by . Tendulkar should be banned from playing domestic cricket (atleast
that would give equal chances to other Ranji teams too - IMO,
Tendulkar is the only difference:o)
. Tendulkar said Paras Mhambrey to be in the threshold of breaking
into bigtime earlier. He really did lot of damage to that claim by
smashing Paras for 43 runs in first 4 overs (Btw, does Paras wear
glasses ?)
. Venkatesh Prasad bowled well considering the mood Tendu was in (he
had conceded 39 runs in first 8 overs) and had Tendulkar dropped by
Manjrekar (a tough chance to his left) and Prabhakar snicking...
. Paras bowled a bouncer at Kambli and had kambli in panic. The fun
was the ball did not come up to waist lever and had Kambli ducking
and weaving. (On the cue, against, Ind B, Ajay sharma brought in
Atul Wassan when Kambli came in). Kambli was definitely rattled by
Paras's bouncer and looked to bad-mouth Paras who just turned and
walked.
. Kambli was suspect against any bouncer. He hooked Robin Singh's
bouncer straight to Mazumdar who dropped it (an easy chance). Amol
would not have endeared himself with Azhar (who was sitting in the
sidelines with a book) with that dropped catch.
. Ok, now the contentious issue. More and more I see of Dravid, he
seems to be a better batsman. Has style and class and good on the
off. He seems to be technically better too. Its sad that he got in a
mix-up with Amol and got run out (Amol's call and I think the blame
is on both the bat, since they operated in start-stop mode !!!).
Could not see much of Amol anyways.
. Srinath was deadly in the match against Ind B. Worked up quite a
pace and bounce and could *sustain* throughout the first spell of
5-6 overs. (Pls note the word "sustain"). Bhup Singh (jr) was really
stupid to try and hook (pull) the ball that was almost good length
and rising. Did he think Srinath was Prabhakar ? (pace-wise). Got
hit on the nose and might miss the Ranji finals (looked more serious
after the hit)
. Ankola was a revelation...for just the first two overs...He strove
so much for pace and venom in the first two overs that after that he
was not much of a danger and Tendu had the measure of him. One over
from him was good. He bowled tendu of a no-ball (sadly) but Ravi
Shastri mercilessly said that did not count since he over-stepped !!
But the problem is Ankola could not *sustain* the pace and he was
dripping with sweat and tapered off.
. Ankola might be pissed off due to the fact that he was given out ct
behind of Tendu (after he hoisted Tendu for a six). He definitely
seem to think that it was a Mongia-Tendu act that got him out and
seems to have told Tendu on the way back...Maybe this fired him off.
. Nilesh Kulkarni - Hmmm...nothing much to say. I would say there were
two better left arm bowlers in the tournament so far - Utpal
Chatterjee and Raju (in that order).
. Indian (sr) fielding was consistently good that threw themselves
down at anything.
. This is no bias - of the young bats who scored - Vikram Rathore,
Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, definitely Dravid was impressive than the
two. Rathore seemed to be a good fielder at covers too. Dravid seems
to be a safe outfielder - He got the Kambli skier (off Utpal).
Currently my 14 would be:
Tendu, Prabhakar, Sidhu, Azhar, Kambli, Jadeja, Aashish Kapoor,
Mongia, Kumble, Srinath, Ankola, Venkatesh Prasad, Utpal and Raju.
Or they might drop Raju for another batsman (manjrekar or dravid).
Kambli will go to Sharjah on reputation (IMO).
Jadeja has done nothing wrong to be dropped.
Ankola definitely bowled better than Vaidya to get in.
Venkatesh Prasad has done nothing wrong to be dropped.
Today's match between A and B will decide these borderline cases.
--- Additions after A Vs B match -----------------
. Sanjay Manjrekar played a great innings (I saw the second 50). I
thought he paced it well, though he was intrumental in running out
Bahutule. He hooked Ankola for a six and also seemed to confident.
Was not wearing helmet. Manj now a certainity for Sharjah.
. Ankola did a lot of damage to his prospects (after a very good first
match), by bowling number of no-balls and wides during the crucial
period - when the run-rate required was run-a-ball and Ind A had 5
wkts on hand. He had to bowl with a shorter run-up and was
immediately removed from the attack.
. Dighe dropped a fairly simple catch reprieving Utpal off Ankola.
Would have made a diff since Utpal had just come in. Later Utpal
scored 11 runs to ease the pressure off. If Utpal had gone then, the
pressure would have been on the Ind A team.
. Seems Chatterjee bowled very ordinarily in this match. But he seems
to have some slogging capabilities which might get him selected
ahead of Raju for Sharjah
. Venkatesh Prasad (as reported) bowled well. 10 overs for 42 runs,
whereas Mhambrey 9 overs for 43 runs.
. Gavaskar's comment at the end of the match was that, "it looks like
the teams are evenly matched. The Ind Sr is vastly superior due to
the presence of Tendulkar. Take away Tendulkar, all the teams are
equally competent"
Ciao,
- gautham -