Indian Domestic Season 2009-10 - Ranji rounds 3, 4, & 5

Another 3 rounds of super league games and 2 rounds of plate league games have been completed. Some of the stronger teams are stringing together consistent performances thereby separating themselves from the other teams. The best team by far this season has been Karnataka. They have bagged 2 successive innings victories wins on the road against quality opponents (Maharashtra and Baroda). The most commendable thing has been the fact that most of their players have contributed. Tamil Nadu has been another team that has been playing well and consistently getting points even though their batting and bowling departments haven't dominated the opposition. Mumbai players have put together strong performances but that hasn't translated into points for their team. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are the other teams to watch with wins in their last games.


Some of the top batsmen for Karnataka are relatively unknown players who are playing in their first or second season. It is just a matter of time before names like KB Pawan, Manish Pandey, Amit Verma, and G Satish become as well known as their predecessors of the mid nineties (Rahul Dravid, Vijay Bharadwaj, Sunil Joshi, Arun Kumar, and Sujit Somasundar) in the domestic arena. Their bowlers have been even more impressive. The names include Vinay Kumar, and newcomers A Mithun, and S Aravind. It's a little too soon to compare these guys to the great Karnataka quartet of the nineties: Srinath, Prasad, Ganesh, and Johnson. But if they keep these performances going, then it's just a matter of time before Karnataka starts upstaging Mumbai as the premier domestic team. I would be doing a great disservice to my readers if I fail to mention Karnataka's new wicket keeper batsman CM Gautam who replaced the long time keeper Thilak Naidu. Despite having success with the new crop of players, some of the long time players seem to be dragging their feet. If they are unable to perform consistently as the newcomers then they should also be replaced like Naidu was. This group includes the former India ODI player Robin Uthappa, Sunil Joshi, and B Akhil.


The other consistent batsmen this season have been the 2 wicket keeping batsmen Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik. Both these players have been leading their teams (Gujarat and Tamil Nadu) from the front and scoring heavily. But with Dhoni firmly perched at the top of the Indian team, these players cannot expect to make it to national team just based on their batting. Unfortunately their 'keeping' doesn't seem to be giving Dhoni any sleepless nights either. The other in-form batsman is UP's Parvinder Singh who has already scored 3 centuries this season. Among the Mumbai batsmen it looks like Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma are finally coming back to form with recent centuries to support the ever green Wasim Jaffer. Saurashtra's Cheteshwar Pujara should be expecting a call anytime to play in the Indian ODI team with yet another successful Ranji season.


Among the non-Karnataka bowlers, Himachal's VS Malik and Punjab's Manpreet Gony have put together back-to-back 'five-for' and are a big part of keeping their teams competitive. Mumbai's Iqbal Abdulla a left-arm spinner has been the best slow bowler in the tournament. Newcomer left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh also from Mumbai is a player to watch. He has just been named a member of the Indian under-19 team for the upcoming World Cup.


The plate league this season has nearly been a joke. No team has been able to dominate and thereby demanding a spot in next year's super league. With the last round of games this week, four of the six teams in group A have a chance to make it to the last four. Two of these teams will make it to the semi-finals: Vidarbha, Assam, Goa, and Tripura (yes Tripura). In group B the two semi-finalists will be from these 3 teams: Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and J&K. J&K can upstage Madhya Pradesh with a win over lowly Andra Pradesh.


There haven't been too many great individual performers. The few good batsmen include Ajay Ratra (former Haryana 'keeper' who now plays for Goa), Sunny Singh (Haryana), and Jharkhand's SS Tiwary. The notable bowlers are Rajasthan speedster Pankaj Singh, ICL returnee Abu Nechim Ahmed (Assam fast bowler), and Vidharba spinner Akshay Wakhare. It will be interesting to see which team qualifies to the super league next year and how these players fare.