Ranji Trophy 12-13: Jharkhand reach Quarter-finals

Match Summary: Services (185 & 152) lost to Jharkhand (120 & 219/5) by 5 wickets

Points: Jharkhand 6, Services 0

This was the match. Jharkhand had to win against the league toppers to have a chance to reach the knock-outs. And they won it with some minor hiccups. With other results also going their way, Jharkhand took the second place in Group C and booked their knock-outs spot.

In the first innings, they knocked out Services early with Ajay Yadav picking up 5 wickets. In reply Jharkhand started strongly but the brittle batting order collapsed again and handed a big lead to Services. At this juncture, with Saurabh Tiwary also injured, a win became increasingly unlikely. But they recovered well to knock out Services for 152, though they had them in even deeper trouble at one stage.  Once again Yadav was the pick of the bowlers picking 6 wickets. A 4th innings target of 218 was big specially given the match context. But the openers Akash Verma & rameez Nemat knocked off most of the target in 150+ opening stand. A few quick wickets fell but Jaggi & Tiwary saw them through.

It has been a topsy-turvy season. Beginning and ending with wins and some indifferent performances in-between. The batting has been specially brittle with  only Saurabh Tiwary and to a certain extent Akash Verma consistently amongst the runs. Bowling has been the more reliable department with Nadeem, Sunny Gupta, SS Rao and newcomer Ajay Yadav all chipping in.

It was the perfect new year gift for the Jharkhand cricket fan. Given that Dhoni & Aaron were missing throughout the season makes the achievement even more commendable.

Now for the Qaurter-finals against Punjab to be played at home in Jamshedpur beginning January 6th. Wishing the team all the very best

Season Stats
Lead run-scorer: Saurabh Tiwary - 601 runs @50.08
Most Wickets - Shahbaz Nadeem - 40 @22.45

Ranji trophy 12-13: Jharkhand vs Andhra

Match Summary: Jharkhand (257 & 295/9d) drew with Andhra (410 & 32/4)

Points: Jharkhand 1, Andhra 3

This was a crucial game in terms of deciding who goes through into the knockouts. A top order collapse in the 1st innings put Jharkhand in big trouble but a century by Saurabh Tiwary and some good lower order partnership with Nadeem helped put on a decent total. Andhra were in a big spot of bother with 6 wickets gone and still trailing by almost 90 runs, but a big hundred by Amol Mazumdar, the all-time leading Ranji run getter took Andhra to a comfortable lead. Wicket-keeper Shiv Gautam took 5 catches in the Andhra innings. Tiwary missed a second century in the match getting out for 99 while Akash Verma scored 82. Though Jharkhand declared and gave Andhra some fright there wasn't enough time and the match ended in a draw.

So Jharkhand get only 1 point taking their tally to 18 for the season. The team has now dropped to the 3rd place 2 points behind Andhra having played the same number  of games. With 2 matches in hand, it could turn out to be a very close race for the 2 quarter-final spots.

Coming up next -  a must win game against Kerala who are in 8th place in the group, starting December 22.

Season Stats

Lead Scorer - Saurabh Tiwary 554 @ 61.6, over 300 more than the next highest Akash Verma

Most Wickets - Shahbaz Nadeem 29@ 24.6, with Sunny Gupta close behind with 26

Ranji Trophy 12-13: Jharkhand vs Himachal Pradesh

Match Summary: Jharkhand (236/10 & 244/2) draw with Himachal Pradesh (442/7 dec)

Points: Jharkhand 1, Himachal Pradesh 3

A poor first innings effort by the Jharkhand batsmen led to the team slipping up in the 1st innings against some disciplined bowling by Himachal. Only a fighting century by Saurabh Tiwary, the first by any Jharkhand  player in this season and a 130 run stand with Sunny Gupta provided the saving grace. In reply Himachal went on to take a big lead with the bowlers being largely ineffective. Shankar Rao took 3 wickets while Sunny took 2. Himachal in a bid to enforce an outright victory declared but a more discplined second innings effort took Jharkhand to safety and secured 1 point. Akash Verma playing his 1st game of the season scored a century while Manish Vardhan (94) narrowly missed out.

The result has hampered the qualifying chances a little, with Jharkhand having slipped down to 4th place in the group with 11 points. They now rest in the coming round beginning December 4th with a must win game against Tripura beginning on December 8th.