by Dear rsc indian crowd,
The recent thread on Bombay vs India is slightly crazy. The Bombay ranji side
has been one of the strongest in India and has been all time since intro
of cricket. I think , in 1906 when Hindus joined the national championship,
100% of Indian cricketers except habib (for middlesex), ranji (for london
county) and Mistry (for patiala) were Bombay based. I think that is only time
in Indian cricketing history they might have taken all-india on equal basis.
even in 1930s, Bombay team may have taken an all-india XI but may not have won.
in 1950s and 60s , they were probably india Xi, i draw attention to the
gujrat-bombay ranji match in 1960 with 9 Indian players and debutants sugwekar
and wadekar. They nearly lost to Maharashtra in next match but for the rookie
wadekar 's fighting 151 and ten and jack sticking with him.
The number of test players and even domestic stars are not enough for victory.
The team has to click as a team as well, play with heart and not alone on
basis of statistics. Stats show top 6 bombay bats excluding sachin with 50
plus ranji averages, can i expect 400 from each innings especially on indian
dead tracks. the stats also show the top 5 bombay bowlers with 20 odd
averages, so i can expect bombay to beat everyone by staedy 200 run, 7 wicket
margins and that does happen frequently, (only side in superleague with
4 wins).
Current Mumbai team playing as it is inspired by manjrekar and sandhu can
probably beat Indian team tired, dysfunctional and uninspired.
Well even during Bombay is 15 consec. wins period, they lost some matches
especially to Maharashtra, a no star team with only skipper borde in national
squad. Another collection of prob. only all-stars team called Holkar won
several ranjis and was in 8 consec. finals in 40s and 50s with skipper like CK
Nayudu tad over 50 at start of this period. Inspiritation prob. was the key.
in 1957, Nayudu (62 years old) haven't played in 3 years, lead a new
association called Uttar Pradesh with no body and took them to semis where they
lost fighting to Bombay, CK 's contribution was 22. 52 and 6 wickets in match.
During 77-92 period, delhi had 12 final entries inc 6 wins and many stars.
In that period 83-90, A small poor association with one person Kapil dev and
10 others won the northzone championship several times , reached final once to
be defeated by Delhi and reached again 4 years later to beat Bombay. Again, no
stars except Kapil and Chetan Sharma.
so the gist is, Bombay lead by manjrekar can defeat India lead by Tendulkar.
It's just the case of inspiration and a team applying itself to that goal.
Given, the selector statements , Bombay team would be riled up to prove itself
while Indian team would be overconfident and even suspicious of its skipper
with double motivations :-).
In all seriousness, Bombay stands a good chance of Ranji victory but I still
think Bengal will defeat them at eden gardens if bengal wins the toss.
Thanking You
Pranshu Saxena
p.s. India u-15 won Lombard cup under allegations that some players were
selected as they were children of officials and then some were overage. Nothing
helps than feeling to prove yourself against odds. Sachin and Indian team in
windies knows that. Expect a good series.