Published: Dec 10, 2014, 10:07 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 11, 2014, 04:52 PM (IST)
The round one of the Ranji Trophy 2014-15 has been done and dusted. From major upsets to some power packed performances, round one of the tournament has given the fans some good cricket to cherish. Sandipan Banerjee showcases the top highlights of this phase of India’s premier domestic competition.
After a delayed start, the Ranji Trophy 2014-15 is finally off to an amazing beginning. After the end of Round one, some of the results and individual performances are quite surprising. Let us have a look at those.
1. Jammu and Kashmir’s shocking victory over Mumbai:
It was probably the most shocking start Indian domestic season has ever had. Parvez Rasool led Jammu and Kashmir (J & K) to a four-wicket victory over 40-times Ranji Trophy champion Mumbai on their own backyard. Who would have expected this at the start of this phase?
J & K opener Shubham Khajuria led the show with 107 and 78, helping them create history. Reckless batting by Mumbai batsmen also helped their cause. J & K’s new ball bowler Ram Dayal, with eight wickets, was another unsung hero. Leading Mumbai for the first time, Suryakumar Yadav showed some fight with a counterattacking hundred in the second innings but that was not enough for his team.
2. Yuvraj, Gambhir’s return to form
After being axed from India’s list of 30 probables for next year’s World Cup, two senior pros Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh returned to form with classy hundreds for their respective teams, Delhi and Punjab. What was more important, their centuries came on winning causes. What a way to answer their critics and perhaps also the national selectors!
Delhi skipper Gambhir’s 147 on a green track at Roshanara Club Ground helped his team to pile up 442 in their first innings. That was good enough for a depleted Saurashtra, whose batsmen failed to handle Delhi pacers in both innings and suffered a heavy defeat.
Punjab’s victory, on the other hand, did not come so easily. Thanks to Yuvraj’s 59 they scored a competitive 273 batting first but ended up conceding a first innings lead to Haryana. Then came Yuvraj’s masterpiece, he slammed a 160-ball 130 to make sure that his team crossed the 300-run mark in their second innings and gave Haryana a decent target of 320 to chase. Finally Punjab won the game a comfortable with a margin of 120 runs.
3. Aravind’s Hat-trick; winning start by Karnataka
Defending champion Karnataka had a winning start in a match which was at one point of time heading towards a draw. Thanks to a hat-trick by medium pacer Sreenath Aravind on the last day Tamil Nadu collapsed for just 82 in only 34.4 overs while chasing 384 to win.
The first three days of the game was quite even and at the start of fourth day it was looking like the strong Tamil Nadu batting would save the day for them. But Aravind, who was playing the game only because of the injury of Abhimanyu Mithun, had other ideas. Along with skipper Vinay Kumar, Mithun polished off the Tamil Nadu batting and helped earn six points for their team. During his hat-trick, Aravind got the wickets of Malolan Rangarajan, Laxmipathy Balaji, and M Mohammed.
4. Chatterjee’s 192
Sudeep Chatterjee, the young and talented left-handed batsman of Bengal, top-scored in the first round of Ranji Trophy 2014-15 with 192 and 26 against Baroda. The former Under-23 captain of Bengal has been scoring useful runs consistently since his debut last season. Chatterjee has scored runs whenever he got opportunity. He had scored a crucial 99 in the Duleep Trophy this year and did a good in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as well.
Thanks to Chatterjee’s heroics and Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s attacking hundred on the last day of the game, Bengal earned crucial three points against Baroda.
5. Samantray’s all-round show
According to Odisha coach Debasis Mohanty, Biplab Samantray is at this moment one of the top all-rounders of this country. He proved himself in the limited opportunities he has got so far. In East Zone’s victorious campaign at the Deodhar Trophy, Samantray showed his all-round skills. He continued his good form in the opening game of Ranji Trophy with 106 and 31 with the bat and three wickets with the ball against last year’s runner-up Maharashtra. Odisha will be hoping for more of such performances from him in upcoming matches.
6. Das’s 10 wicket haul
Assam medium pacer had an excellent start of the season with a 10 wicket haul in the match against Tripura. He got three for 41 in the first innings and seven for 50 in the second innings. It was mainly because of his seven-for, Assam went on to win the low scoring encounter at Nehru Stadium, Guwahati. This was only the 14th First-Class game for young Das.
(Sandipan Banerjee is a reporter at Cricket Country. Cricket has been the biggest passion for him since his childhood. So, when it came to choosing his career, he chose to turn his passion into his profession. Apart from cricket he likes mountain trekking, river rafting and photography. His twitter handle is @im_sandipan)
