Do you remember a player by name MVSridharwho captained Hyderabad in Ranji..??-Rongsen Jonathan, born in Umaga, Karnataka but leading Nagaland should be ruing his decision to put opponent in after winning the toss !! Not often you would see a No.11 – Rahul Shukla closing on a century and being engaged in close to 200partnership for the last wicket !! – will Jharkhand create history was the Q but they fell score short of 900 !!
Today, in the Preliminary QF match at Kolkattahelped by Kumar Kushagra’s 266; Shahbaz Nadeem’s 177 – no. 11 Rahul Shukla was stranded on 85 after a great partnership of 191 runs !!
In case you had been following and been a Tamil Nadu supporter – there was disappointment, this season too.About a week back, TNlost the final league stage match to Jharkhand and were eliminated.Saurabh Tiwary with a brilliant 93 guided Jharkhand to a thrilling 2 wicket win in the final Group H Ranji Trophy league match at the Nehru Stadium.It was a remarkable turnaround by Jharkhand after losing the first match to Chhattisgarh by eight wickets before beating Delhi by 15 runs in its second match.For the TN fans, it was another season, one more debacle ! S. Vasudevan, the skipper of that triumphant Ranji side 34 years ago and presently the Chairman of the State senior selection committee felt that theTNCA league matches are not serving any purpose. “It is an extended limited overs game and is not producing players for the longer format,” he opined.
Way back in Dec 1926 Victoria scored 1107 against NSW at Melbourne in a First Class match; Victoria has another 1059 made against Tasmania in Feb 1923 !!
Back in 1989 at Panaji Tamil Nadu scored 912/6with WV Raman and Arjan Kripal Singh scoring triple centuries. In Jan 1994 – Hyderabad scored a whopping 944/6 decl against Andhra.Maturi Sridhar socred 366; Vivek Jaisimha and Noel David made double centuries.
In Dec 1926 when Victoria scored the highest ever in FC - 1107 and won byan innings and 656 runs – Captain Bill Woodful scored 133; Bill Ponsford scored 352; Stork Hendry 100 & Jack Ryder 295 !!
Ranji no longer the exclusive priority of Bombay and Karnataka, Delhi .. . lot other teams too are coming up !
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
14.3.2022.