RANJI RAVES

Keen contests, deadly spells, blazing knocks, grudge games, banter and even sledging. Like in Australia, 8216;it8217;s all happening8217; in the premier domestic tournament across the country too. For those who were busy following Kumble8217;s men, The Sunday Express gives an unconventional run down of the Ranji season.

If anyone was researching the impact of Twenty20 on the game, checking the statistics of the 2007-2008 Ranji season would certainly help. As the domestic season kicked off within months of India winning the Twenty20 World Cup, big hits were the order of the day. A total of 155 sixes and 1850 boundaries were recorded before the Ranji final. That8217;s 251 more boundaries in comparison to last season.
Baroda8217;s Yusuf Pathan heads the list of batsmen with the highest strike rate of 110.12. With the exception of Hyderabad8217;s VVS Laxman, Karnataka8217;s Sudhindra Shinde and Bengal8217;s Laxmi Ratan Shukla, all batsmen with a strike rate of more than 60 are below 25 years of age. A total of 11 batsmen have managed 100 or more runs through fours and sixes. Tamil Nadu8217;s Murali Vijay heads the slam bang lists with 22 fours and seven sixes. Vijay8217;s seven hits over the fence, in fact, are the highest number of sixes hit in an innings this season8217;s Ranji matches.
And this urgency at the domestic level saw a few old myths shatter. Batsmen known for sedate and solid batting styles were 8212; as Delhi opener Aakash Chopra puts it 8212; letting their hair down. A few rare sightings this season were: Mumbai skipper Amol Muzumdar hitting a six, the usually restrained Chopra reaching 50 before his more aggressive opening partner Gautam Gambhir and Mohammad Kaif repeatedly hitting the ball out of the ground. Kaif8217;s eight big hits makes him the third on the highest 6s chart.
And the charge of the boys from the small towns of India continued this season, with bowling seeming to be their forte. Five of the top ten wicket-takers this season hail from places like Una, Davanagere, Rajkot, Meerut and Ghaziabad. After years of batting-dominated seasons, in 2007-2008 the bowlers repeatedly hit the headlines. With 27 outright victories, it seems that the days of marathon innings which led to lame first-inning leads are finally over.

Trials and travails
Saurashtra happens to be the only team this season that had an 8220;all games away8217; schedule. They started from the heights of Dharamshala, came down to less chilly but certainly wintry Delhi and moved to Jaipur for the first three games. This was followed by their biggest journey of the season 8212; a 2112 kms journey down to Mysore. Saurashtra played the quarter finals at Mumbai, celebrated new year at home and got knocked out in the semi-final at Baroda. All that meant they logged roughly 7000 kms for the season. But not once did any of the players complain of jet leg, airlines delay or getting stranded at the airport. They couldn8217;t have. Team Saurashtra travel by train.
Gujarat won the Plate final on an empty stomach. With Railways bowlers threatening to run through their rivals and Gujarat making a mountain of the 150 runs molehill target, the dressing room was tense. Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel recalls: 8220;We skipped lunch, we didn8217;t change the position in which we sat and not a word was uttered during the final stages of the game.8221; But with the score reading 131/7 and Railways getting a sniff of victory, there was a lot being said on the field. Gujarat leggie Jay Desai, who scored the most important 17 runs of his young career, says Murali Kartik and Sanjay Bangar did their best to psyche him. 8220;Things they said, I can8217;t repeat,8221; is Desai8217;s way of describing sledging.
But Desai had a final say and the last laugh too. After hitting a four off Kartik, the 20-year-old found his voice. 8220; Jaa ball leke aa,8221; he said to the veteran. Moments later he was perched on the shoulders of his teammates as Gujarat had won the Plate final.
With domestic cricket still getting used to 15 camera live telecasts, a few slip-ups are always on the cards. The in-camera toss for the Ranji semi-final between Baroda and Delhi at Indore saw match referee Rajendra Jadeja from Saurashtra in a head-tail confusion. Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir flipped the coin and his counterpart Connor Williams called heads. Heads it was, but Jadeja announced it was tails. Connor was shocked but the presence of television commentator and a veteran of such occasions, Arun Lal, saved the day. Lal8217;s intervention ended the confusion as Connor opted to bat.

Dressing down
When favourites Hyderabad lost to Orissa by 9 wickets at home, the players knew that a dressing down by the coach was to be expected. They dragged their feet as they headed to the hut all the while fearing coach Vivek Jaisimha8217;s strong words. Once inside, the players saw a funny sight. The coach was shouting at the top of his voice as the No.12, 13, 14 and 15 sat in a state of shock. With the playing XI taking time to reach the dressing room, the coach couldn8217;t control his fit of rage and extras had to bear the brunt.

Incentives
Just before the season started, the BCCI announced a Rs 10,000 hike in match fee for every Ranji game. While the Indian board settles its account with players at the end of the season, UP coach Gyanendra Pandey has an unique end-of-the-day incentive scheme. Players are promised shoes, T-shirts or glasses if they perform up to his expectations.
The final saw Pandey raise the stake. With UP struggling in the first innings, the coach threw the bait to No.10 Praveen Gupta. 8220;I will give you my mobile in case you score a 50,8221; said Pandey. Gupta was out for 27.

Bengal8217;s woes
Baroda versus Bengal isn8217;t a rivalry as old or famous as the one between Mumbai and Delhi but this East versus West has a past and a grudge factor too. Coach Paras Mhambrey moving from Bengal to Baroda just spiced up the tale. Last year, when Bengal knocked out Baroda in the semi-final, as if to make a point, the winning team8217;s pacer Laxmi Ratan Shukla mimicked a bodybuilder flexing his biceps. Such slights never fade from the memory of the defeated. So this time when the two sides met again, sparks were expected to fly. When all-rounder Yusuf Pathan reached 100, after he had taking five first innings wickets, he spotted Shukla in the field and flexed his muscles. Point made, score settled. Pathan went on to take 10 wickets in the game and scored 186 runs.
But Bengal was the biggest sob-story of the season. Runners-up of the last two seasons finished at the bottom of the table and were relegated to the Plate Division. The slide started during the game against Orissa at Siliguri. On a high after a win over Punjab at the same venue, Bengal opted for a green top. The move backfired as Orissa siblings Debasish and Vasanth Mohanty left the Bengal batsmen hopping and deeply scarred, inflicting a shock defeat. Moral of the story: Going green doesn8217;t always work.
Last season8217;s top wicket-taker Ranadeb Bose had a forgettable season for more than one reason. In a freak incident, the Bengal think-tank misspelt Ranadeb8217;s name in the official team list submitted to the match officials for the match against Uttar Pradesh at Eden Gardens. Uttar Pradesh didn8217;t protest, but the BCCI rulebook would have seen Bengal getting docked six points for this spelling error.
But Bengal bungled again. There was one name missing when the team list was submitted for the game against Punjab. Who did they miss? You guessed it right. It was Ranadeb again.

Mysterious Maharashtra
Mysterious Maharashtra very easily qualify as the most enigmatic team of 2007-2008. They started the season well and were group leaders till quite late in the competition. But it has been tough to understand the team. They played home games at mysterious venues like Nagothane and Ratnagiri. Unknown debutants performed without showing any jitters. Coach Chandrakant Pandit resigned with one match to go for the season. But the most publicised mystery was the one involving their pace spearhead Munaf Patel. Where is Munaf ? To this simple question there was no answer from the Maharashtra cricket officials, national selectors or even the BCCI.

Practical experience
One doesn8217;t need a degree to be a successful coach. The inference can be drawn from this Ranji season8217;s semi-finalists. Vijay Dahiya Delhi, Gyanendra Pandey UP and Debu Mitra Saurashtra never sat in classrooms to learn about the game. They have been battle-hardened cricketers who learned coaching while playing. Dahiya and Pandey, who retired last year from their respective domestic teams, were asked to take up the job given their young age and familiarity with the team.
Three top teams this season8212;Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Baroda 8212; had reputed former bowlers in the think tank. Manoj Prabhakar for Delhi, Ashish Winston Zaidi for UP and Baroda coach Paras Mhambrey had a big role to play in their team8217;s success. Delhi8217;s Ishant Sharma is making waves in Australia and Pradeep Sangwan is the find of the season at home. For Uttar Pradesh, Praveen Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi vouch that Zaidi8217;s presence in the dressing room helps. Baroda bowlers Sumit Singh and Salim Veragi8212;virtually unknown8212;kept the team in contention till they lost in the semi-finals. Thanks to Mhambrey.
While debutants performed extremely well, India drop-outs looking to stay in the fray8212;players like Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel and Ranadeb Bose 8212; failed to impress. Powar began well with 15 wickets from two matches but later drifted. Frustration was evident as later in the season the temperamental offie slapped a few hecklers at Wankhede. In the last game against Saurashtra, he was even asked to take off his trademark red framed dark glasses. Shitanshu Kotak complained: 8220;The red ball being released from his hand with those red frames in background is quite confusing.8221;