Niraj Patel is without doubt in The Zone. After being the top scorer, tally 735, in the Ranji four-day league, Niraj — with his classical play and technical perfection — was dubbed Test material. But after scoring 234 runs from his three outings in the one-day Ranji tournament, he has proved his versatality.His flawless 111 (146 balls, 15x4) against Baroda helped Gujarat record a vital win and suddenly he is being seen as the ideal man to play the sheet anchor in one-dayers. Comparisons with Rahul Dravid, or, say Yousuf Youhana may sound naive but not out of place.Such lofty praise is not new for Niraj, who four years back was seen a certain India prospect. Part of the Under-19 team which won the World Cup, which threw up stars like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, Niraj was in the national spotlight. He did feature in the Challengers one-day tournament but that was all as there was a sudden dip in form.Ask him if the pressure was too tough to handle and he replies in the negative but concedes that it was a ‘‘bad phase’’. Not eager to look back he is keen to talk about the future. ‘‘I am not doing anything different from what I was doing earlier. I am just trying to concentrate more. I have learnt to plan an innings in a matured way,’’ he says.It’s a typical case of a promising junior finding his feet at the senior level after initial setbacks. Yuvraj and Kaif too learnt the same lesson and Niraj’s teammate Parthiv Patel too is trying to deal with ‘‘too much too soon’’.That brings us to the all-important question: Is an early international break for a promising junior risky?But national selection committee chairman Kiran More doesn’t agree. ‘‘There’s nothing wrong in giving youngsters a chance at the highest level. That will do more good than harm,’’ says More.Gujarat coach Anshuman Gaekwad, with all his international experience, too agrees with Niraj. ‘‘If a youngster is focused and confident about what he is doing, then why not?’’ he asked.That brings to the second question: Should Niraj, with is classical style, be risked in the slam-bang one-day version? Gaekwad, once again, answers in the positive. ‘‘Players like Niraj, who gives more importance to the technicalities of the game, are required to hold an innings together even in one-dayers. They won’t put a wrong foot forward even under pressure,’’ he says.To emphasis his point he gives the Dravid example. ‘‘When I was the coach of the national team I said that Dravid will make a very good one-day player and now see,’’ he adds, driving his point home.MP record winBrief score: Vidarbha 248/9 (F Fazal 100, A Naidu 37, S Khare 53; S Pandey 4/41, S Pitre 2/41) lost to MP 249/2 (N Ojha 93, A Ali 125 n.o.; R Shahne 1/25).Full points for Mumbai Brief scores: Mumbai: 260/6 in 50 overs (V Mane 86, A Muzumdar 96, N Shetty 48) bt Saurashtra 240/8 in 50 overs (S Kotak 51, P Bhatt 41, R Dhruve 58).Big win for TNBrief scores: Tamil Nadu 342/8 in 50 overs (V Shivaramakrishnan 123, S Badrinath 65 ) bt Andhra Pradesh 198/8 in 50 overs (H Vatekar 48.)Easy for PunjabBrief scores: J and K 157 (S Salaria 43, I Singh 40; G Singh 3/12, Sanwal 3/56) lost to Punjab 158/2 in 27.4 overs (R Sodhi 62 n.o., Y Singh 63).Services down HaryanaBrief scores: Services 207/6 (Yashpal 79, N Singh 30, S Mishra 32 n.o; J Sharma 2/41, S Rana 2/43) bt Haryana 164 (D Joon 43, J Sharma 29, S Rana 25; Ghag 4/20, Mohammad 3/17).Rajasthan beat RailwaysBrief scores:Rajasthan: 243-6 (A Jain 83, N Gehlot 69,, J P Yadav 3-42, Harvinder Singh 1-45) bt Railways: 240 (J P Yadav 48, S Bangar 41, S Khanolkar 76 n.o, S Mathur 3-39, V Shinde 3-31, A Dave 2-33)Dhawan hits ton, Delhi winNadaun: Shikhar Dhawan scored an unbeaten 131 and Amit Bhandari bagged 5-36 as Delhi defeated Himachal Pradesh by 107 runs to claim a bonus point. Delhi required a big win today after their loss to Punjab in the last match to stay in contention.Brief scores:Delhi: 266-4 in 50 overs (S Dhawan 131 n.o, Rajan Gupta 76) bt Himachal: 159 in 42.4 overs (A Bhandari 5-36).
