From: karnik@cs.umn.edu (Neeran M. Karnik)
Subject: Ranji Trophy news
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 19:42:45 GMT


News from the last couple of rounds of the Ranji trophy league games:


o West Zone league

	The Bombay v/s Saurashtra match was drawn. Saurashtra batted first
	and made 294, with Sanjay Patil taking 4-84 and Ankola 3-69 for 
	Bombay. In reply, Bombay scored 426, with contributions from 
	wicketkeeper-opener Sameer Dighe (76), Jatin Paranjpe (88), debutant
	Sunil More (80) and Iqbal Khan (59). In their second innings,
	Saurashtra made 204-4 decl. with opener Odedra making 104 and Bimal
	Jadeja 65. Leg spinner Bahutule took 3 of the 4 wickets. Bombay were
	set a target of 73 runs in SIX overs, and they started out in earnest,
	promoting Kambli to open, but they scored 40/0 in the 6 overs....

	In their next match, Bombay played Maharashtra at Pune. Batting first,
	Bombay made 408, with Dighe making 100, Paranjpe 66, Bharucha 49 and
	Kambli 40. Santosh Jedhe took three wickets, and then in Maharashtra's
	reply, scored 106. Despite support from Sugwekar (58) and Santosh
	Jadhav (73), Maharashtra failed to get the crucial first innings lead,
	getting all out for 373, thanks to Sanjay Patil's 5-94. Ankola took 
	four wickets, cleaning up the tail with the last 3 wickets in one over.
	In Bombay's second innings, Kambli unleashed the firepower, and scored
	202* (18x4, 1x6). Bharucha scored 96 and Bahutule 49*, as Bombay 
	declared at 399 for 4. The match ended with Maharashtra at 116-5 in the
	second innings (giving Bombay a few valuable bowling points). Patil
	again was among the wickets, taking 3 in the second innings.

	Jedhe's century was his 9th in 18 Ranji trophy matches, and his batting
	average is 60+. He is also a useful bowler. Perhaps worth trying out
	in the fringe matches ? Kuruvilla went wicketless in this game. This
	was the first time in his career that he failed to take a wicket...
	Venkataraghavan was the umpire for this game, as also for the Eng v/s
	Board Pres. game now in progress.

	In another game, Baroda outplayed Saurashtra to clinch the third 
	knockout spot from the WZ. In reply to Saurashtra's 341 (Tanna 161, 
	Mukesh Narula 6-92), Baroda made 387-6 (Parikh 101, Bedade 69) acc. to
	the last report I read.

o North Zone league

	Delhi were forced to follow on for the first time ever against Punjab,
	but they managed to salvage a draw, thanks to Ajay Sharma's 149 in the
	second innings. In their next game against Haryana, Maninder Singh
	rescued the side after a poor start, making his maiden century (102)
	with 8 fours and FIVE sixers! As if this wasn't enough, he went on to
	take 10 for 86 in the match, pressing his claims for a Test berth.

o East Zone league

	Bengal is piling on the runs in the East zone league matches. The old
	stalwarts Arun Lal (one innings of 169), and Ashok Malhotra (two scores
	between 100 and 110) are supplemented by ex-Maharashtra player Srikant
	Kalyani (scores of 140 and 149). Bengal defeated Assam by 9 wkts and
	were well on their way to thrashing Orissa too.


Dunno much about the other two leagues, except that Hyderabad beat Andhra by 
an innings and 134 runs in one match. Among other news, Ajit Wadekar has been
retained as manager, not just for the England series, but also for the possible
Zimbabwe series later this year. Madan Lal is the manager of the Indian u-19
team, which is hosting the England u-19 this month.


The 14 players selected for the Board Pres. v/s England game going on right now
are as follows:

Maninder Singh (capt)	
Surendra Bhave (opener)
Navjot Sidhu (Hi Sanjay :-)
Vinod Kambli (no intro needed?)
Rahul Dravid (left handed batsman from Karnataka)
Ajay Sharma (lefty allrounder from Delhi)
Saurab Ganguly (left handed batsman from Bengal)
Nayan Mongia (wickie)
Salil Ankola (right arm pacer)
Ashish Zaidi (right arm pacer)
Prashant Vaidya (right arm pacer)
Rajesh Chauhan (off spinner)
Narendra Hirwani (leggie)
Shantanu Sugwekar (right handed batsman, occasional bowler)

Notice the number of promising lefties in there (odd in the Indian
context). For the one-day game to be played between Board Pres. XI and
England, Hirwani will be replaced by Abey Kuruvilla.



     +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
     | Neeran M. Karnik | #2 fan of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar on r.s.c.  :-> |
     | Dept. of CompSci.| "Welcome to r.s.c.,                              |
     | U of Minnesota   |  where jingoism rules the netwaves" - McBean :-> |
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