Ranji Trophy 15-16: Jharkhand vs Goa

Match Summary: Goa (302 & 102/5d) drew with Jharkhand (209 & 105/6)

Points: Jharkhand 1, Goa 3

After the high of victory against Kerala comes a one-point draw against Goa. In a match effectively reduced to three days owing to a wet outfield on first day, Goa chose to bat first after winning the toss. Goa scored 302 and it was set to be a clash for the first innings lead. Jharkhand's batting misfired again as they conceded 93 run lead. Having secured the first innings lead, Goa scored a few quick runs, and set a target of 196 in 36 overs in search of an outright victory. Jharkhand avoided a complete collapse and managed to secure a single point from the game

Game Notes

• Jharkhand captaincy changed hands again as Varun Aaron sat out the game and former skipper Shahbaz Nadeem led in his place. 
• Lots of team changes as out went Ishan Kishan, Jaskaran Singh, Kaushal Singh, Varun Aaron and Ashish Kumar. Kumar Deobrat, Rahul Shukla and Samar Quadri came back into the squad while Sumit Kumar and Sunny Gupta got their first game of the season.
• Sumit Kumar scored his maiden first class half-century in his 3rd game.
• Rituraj Singh who turned out for Jharkhand last year played against them for Goa in this season.

Highlights

• Samar Quadri's 6-wicket haul in Goa's first innings.

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary 226 @ 32.29

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 18 @ 17.94
Player Count: 20 from 4 Games
Captain Count: 3 from 4 Games

Points Tally - 7 after 4 games. Moved down to 7th spot. Lying 13 points behind Himachal Pradesh who are currently in place for the second knock-out spot from the Group. The task is certainly getting more and more difficult though still not improbable.

Coming Up Next - A home game against Jammu & Kashmir, who are one spot ahead in the table. 

Ranji trophy 14-15: Jharkhand vs Services

Match Summary: Services (230 & 235) lost to Jharkhand (387 & 84/1) by 9 wickets

Points: Jharkhand 6, Services 0

You wait the whole season for one victory and when the team is out of the race of the knock-outs, two of them them come in arow right at the fag end of the season.

Services could muster 230 in their first innings with the Jharkhand bowlers sharing the wickets around. A maiden century by Shiv Gautam anchored Jharkhand's innings taking them to a big first innings lead. In the second innings Services could only score 235 with Samar Quadri emerging the wrecker-in-chief. Jharkhand knocked off the meagre target of 84 for the loss of a single wicket. And they earned an extra day-off at the end of the season.

Highlights:

• Shiv Gautam's maiden first class century.
• Samar Quadri's 8 wicket match haul including 6 in the second innings.

Season Stats:

Top Scorers:

1. Ishank Jaggi 670 @74.44
2. Saurabh Tiwary 566 @51.45
3. Ishan Kishan 451 @41.00

Most Wickets: 

1. Samar Quadri 29 @24.45
2. Shahbaz Nadeem 28 @25.54
3. Rituraj Singh 20  @31.60

Points Tally - 21 points from 8 games. Final rank can be anywhere between 4 and 6 depending on the results of Kerala and Andhra games.

Season Notes

• Lots of inconsistency in the team selection with 20 players representing the team this season. 
• Jharkhand is the home team for MS Dhoni, hence the high turn-out of wicket-keeper batsmen in this season. In all 4 keepers were used. In the last game against Services, there were 3 of them in the line-up occupying the top 3 slots as well.
• The captaincy changed mid-season with Kumar Deobrat taking over from Saurabh Tiwary who resigned to concentrate on his batting. Tiwary scored 3 centuries justifying his decision, while Deobrat's form took a nose-dive.
• Lots of youngsters were tried. The likes of Ishan Kishan, Virat Singh, Prakash Munda, Sumit Kumar got their first taste of first class cricket. Some of them certainly showed enough signs of a potentially good future. Lets see what they have in store for us in the coming season.
• Batting was mostly inconsistent though Ishank Jaggi returned to form with 2 double centuries. However all of them did not perform together as as a team except in one game.
• Bowling was managed by Nadeem, Quadri and new import Rituraj Singh. The return of Varun Aaron from international duty certainly bolstered the attack. 
• In all 2 wins, 1 loss, 5 draws with only one innings lead. Certainly more was needed. So we stay in Group C for next year as well.

Coming Up Next - Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2014-15: Jharkhand Review

Here is how Jharkhand's run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy unfolded.

Game 1: vs Tripura - Won by 8 Wickets

Game 2: vs Bengal - Lost by 163 Runs

Game 3: vs  Assam - Lost by 7 Wickets

Game 4: vs  Odisha - Won by 45 Runs

So won 2 and lost 2 and then knocked out on basis of inferior net run rate. The huge defeat against Bengal really hurt them in the final calculations. 

Highlights for Jharkhand

• Saurabh Tiwary's back to the wall century against Assam. He is becoming an expert in playing these kind of knocks.
• New import Rituraj Singh's 5 wicket haul against Tripura

Top Scorers

1. Virat Singh - 170 @56.67
2. Saurabh Tiwary - 154 @77
3. Kumar Deobrat - 128 @42.67

Top Wicket takers

1. Rahul Shukla - 7 @21.57
2. Jaskaran Singh - 7 @29.57
3. Rituraj Singh - 6 @29.17

The disappointing run continues. But lets hope the team performs better in the Ranji Trophy with the first game against Zonal mates Assam starting on December 14th.