Ranji Trophy 2015: Pitch imperfect, spinners on song
By late afternoon, both teams were done with their respective first innings — Bengal 142 all out and Orissa folding up for 107 in reply. Twenty wickets fell inside 77 overs on the Kalyani dust bowl; spinners taking 17 of them. It was a Ranji Trophy Group A fixture.
The Bengal Cricket Academy in Kalyani was hosting its first-ever Ranji Trophy match, but the wicket was anything but extreme. Elsewhere too, designer pitches have been made to maximise home advantage. Madhya Pradesh reduced Mumbai to 74/6 after being all out for 240 on Day One in Indore. Once again, spinners made merry with Mumbai debutant Ankush Jaiswal taking four wickets and the hosts hitting back through Jalaj Saxena and Ankit Sharma, who’ve already shared six scalps between them.
Sixteen wickets went down on the opening day in Malappuram, where Kerala were dismissed for 166 in their first innings and Saurashtra laboured to 55/6 at stumps. Spinners, Dharmendra Jadeja and Vandit Jivrajani for the visitors, and K Monish and Rohan Prem for Kerala have so far taken 15 wickets in this game.
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At Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi, Andhra bundled out Railways for 182 with left-arm spinner Sneha Kishore bagging a five-for. The visitors finished the day on 62/4. Ten matches started today in this round of the Ranji Trophy, teams batting first were all out in five of them while in another, Punjab were struggling at 248/8, in Kanpur.
Three teams each from Group A and B and two sides from Group C will make the knockout stage. With almost every group tantalisingly poised, battle is intense as the league phase draws to a close. Delhi lead the chart in Group A with 24 points, closely followed by Vidarbha and Assam, who are on 22 points each. Defending champions Karnataka, who are hosting Delhi in this round, are on 21 points. Bengal, 19 points, are considered to be a dark horse here. An outright win against Orissa will take them on the threshold before they visit Guwahati for their final group league game. With Pragyan Ojha in their ranks and Vidarbha not playing in this round, they are aiming for full points.
In Group B, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are all locked on 17 points each. Among them, only Punjab are playing an away fixture in this round and they’re at a disadvantage. In Group C, Services and Kerala — theoretically Jharkhand, too, are in the mix — still have a chance to upstage Himachal Pradesh to the second spot. Services are not playing in this round, so Kerala are ready to pounce on the opportunity. Cricket is the loser as the home teams try to make things very lopsided in their favour.
“Sad, but true. Batting is a tough job even on flattest of decks, for you’re always just one mistake away from getting out. And the pitches, rank turners they’ve been preparing this term, batters don’t have a chance. Yes, we all like result pitches, but results should come on Day Four, not inside three days. If 20 wickets fall on the first day, then it’s a mockery of cricket,” an India international, who is playing in this round of matches, told The Indian Express.
Green revolution
“We had the ‘green revolution’ last season, when even the 120k bowlers were getting a truckload of wickets. Spin has become the name of the game this year, at the expense of good cricket. Yes, at this stage of the competition, the race is very tight. But we’ve seen matches finishing in two days (in Rajkot) quite early in the season. I would just say, give batters a chance,” he added.
The BCCI Annual General Meeting on November 9 didn’t mention anything about the members of its ground and pitches committee. Committees are reconstituted at every AGM. Those who were there until the last season now appear to be very confused about their roles. “Until last season, we used to oversee pitch preparations for all national-level domestic matches. Home advantage has always been there, but up to a certain extent. At the moment, however, we are not going to the venues and the hosts associations are preparing pitches according to their choice,” said one of the members.
Going back to Bengal and the pitch at Kalyani, Orissa left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh, who took five wickets, said: “As a spinner it’s difficult to keep control on our deliveries as the ball is turning a huge amount.” His captain Natraj Behera added: “We expected turn. But it’s doing all sorts of things. The top soil is very loose, causing uneven bounce. It’s an unpredictable wicket.”
Debasis Mohanty, the mild-manner former India medium pacer and Orissa coach, picked his words cautiously. “It’s the host association’s prerogative to prepare the pitch and we can’t help but play on what we have been asked to. As Orissa coach, I can’t make public comments on the nature of the surface. But 17 wickets to the spinners on Day One will confirm that the ball was turning. As of now, I haven’t thought about lodging a formal complaint. We will see what happens as the match progresses.”
Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, who played a brilliant 88 in the first innings, however, was very forthright. “You must be careful about your shot selection here. The track is already bad and cannot get any worse.”
Off-spinner Aamir Gani, after his maiden five-wicket haul (6/34) in first-class cricket, admitted that the pitch has been prepared to achieve an outright win. “We are looking to get six points from this match and prepared the track according to our strength.”
The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) curator Sujan Mukherjee chose to be evasive. “As per my contract, I’m not entitled to speak during the game. Whatever I’ve to say I will say post-match,” he said. But hopefully, match referee Shakti Singh has taken note. “This is an internal matter. Whatever needs to be reported will be reported.”
