Up north, a Ranji cold shoulder for teams

The Australia Test series is set to be followed by a tri-series, World Cup and IPL and first-class performances might not hold value. Another area board planners haven’t sufficiently thought about is their scheduling of the matches of North Zone teams.

Their games have been already disturbed due to the winter in December and January. Full games aren’t a certainity and it can all come down to one-innings affairs with a tedious focus on first-innings lead to earn some points and players are already grumbling. Out of the 27 teams that participate in Ranji Trophy every year, seven have their base in Northern part of the country. Teams like Delhi, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Services, UP and Railways have home grounds in their respective associations.

However, out of eight Ranji league games they play in league format, at least four are likely to be marred due to inclement weather. For instance, UP vs Mumbai in Kanpur and Railways vs Karnataka at Karnail Singh Stadium, Services vs Andhra, Haryana vs Vidarbha at Rohtak couldn’t complete 90 over quota due to fog. Mumbai vs Railways Ranji game last week was marred due to rain and bad lights.

A team like UP will be playing five games out of eight in North whereas Delhi too will be playing four games at home till January. Playing at home in months of December and January means chances of getting outright win get really tough as teams don’t get chance to play full four day game.

Team like Karnataka which is stationed in Bangalore will be playing only one game (Karnataka vs Railways) in North.

UP’s opener Tanmay Srivastava points out how difficult it gets for team to reach qualify stage.

“We have got one outright win before coming home and our next five games will be in North. Most likely, there will be very less chance of getting full games after this. Last year, we used to get two games which used to be delayed due to fog but as winter in North will be at its peak in January, it will be too tough to get an outright win sometimes,” Srivastava said.

So these teams will have to now look for first-innings lead even as some other teams have the chance to pick up more points from outright victories. Batsmen like Srivastava or a bowler striving for a comeback like Praveen Kumar might get only one innings per game to perform.

SOLID START BY UTTAR PRADESH

Meanwhile, on Sunday, in the 50 overs that were possible in the game between UP and Mumbai in Kanpur, Mumbai bowlers failed to take advantage of the conditions which looked favourable to bowling. UP reached a comfortable 115 for 1 with Srivastava and Prashant Gupta batting on 49 and 41 respectively. Shardul Thakur got the early wicket of opener Mukul Dagar but that was that.

Brief scores: UP 1st innings: 115/1 in 50 overs (T Srivastava 49, Prashant Gupta 41; Shardul Thakur 1/31).