 UP set to win Ranji Trophy
It’s time to take a break from following the dreary proceedings of the Pakistan tour now turned exciting, though alas, at India’s expense. While our bowlers struggle to restrict to a total below 1,000 and our batsmen suddenly discover demons in the wicket which had apparently gone into hibernation when the Yousufs and Younises were batting, there is more cheering news closer home. In an absorbing final, completely unfancied Uttar Pradesh seem to be getting the better of the exchanges against Bengal in the Ranji Trophy final.
Eyeing their third Ranji Trophy title in their 12th appearance in the finals, Bengal have run into something hot in Uttar Pradesh, in the final for only the third time in their history. Mohammad Kaif, the captain, is a recent India discard and young left-handed batsman Suresh Raina an exciting one-day international prospect. These two and young leg spinner Piyush Chawla have played sterling roles in Uttar Pradesh’s first innings lead over Bengal in the final played at Green Park,
Kanpur.
Bengal, led by former India wicket-keeper and in-form batsman Deep Dasgupta, have a strong batting line-up. They outbatted most of their opposition this season, but could not surpass UP’s first innings total of 387 in the final. As these lines are being written, UP are 122 for 1 in their second innings, with Mohammad Kaif unbeaten on 53 and S K Shukla on 46. In the first UP innings, Shukla made 71, Kaif 92 and young prodigy Suresh Raina 90. The Bengal medium-pacers Paul and Bose with three wickets each were very impressive.
Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla was positively brilliant while accounting for 5 Bengal batsmen at a cost of 83 runs. Here’s an outstanding prospect who should be blooded sooner rather than later in the international arena.
In the semifinal round, Bengal drew with Baroda at Eden Gardens, and entered the Ranji Trophy final for the first time since 1993-94. Their swing specialist Subroto Paul took five wickets and restricted Baroda to 241 before Bengal batted for over three days to make 617. Subhomoy Das, Dasgupta and Lakshmi Ratan Shukla scored hundreds, with Dasgupta and Shukla adding a record 314 for the sixth wicket. Connor Williams made an unbeaten hundred for Baroda in the second innings.
Uttar Pradesh, under the inspired leadership of Mohammad Kaif, fought their way up from a poor start to the season. Solid performances from Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar and Gyanendra Pandey were key features in UP’s progress to the final.
In the other semi-final encounter at the Wankhede Stadium, Kumar and Srivastava shared seven wickets between them to rock the top order before Chawla cleaned up the tail to bowl out Mumbai for 199. Mumbai fought back through Aavishkar Salvi’s pace reducing UP to 13 for 3 before Raina made a fine 72 and put on 123 with Kaif (64) to gain a 51-run first innings lead. In the second innings a triple strike by Zaidi left Mumbai reeling at 48 for 4 before a 119-run partnership between Amol Muzumdar and Ramesh Powar and a breezy effort from Vinayak Samant helped them to a total of 264. Kaif, Raina, Shamshad and Jyoti Yadav made vital contributions in UP’s successful chase. They reached their target with five wickets in hand.
There has been absorbing cricket in the lead-up to the final where the favourites fell by the wayside, and two rank outsiders entered the final. The final too has provided high quality cricket. It’s an altogether more cheerful scenario than India’s most recent showing in Test cricket.
V Ramnarayan
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