It was a good move by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
to postpone the start of the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals by two days
in order to give leading players the opportunity to play for their
states in the crucial games. So often in the recent past have the
Ranji Trophy knock-out matches been played without the national
players that the country's premier national competition has been
devalued and the fare dished out has, predictably enough, been
mediocre. There is no doubt that the participation of players like
Sourav Ganguly, Dinesh Mongia, VVS Laxman, Sanjay Bangar, Zaheer Khan,
Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Deep Dasgupta, Jacob Martin and Connor
Williams raised the level of the contests, and there was much good
cricket in the four matches.
The quarter-finals were not devoid of surprises, and the most emphatic
one was the manner in which Baroda scythed through Hyderabad. Granted
that Baroda are the defending champions and they had the home
advantage, but not even their most ardent supporters would have
expected them to win by an innings and 256 runs just 12 overs into the
fourth morning. After all, Hyderabad had done well in the league
stages, registering a comfortable 10-wicket win over Himachal Pradesh
in the pre-quarter-finals and having India caps Laxman and
Venkatapathy Raju supplemented by in-form players like Daniel Manohar
and A Nandakishore in their ranks.
Jacob Martin © AFP |
But, having tasted success last year, Baroda are no more the diffident
team under the shadow of Bombay and Maharashtra that they were for
long. Zaheer Khan produced a dream spell in the second innings that
backed up some admirable batting feats from Williams (157) and Martin
(271). At the moment, then, it must be said that Baroda look good
enough to take the title for a second year running.
Baroda's semifinal opponents Punjab were always expected to get the
better of Orissa, especially with the match being played at Mohali.
The presence of Shiv Sundar Das and Debasis Mohanty had much to do
with this eastern state making the semifinals for the first time last
year. The two were around this year too, but Punjab were a superior
all-round side. With Ravneet Ricky, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh,
Pankaj Dharmani and Dinesh Mongia in their ranks, they never let slip
the slim advantage that the two-run first innings lead gave them, and
purposeful batting and incisive bowling saw them complete an emphatic
243-run victory that should do a world of good for their confidence
against Baroda.
Sanjay Bangar © CricInfo |
On the face of it, Railways defeating Tamil Nadu by eight wickets
would also seem to be a surprise. But on closer scrutiny, it cannot
accurately be termed as such. Railways, after finishing runners-up
last year, are a very different team. Their confidence is at an alltime high, and the side today is very different from the one that lost
three times successively to Tamil Nadu - in 1972-73, four years later,
and then in the title clash in 1987-88. Of course, they are also a
much stronger side now, with Sanjay Bangar, Murali Kartik and
Harvinder Singh, besides the in-form JP Yadav and the evergreen Yere
Goud in their ranks. They bat well down the order and have a wellbalanced attack. The manner in which Bangar (212) held the innings
together was exemplary and, riding on such feats, Railways must fancy
their chances against Bengal. For Tamil Nadu, it was a match to forget
in a hurry, with both the batsmen and bowlers failing to come good
when it mattered the most.
In making the semifinals for the first time since 1993-94, two-time
champions Bengal put up a commendable show in prevailing over Gujarat
on the back of a slender first-innings lead. Only 32 runs separated
the teams after the first innings, and there was time for Gujarat to
come back into the game. But the manner in which Bengal shut them out
of the match by splendid batting in the second innings was admirable.
And while the established stars like Deep Dasgupta, Rohan Gavaskar,
Devang Gandhi and Sourav Ganguly did their job, it was the
performances of Subhomoy Das (77 and 107) and Sanjib Sanyal (123 and
92) that played a vital role in Bengal's victory.
The two semifinals promise to be engrossing affairs, and with all the
leading players taking part, the high standard of play is bound to be
maintained.