take Punjab almost through. Mandeep Singh has also made a solid contribution and they still have lots of batting to come after having taken the crucial first innings lead.
So the 5th day looks rather pointless. Perhaps Mumbai and Saurashtra will declare and go for an outright win.
Mumbai vs Services, Saurashtra v Punjab. That's the semi lineup.

Triple century for Pujara today, off 356 balls, to follow up his double century in the previous round. He's in decent touch before the ODI series anyway...

I can't take Indian domestic cricket seriously, sorry.

They bat on sections of the autobahn that have been removed from Germany and placed in the middle of cricket stadiums.

If a seamer starts taking a shedload of wickets at sub 20 I might sit up and take notice, but in the meantime I will continue with my sleep.

Pujara scored 352 eventually. A fine performance from him, and Gautam Gambhir has all the more reasons to watchout, produce the goods soon or perish.

The semi finals have started today.
Saurashtra are 274-5 against Punjab. Captain Jaydev Shah scored 87, and Sheldon Jackson is unbeaten on 70. Veteran Poopie Kotak scored 54 at the top of the innings. For Punjab, SiddharthKaul picked up 2 wickets. Harbhajan Singh picked up 1-59 in 15 overs.
In the other match, Domestic heavyweights Mumbai had to encounter a very strong challenge from Services. Mumbai finished the day at 199-6 with captain Ajit Agarkar and wicketkeeper Aditya Tare at the crease. Mumbai had lost 3 early wickets, but an attacking 56 from Sachin Tendulkar and a solid half-century from Mumbai's go to man this season, Abhishek Nayar saved the day somewhat for them.
For Services, Suraj Yadav and Shahdab Nasar picked up 2 wickets each.

At the end of day 2 of the semi finals, Punjab are 41 without loss, replying to Saurashtra's 477 allout. Jiwanjot Singh is as solid as ever on 11, but it has been his partner Ravi Inder Singh who has done much of the scoring, not out on 30.
Saurashtra's innings was built on the foundations of Poopie Kotak's 54 at the top and skipper Jaydev Shah's 87. But It was Sheldon Jackson's 107 and Kamlesh Makvana's 85 that carried on the early advantage and provided them a solid score. Siddharth Kaul took 3 wickets for Punjab so did Surabhjit Ladda. Harbhajan Singh took 2.
After matching up to the domestic bullies Mumbai on the first day, Services ran out of steam on a bad light affected 2nd day as they failed to dislodge overnight batsmen wicketkeeper Aditya Tare and captain Ajit Agarkar throughout the 65 overs possible on the day. Agarkar is batting on 113 and Tare on 108 and Mumbai are comfortably placed at 380-6, a far cry from 169-6 when Agarkar joined Tare yesterday.

lol it still amuses me that somehow Ajit Agarkar is captain of the side!

Ajit Agarkar is an enigmatic cricketer!.

Bad weather ment no play for the day in the semi final match between Mumbai and Services.
But in the other semi, Saurashtra has strengthened their grip on the match. Responding to Saurashtra's 477, Punjab started, and their run machine of the season, opener Jiwanjot Singh and his opening partner Ravi Inder Singh put together a hundred partnership up front. Both failed to push onto their hundreds, and then Punjab collapsed spectacularly from 246-3 to 294-9. Offspinner Vishal Joshi took 4 wickets, while left-arm seamer Jaidev Unadkat picked up 3.
Punjab skipper Harbhajan Singh is batting on 29, having refused many singles batting with number 10 and 11. Harbhajan would be hoping he could cut down on Saurashtra's lead as much as possible. But it is with the ball that Punjab need their captain to lead from the front if a superb start to the season is not to be allowed to slip away.

Mumbai are the Ranji champions for the 40th time, defeating Saurashtra by an innings and 115 runs. Wasim Jaffer with a first innings ton for Mumbai, and Dawal Kulkarni and Ajit Agarkar were superb with the ball. No real fight from Saurashtra, 148 in the first innings, and 82 in the 2nd innings.

It's interesting to see Rishi Dhawan, Jalaj Saxena, Parvez Rasool, Pandey ( seam bolwer) were all rewarded with place in A sides....and also IPL berths

Delhi won the Vijay Hazare OD tournament, and Gujarat are the Syed Mushtaq Ali T-20 champions.
That concludes the Indian domestic season.
Now of course is the IPL time, a domestic tournament of a kind.

I hope the young players who emerged during this domestic season are able to perform well during the IPL. But at the same time I also hope they would stay grounded and would have a clear idea about their priorities.

msp83 wrote:I hope the young players who emerged during this domestic season are able to perform well during the IPL. But at the same time I also hope they would stay grounded and would have a clear idea about their priorities.

No one makes it big internationally without performing in FC / A-tours.......IPL is merely a spotlight to fasttrack the FC and A series performers

there is way too much focus on the IPL....

International test match call ups shouldnt be based on IPL performances...they should be based on f/c apperances- 4 day games...etc.