Friday, February 26, 2016

Arbit Stats #51

Ranji Trophy 2015-16 Final, Mumbai vs Saurashtra

Mumbai coasted to their 41st title in the 82nd edition of the Trophy. With more than 20 odd teams participating every year (current count 27 which will go up to 28 next year), that is some dominance.

This was Mumbai's 45th final appearance. However for the first time ever, they did not have any Test players in their playing XI in the Ranji final. Very surprising given the team's pedigree.

With the likes of Rahane and Rohit Sharma on India duty and Wasim Jaffer having switched to Vidarbha, the only internationals were Dhawal Kulkarni and Abhishek Nayar. Given his form, Shreyas Iyer would soon join this list.

Monday, February 15, 2016

Arbit Stats #50: Adam Voges

614 - Number of Test runs scored by Adam Voges between dismissals, a new record surpassing Sachin Tendulkar's tally of 497 attained in 2004.

After unbeaten knocks of 269 and 106 against West Indies Vogeas was finally dismissed by New Zealand's Mark Craig but not before he had plundered 239 runs against them. This is one of those freakish records which only cricket can have. The only analogue in any other sport would be the number of minutes between goals scored against a particular keeper.

Way to go for Adam Voges, who does seem to be making up for lost time after making such a late Test debut.

P.S. Sachin Tendulkar's tally includes the infamous 194*, when Dravid declared. (Just Saying).

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Ranji Trophy 15-16: Quarter-Finals: Jharkhand vs Mumbai

Match Summary: Mumbai (416 & 245) beat Jharkhand (172 & 94) by 395 runs
Mumbai enter the semi-finals.

In the end, the task was too much for the Jharkhand team against the 40 times Ranji Champions Mumbai. Mumbai batted first after winning the toss. They put up a decent score although Nadeem did pull them back a bit. The Jharkhand opening partnership started aggressively. However after the initial flurry of boundaries, the Mumbai spinners reined them in and kept taking wickets regularly. They chose not to enforce the follow on. Although Mumbai couldn't get a big total in the second innings but the ask was very tough. Yet Jharkhand collapsed without even a semblance of a fight in the second innings and lost by a very big margin.

Stats
  • Nadeem picked his 9th career 5-wicket haul and his 4th of the season.
  • Samar Quadri picked his 6th career 5-wicket haul.

It was a slightly disappointing end to a good season overall for Jharkhand team. Jharkhand certainly missed the services of Varun Aaron (on account of his marriage) and Ishan Kishan (on National U-19 duty). Yet there were quite a few positives for the team.
  • Along with Vidarbha they were the only teams to qualify to the second stage of each of the three premier tournaments. 
  • Dhoni's presence in the Vijay Hazare Trophy brought the team into spotlight.
  • Shahbaz Nadeem took 50 wickets in the Ranji season.
  • Ishan Kishan is leading the India Under-19 team in the World Cup and has also been picked up in the IPL auctions to Gujarat Lions where he will be the under-study to Dinesh Karthik
Now the action shifts to IPL where the likes of Tiwary, Nadeem and Kishan would be hoping for the performance which shoots them into the limelight.

It was great following the team this year. Would certainly look forward to writing a few more blog posts on the Jharkhand team and its players next year when they are playing with the big boys in Group A.