The 2006-07 Irani Trophy match, the traditional opener of Indian domestic cricket season, will end tomorrow in the first session. A third day finish is a shame and shows the lack of depth Indian cricket batting finds itself facing. The argument raised would be that Rohit Sharma was excluded from the Rest of India team. Sharma has played in the Deodhar Trophy team before and despite how big this opportunity would have been for him, he will get his chances in the upcoming Duleep Trophy games. He has only played 2 first class games till now many more chances will come his way for sure.

Balaji, who wasn’t included in the squad initially, and only made the team after Sreesanth was injured found himself selected in the XI ahead of the young Yo Mahesh. Given Balaji has just come back to the game, he would cherish every chance of match practice and even though he struggled with his line in the game which showed he was no where close to international levels required, he has to be given more time.

Praveen Kumar played a rash shot before looking very good. He is an aggressive batsman though he has to improve on his average. The potential exists. Bowling wise, he is at 125-135 which is great for some one whom people are slating as not among the main bowlers. He has played very less so far and will be interesting to see how he develops. Definitely some one who can play at least one day cricket for India down the years.

Wasim Jaffer went back to his main pace bowlers after the good start Uttar Pradesh got when he could have easily gone for Ojha. It was a first day wicket and despite it slowing considerably after the good carry it offered in the first session, the move proved right as Uttar Pradesh folded for 148 runs. V.R.V. Singh was guilty of bowling no balls and not being upto it in the recently concluded challenger series despite getting the man of series award. However, here, he bent his back in humid conditions over after over for nine consecutive overs and bowled consistently at around the same spot which was a sight to see. He didn’t have any wickets to show for it but then cricket isn’t a fair game.

It was a dual-paced wicket but was a beauty to bat on. So, Uttar Pradesh folding easily and then the Rest of India losing 7 wickets on the same day was a shock despite the considerably weak batting strengths of both teams. The one glowing spark in the Rest of India line up was S. Badrinath. He was in exceptional form in the previous Ranji season and it was the same in the tour to Australia with India A. Badrinath possesses sound technique and has immense patience. Give him even the hint of room and he will punish you. The strokes are all there. His fielding is good as well. He took a good catch at forward short leg early on (SS Shukla). The second, not much later, was a beauty. Ravikant Shulka nudged at the ball and it seemed to be passing Badrinath before he plucked it out of thin air. Very good reflexes and one of those catches which stick.

Where the bowling of Uttar Pradesh goes, Zaidi was his usual self bowling the nagging line at the constant 115-130 kph mark. Shalabh Srivastava ended up taking five wickets but there are large gaps in his game. Srivastava bowled in 125-135 range and pitched every where from full to short to good length in different periods. It showed a bit of lack in planning. He strayed from time to time and would get punished at the the international level. Indeed, giving away 73 runs in 20.3 overs in the first inning shows exactly that. He is a good asset to have in domestic cricket though.

The South Zone team for the upcoming Duleep Trophy match has been announced. Laxman gets another chance and so do the likes of Badrinath, Balaji, Ojha (who was under bowled in the Irani Trophy game because the pitch wasn’t turning a lot) and Yo Mahesh (who will in all likelihood make the XI for the first few games at least). Dinesh Karthik will look to score and keep well ahead of the South African tour and look to make the team as the second keeper. The team also includes a giant in Anil Kumble which gives the team a whole new dimension. Given NEO Sports will be broadcasting many domestic matches this season, fans have a lot to look forward to.

[Irani Trophy 2006-07 score card]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Cricket. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.