Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand vs Gujarat

Match Summary: Jharkhand (289 & 166/7) drew with Gujarat (352/9d)

Points: Jharkhand 1, Gujarat 3

The run of defeats has ended but it was a pretty close call. Saurabh Tiwary continued his outstanding season and carried the team to safety. In the process he also crossed the personal milestone of 3000 first class runs. Apart from Tiwary there has been a complete lack of consistency from the other batsman. 

This game also followed the season's script. Jharkhand batted steadily with Nemat alongwith Tiwary scoring half centuries but with no support from others. Jasprit Bumrah doing most of the damge for Gujarat. In reply Gujarat built their innings around Parthiv Patel's189 which was enough to get them the all important first innings lead. Jharkhand almost collapsed in the 2nd innings till two retired hurt batsmen Tiwary and Thaker came back to scored 50s to bail them out.

Have to say the Jharkhand lineup is pretty unsettled with constantly changing batting order, bowlers moving in and out, even a change in wicket-keeping duties. Nadeem has not been able to continue his last year's form while Ishank Jaggi is badly out of form (1 run in last 4 innings). Scenario looking quite bleak here.

Season Stats

Top Scorer - Saurabh Tiwary - 485 runs @69.89 (head and shoulders above the rest of the Jharkhand lineup)

Most Wickets - Varun Aaron 11 wickets @ 21.45 (missed this game)

Standings - 3 points from 5 games. Bang at the bottom of the group but closing in on Haryana. Would need a couple of 1st innings leads if not an outright victory to move out of the relegation phase.

Coming Up Next - Against 40 time Ranji Champions Mumbai in their backyard. Not much to hope for from that game. Well, on a bright note Mumbai would be missing the likes of Rahane, Rohit Sharma & Zaheer Khan. 

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand vs Haryana

Match Summary: Haryana (309 &128) beat Jharkhand (231 & 172) by 30 runs.

Points: Jharkhand 0, Haryana 6

As I had written previously, this was expected to be a result oriented game, Unfortunately Jharkhand ended on the wrong side of the result. This is a game which we should have won, but in the end just fell short.

Haryana batted first and reached 309 helped by some solid contributions all round. Varun Aaron was the pick of the bowlers taking 4 wickets while Nadeem got 3. In reply, as usual, Saurabh Tiwary was the sole big contributor with 95 as the team conceded a 78 run lead. In the second innings Haryana were 16 for 5 at one stage but Sachin Rana's 84 took them to 124 setting Jharkhand a target of 203. Bhavin Thaker & Ishank Jaggi's got half centuries but their was no support from anyone else with only Rahul Shukla reaching double digits.

Only positive - Varun Aaron's 7 wicket haul in the match.

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary - 220 runs @ 55.00

Most Wickets: Varun Aaron - 8 wickets @ 18.63

Standings - 2 points after 3 games. Jharkhand slides down further to the bottom most postion. Knock-out chances getting slimmer and relegation highly probable. Not a good sign. Come on guys.

Coming Up Next - Familiar East Zone rivals Odisha away. More evenly matched teams though Jharkhand does have a slight upper hand.

P.S. Where is Ajay Jadeja? Has he also retired again?

Ranji Trophy: 13-14: Jharkhand vs Karnataka

Match Summary: Jharkhand (364 & 215/5) drew with Karnataka (424/7d)

Points: Jharkhand 1, Karnataka 3

After a washout against Delhi, this was effectively the first game of the season for Jharkhand. In terms of personnel Karnataka would have been considered a stronger side. Like most Ranji games this turned out to be a battle for the 1st innings lead.

Karnataka won the toss and put Jharkhand in. It was attritional batting from the Jharkhand team with runs coming at a slow pace. They ended up at 364 with the usual suspect Saurabh Tiwary & captain Shahbaz Nadeem getting half centuries along with new import Bhavin Thaker. Karnataka scored at a much faster pace and managed to go past the Jharkhand score with good contibutions from Mayank Agarwal and Manish Pandey. Having got the important 1st innings lead, Karnataka declared hoping for a second innings collapse which did not happen. Solid innings from Ishank Jaggi & Saurabh Tiwary prevented any further damage. And the game meandered onto a draw.

Key point of interest was the comeback of Varun Aaron after a long injury layoff. He put in a decent number of overs but just got one wicket. While Saurabh Tiwary continues from where he left last year. The lack of success of the spin twins Nadeem & Sunny Gupta would be a cause of concern though.

Season Stats

Leading Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary - 118 runs

Most Wickets: Rahul Shukla - 3 wickets

Standings - 2 points after 2 games; Quotient - 0.637; 7th in the group. Well the team needs to start pulling up its socks if they are to remain in contention for a knock-out berth.

Coming Up Next: Away vs Haryana. The Lahli pitch should be of interest to the likes of Aaron and Shukla. A result is a distinct possibility. Lets hope it goes Jharkhand's way.