Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy 2021: Bihar Review

Bihar had a good run in the tournament. Won all their games in the Plate League and with Nagaland-Chandigarh match called off got sole pole position to qualify for the Quarter-Finals. The Ashutosh Aman lead side had its moments against Rajasthan but fell short in the end. This was the first televised game for this lot, so lets see if any of them have got the eye of the IPL scouts. 

Game 1: Bihar 122/10 (20) beat Arunachal Pradesh 104/9 (20) by 18 runs 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman 3/17, Sachin Kumar 3/22 

T20 Debut: Amod Yadav, Rahul Kumar, Sachin Kumar, Sakibul Gani, Vikash Yadav 

Game 2: Sikkim 110/8 (20) lost to Bihar 111/2 (19.1) by 8 wickets 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman 4/18, Mangal Mahrour 55 (46) 

Game 3: Meghalaya 89/9 (20) lost to Bihar 92/4 (16) by 6 wickets 

Highlights: Anuj Raj 3/15, Ashutosh Aman 2/15, Shasheem Rathour 2/17 & 33 (28) 

T20 Debut: Anuj Raj, Akash Raj 

Game 4: Manipur 105/8 (20) lost to Bihar 107/1 (17.1) by 9 wickets 

Highlights: Amod Yadav 4/17, Shasheem Rathour 60* (40) 

Game 5: Mizoram 83/8 (20) lost to Bihar 84/4 (12.4) by 6 wickets 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman 4/9 

T20 Debut: Mohit Kumar 

Bihar topped the Plate Group and reached the Quarter-Finals 

Quarter-Finals: Rajasthan 164/5 (20) beat Bihar 148/4 (20) by 16 runs 

Highlights: Mangal Mahrour 68* (58) 

T20 Debut: Suraj Kashyap 

Season Stats 

Highest Scorers 

1. Mangal Mahrour 168 @ 33.60, 2x50s 
2. Shasheem Rathour 142 @ 28.40, 1x50 
3. Babul Kumar 108 @ 27.00 

Highest Wicket-takers 

1. Ashutosh Aman 16 @ 7.63 
2. Amod Yadav 7 @10.86 
3. Samar Qaudri 6 @ 17.83 

Best Batting: Mangal Mahrour 68*vs Rajasthan 

Best Bowling: Ashutosh Aman 4/9 vs Mizoram 

Players Used: 15 

T20 Debut: 9

Coming Up Next: Vijay Hazare Trophy 

P.S. Incidentally, this is the 500th post on this blog!

2018-19 Ranji Trophy: Bihar Review

On their return to first-class cricket, Bihar had a decent outing finishing 2nd in the group. However, their fate was effectively sealed in the first game itself against Uttarakhand, or to be more precise when they were shot out for 60 in the very first innings. There were more early jitters as the game against Puducherry was washed out, leaving them with a mountain to climb. This proved to be too big an ask for Bihar as they finished 4 points of adrift of Group winners Uttarakhand and missed a knock-out berth. 

Ashutosh Aman was the stand-out performer with 68 wickets at an average of 6.49. He broke Bishan Singh Bedi’s record for most wickets in a single Ranji season. Picked up nine 5-wicket hauls and five 10-wicket match hauls in just 8 games, including one wash-out. And also scored a century to finish the season with a batting average of 48+. Rewarded with captaincy by the time the season ended. 

Samar Quadri had a good season after shifting to Bihar from Jharkhand ably supporting Ashutosh Aman with 35 wickets. 

Bihar lost captain Pragyan Ojha due to injury quite early in the season and had Babul Kumar and Ashutosh Aman leading the side as the season progressed. 

Round 1: Bihar (60 & 169) lost to Uttarakhand (227 & 4/0) by 10 wickets: Bihar 0 Points. Effectively the game which decided the group topper. 

First Class Debut: Vikash Ranjan, Kumar Rajnish, Vivek Mohan, MD Rahmatullah, Ashutosh Aman, Anunay Singh, Himanshu Hari 

Round 2: Bihar had a break 

Round 3: Bihar vs Puducherry: Abandoned after toss: Bihar 1 Point 

First Class Debut: Harsh Singh, Indrajit Kumar, Vishal Das, Vivek Kumar 

Round 4: Bihar (288 & 296/7d) beat Sikkim (81 & 108) by 395 runs: Bihar 6 Points. 

First Class Debut: Utkarsh Bhaskar 

Player of the Match: Ashutosh Aman 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman (89 in 1st, 5/19 & 5/22), Samar Quadri (5/32 in 2nd) 

Round 5: Arunachal Pradesh (84 & 135) lost to Bihar (536/5d) by an innings & 317 runs: Bihar 7 Points. 

First Class Debut: Rehan Khan 

Player of the Match: Indrajit Kumar 

Highlights: Indrajit Kumar (222), Ashutosh Aman (4/26 & 7/14) 

Round 6: Meghalaya (125 & 46) lost to Bihar (242) by an innings & 71 runs: Bihar 7 Points. 

Player of the Match: Ashutosh Aman 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman (8/51 & 6/17) 

Round 7: Bihar (150 & 2504/8d) beat Nagaland (209 & 173) by 273 runs: Bihar 6 Points. 

First Class Debut: Mangal Mahrour 

Player of the Match: Ashutosh Aman 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman (7/47 & 5/49), Mangal Mahrour (177 in 2nd), Rahmatullah (107 in 2nd) 

Round 8: Bihar (440/97d) beat Mizoram (77 & 147) by innings & 216 runs: Bihar 7 Points. 

First Class Debut: Anshuman Gautam, Abhijeet Saket 

Player of the Match: Ashutosh Aman 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman (111, 1/20 & 5/28), Vivek Kumar (102) Samar Quadri (6/19 & 4/50) 

Round 9: Manipur (156 & 238) lost to Bihar (257 & 140/7) by 3 wickets: Bihar 6 Points. 

First Class Debut: Aditya Kumar, Kundan Gupta 

Player of the Match: Indrajit Kumar 

Highlights: Ashutosh Aman (4/39 & 7/71), Samar Quadri (5/49 & 3/93) 

Season Stats 

Top Scorers: 

1. MD Rahmatullah – 375 @34.09
2.  Ashutosh Aman – 337 @48.14 
3. Indrajit Kumar– 307 @43.86 

Highest Score – Indrajit Kumar 222 vs Arunachal Pradesh

Most Wickets 

1. Ashutosh Aman – 68 @6.49 
2. Samar Quadri– 35@15.54
3. Vivek Kumar– 15@26.20 

Best Bowling – Ashutosh Aman – 8/51 vs Meghalaya 

Player Count: 23

Debutantes: 18

Captain Count: 3 , Pragyan Ojha, Babul Kumar, Ashutosh Aman

Coming Up Next: Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy

Ranji Trophy 18-19: Bihar vs Uttarakhand

Match Summary: Bihar (60 & 169) lost to Uttarakhand (227 & 4/0) by 10 wickets

Points: Bihar 0, Uttarakhand 7

A terrible return to first-class cricket for Bihar, getting knocked over for 60 in the first innings against the pace of Deepak Dhopola. Only some lower order resistance in the second ensured that Bihar avoided a follow-on. But Uttarakhand still got the bonus point victory in a game which finished within 5 sessions. Also dents the chances for qualifying given that Uttarakhand were expected to be the main rivals for the sole spot from this group.

Highlights:

• Playing XI: Vikash Ranjan (wk), Kumar Rajnish, Babul Kumar, Vivek Mohan, Keshav Kumar, MD Rahmatullah, Ashutosh Aman, Pragyan Ojha (c), Samar Quadri, Anunay Singh, Himanshu Hari
• First Class Debut: Vikash Ranjan, Kumar Rajnish, Vivek Mohan, MD Rahmatullah, Ashutosh Aman, Anunay Singh, Himanshu Hari
• Ashutosh Aman’s 4-wicket haul in the first innings.

Season Stats:

• Top Scorer: Samar Quadri – 41 @ 21.50 (who would have thought!)
• Top Wicket-Taker: Ashutosh Aman – 4 @ 9.50
• Player Count – 11

Points Tally: 0 from 1 game. Currently bottom of the group.

Coming Up Next – Puducherry who are going to play their 1st game of the season.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 18-19: Bihar Review

Bihar made an excellent comeback to the big leagues, topping the Plate group and reaching the Quarter-finals. It was a team of newcomers with 14 players making their List debuts during the campaign. They were also not helped by the loss of Pragyan Ojha midway through the campaign. Ojha led the side till a mid-campaign injury sidelined him and Keshav Kumar took over in his place. Short summary of the team’s performance follows. 

Game 1: Nagaland 253/8 (50) lost to Bihar 254/2 (43.4) by 8 wickets 

Key Performers: Babul Kumar 121*, Keshav Kumar 76* & 2/35, Samar Quadri 3/35 

List A Debut: Vikas Ranjan, Kundan Sharma, Babul Kumar, Anunay Singh, Rohit Raj, MD Rahmatullah, Diwan Khan 

Game 2: Uttarakhand 160/10 (43.2) lost to Bihar 163/5 (37.3) by 5 wickets 

Key Performers: Vikas Ranjan 79, Anunay Singh 3/21, Samar Quadri 3/37 

List A Debut: Ashish Sinha 

Game 3: Bihar vs Puducherry – Match abandoned due to rain. 

Game 4: Bihar 211/9 (50) beat Meghalaya 103/10 (42.5) by 108 runs 

Key Performers: Samar Quadri 5/22, Ashutosh Aman 3/15 

List A Debut: Anshuman Gautam 

Keshav Kumar led the side in Pragyan Ojha’s absence 

Game 5: Arunachal Pradesh 145/10 (45.3) lost to Bihar 150/5 (26) by 5 wickets 

Key Performers: Keshav Kumar 5/23, Ashutosh Aman 3/15, Babul Kumar 57 

Game 6: Bihar 338/6 (50) beat Sikkim 46/10 (31) by 292 runs 

Key Performers: Rahmatullah 156*, Babul Kumar 92, Keshav Kumar, 3/7, Anunay Singh 3/12 

List A debut: Eshaan Ravi 

Record: Biggest victory margin in runs in List A history in India 

Game 7: Manipur 172/8 (50) lost to Bihar 176/2 (29.1) by 8 wickets 

Key Performers: Rehan Khan 3/39, Babul Kumar 100*, Rahmatullah 50* 

For Manipur, Yashpal Singh scored 134 out of the 172 runs! 

List A debut: Kumar Mridul 

Game 8: Mizoram 83/10 (27.2) lost to Bihar 87/1 (15.4) by 9 wickets 

Key Performers: Keshav Kumar 4/21, Ashutosh Aman 3/2, Vikas Ranjan 59* 

List A debut: Manish Rai 

Bihar topped the group and qualified for the Quarter-Finals 

Quarter-Finals: Bihar 69/10 (28.2) lost to Mumbai 70/1 (12.3) 

List A Debut: Vijay Bharti, Sabir Khan 

Overall, a good run for Bihar!They have got a promotion to Group C of the tournament next year, which is a tougher group to qualify through!  

Coming up next: Ranji Trophy also in the Plate League. Given the recent performances and relative strengths of the sides, Bihar should be able to make it through to the quarters from this group. 

Season Stats 

Highest Scorers 

1. Babul Kumar – 419 @ 83.80 with 2 centuries (earlier represented Jharkhand)
2. Rahmatullah – 256 @ 85.33 with 1 century
3. Vikas Ranjan – 247 @35.29 

Most Wickets 

1. Keshav Kumar – 15 @ 9.40 
2. Ashutosh Aman – 15 @ 8.40 
3. Samar Quadri – 12 @ 16.25 (who earlier represented Jharkhand)

Highest Score – Rahmatullah 156 vs Sikkim 

Best Bowling – Samar Quadri 5/22 vs Meghalaya 

Players Used – 18 with 14 List A debutantes

Ranji Trophy 16-17: Jharkhand vs Saurashtra

Match Summary: Saurashtra (277 & 144) lost to Jharkhand (477) by innings and 46 runs 

Points: Jharkhand 7, Saurashtra 0

Saurashtra were knocked off quickly on the first day. Although their tail wagged a bit to take the score to 277. Ashish Kumar and Shahbaz Nadeem were the wreckers in chief. In reply the Jharkhand batsmen blazed away with Ishan Kishan and Ishank Jaggi blasting big 100s with Jharkhand scoring 477 at a run rate of 4.58! Saurashtra ere knocked over quickly in the second innings with Samar Quadri picking 4 and Ashish picking 3 wickets.

Jharkhand even got the bonus point as they recorded their 3rd win of the season and seem set to qualify for the knock-outs for second year in a row.

Highlights

• Team Changes: In - Ajay Yadav, Sumit Kumar Samar Quadri. Out - Virat Singh, Sunny Gupta, Vikash Singh. 
• 14th first class century for Ishank Jaggi and his 3rd of this season. He also completed 4000 career runs.
• 4th first class century for Ishan Kishan, who also recorded his third of the season. Maybe its a good idea to take the keeping gloves off him.
• Ishank Jaggi received the Man-of-the-Match award.

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Ishan Kishan 595 @74.38

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 29 @33.79
Player Count: 16

Points Tally - 26 after 6 games to retain 2nd spot behind Karnataka (29 from 5). Meanwhile Saurashtra remain in last place. Chances of qualification looking very bright at the moment.

Coming Up Next - Jharkhand sit out the next round of games before taking on 7th place  Assam

Ranji Trophy 15-16: Jharkhand vs Himachal Pradesh

Match Summary: Jharkhand (337) beat Himachal Pradesh (133 & 133) by an innings & 71 runs

Points: Jharkhand 7, Himachal Pradesh 0 

Jharkhand team seems to have found a rich vein of form just at the right time. A second straight innings victory that too against Himachal Pradesh has propelled them into the 3rd place in the table with a very realistic chance of making it into the knock-outs.

It was a strange match. A tale of two different days. On Day 1, Jharkhand ran up a total of 306 for the loss of 4 wickets riding on the back of some excellent to order batting with Shiv Gautam scoring a brilliant 122.  It looked like a match to be decided on the first innings lead basis. Then on second day, it was a dramatic change as first Jharkhand collapsed to 337 all out and then Himachal were knocked out for 133. Twice. Within a day. Wonder what went wrong for the batsmen.

Day 1: 306/4
Day 2: 297/26

Game Notes

• Shahbaz Nadeem remains the captain. 
• Team Changes: Out went the seamers Ajay Yadav and Rahul Shukla and in came the spinners Samar Quadri and Sonu Singh.
• Sonu Singh made his first class debut
• 2nd first-class century for Shiv Gautam.
• Samar Quadri reached the milestone of 100 First-Class wickets in his 30th game.
• Nadeem registered his career-best figures of 7/45 which is his 8th career fifer and third for the season 
• This is quite a depleted Jharkhand squad with Varun Aaron on national duty while youngsters Ishan Kishan & Virat Singh are currently away on national Under-19 duty. 

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary 462 @ 46.20

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 40 @ 16.40
Player Count: 21 from 7 Games
Captain Count: 3 from 7 Games

Points Tally - 24 after 7 games. Moved up two places to 3rd. Now, lying 1 points behind Kerala who are currently in place for the second knock-out spot from the Group. Jharkhand are now in a 5-way race for the two Group C knock-out berths. A win should be good enough to secure the second place otherwise may need a combination of favorable results for a place in the quarter-finals.

Coming Up Next - Away game against 7th placed Hyderabad. Would follow keenly the other Group C games specially Kerala vs Himachal Pradesh which might turn out to be straight shootout for the 2nd berth behind Saurashtra who take on J&K, while Services, who have an outside chance take on Tripura.

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

Ranji Trophy 14-15: Jharkhand vs Goa

Match Summary: Jharkhand (385 & 55/2  beat Goa (215 & 233 f/o) 

Points: Jharkhand 6, Goa 0

Finally Jharkhand managed to secure a win, albeit it was against bottom placed Goa. Yet it is still a win.

Jharkhand batted first. Saurabh Tiwary's 162 and Shiv Gautam's 76 built a solid platform which they weren't able to fully capitalize on. A typical lower order collapse saw the team manage only 385. But even this was enough to make Goa follow-on. Quadri and Nadeem again ran through the Goan lineup and Jharkhand had a meager target of 55 in the 4th innings. They were certainly in with a chance to secure the bonus point but a couple of early blows put that possibility out of equation. And Jharkhand moved on to an 8 wicket victory.

Highlights:

• Saurbah Tiwary's 3rd century of the season.
• Samar Quadri's 9 wicket match haul
• Shabaz Nadeem's 6 wicket match haul

Season Stats:

Top Scorer: Ishank Jaggi 607 @75.88

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 24 @24.04

Standings - 15 points from 7 games. Stay in the 6th place. They can move up a couple of spots depending on the next set of results.

Coming Up Next - 8th ranked Services. 

Ranji Trophy 14-15: Jharkhand vs Tripura

Match Summary: Jharkhand (142 & 409/8d) drew with Tripura (362 & 12/0)

Points: Jharkhand 1, Tripura 3

This was supposed to be an easy home encounter against the perennial minnows. Yet Jharkhand managed to barely hang in after innings defeat was looming up.

Jharkhand made three changes from the 1st game with Subroto Ghosh, Manish Vardhan & Kumar Deobrat replacing Ishan Kishan, Virat Singh and Rituraj Singh. After choosing to bat first they were knocked out cheaply in the 1st innings. In reply, Tripura batted long and took a big lead. Jharkhand stuttered again. An innings defeat was certainly on cards as tripura looked good to record only their 8th ever outright first class victory. However Ishank Jaggi and the tail put in an excellent rearguard and batted out the match. It was fantastic batting by Jaggi after a rather lacklustre start to the season. Jaggi scored his 2nd career first class double hundred and endured that Jharkhand scraped through with a point.

Highlight - Ishank Jaggi's match-saving career-best 201 not out in the second innings. Also Kumar Deobrat's solid contributions in both innings. Scoring 75 out of team's 142 makes a special innings

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Ishank Jaggi 238 runs @79.33

Most Wickets: Samar Quadri - 8 wickets @22.75

Standings: 4 points from 2 games. Currently in 6th place. Need to get in some outright victories to secure a knockout berth.

Coming Up Next: Kerala who are one place and 2 points ahead of Jharkhand.

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand Season Review

Match Summary: Punjab (516) defeated Jharkhand (216 & 127) by an innings and 173 runs

Points: Jharkhand 0, Punjab 7

An absolute thrashing, Disaster in Dhanbad - I would call it. And with this defeat and Haryana securing 3 points against Odisha, Jharkhand head back to Group C. Only highlight from this game would be Rameez Nemat's opening knocks in both innings.

Season Review

Nothing much to write about Jharkhand's performance this season. It has been a disappointing season on most counts. No wins at all and 3 losses including those to Odisha and Haryana. last year's quarter-finalists finish bottom of Group A and are now relegated to group C (alongwith their fellow promotee Services who also head back to after one season in Group B). Somehow I feel given the group compositions, qualifying would be easier from Group C despite only 2 teams getting selected from that group. Maybe BCCI could look at evening out the groups and having different qualification knockout format.

The season's highlight would be the performance against Mumbai. Even in that there was a chance to go for a win which Jharkhand did not go for. This did prove quite crucial in the end.

Saurabh Tiwary was consistent throughout the season with 238 (out of a total of 351) against Mumbai being the highlight. This incidentally is the highest first class score by any Jharkhand batsman. Unfortunately most of the time Tiwary was fighting a lone battle while the rest of the batting collapsed around him.

Varun Aaron came back from injury and had a decent enough season which earned him a recall to the Indian national team. But more would have been expected of him. 

The skipper Shahbaz Nadeem had a decent all round year but did not match last year's levels.

Overall the team seemed out of depth against the Group A teams. Also the imports Thaker & Thakkar were not really upto mark and by the end of the season both had been dropped from the playing XI. I think getting average first class players from other states certainly will not help the team's cause. The likes of Aakash Chopra, Kanitkar, S Sriram, Amol Mazumdar are the ones the team should target (not necessarily the same ones). 

Season Stats

Leading Scorers

Saurabh Tiwary - 854 runs @65.69

Rameez Nemat - 472 runs @42.91

Ishank Jaggi - 373 runs @28.69

Top Innings - Saurabh Tiwary - 238 vs Mumbai

Most Wickets

Shahbaz Nadeem - 21 @34.05

Varun Aaron - 20 @21.95

Samar Quadri - 17 @24.53

Top Performance - Samar Quadri - 6/65 vs Vidarbha

Hoping for a much better Ranji season next year. 

Coming up Next - Vijay Hazare Trophy in the first week of March.

Ranji Trophy 13-14: Jharkhand vs Vidarbha

Match Summary: Jharkhand (332 & 161/9d) drew with Vidarbha (218 & 164/3)

Points: Jahrkhand 3, Vidarbha 1

Not a great performance overall but Jharkhand take away 3 crucial points from their encounter against Vidarbha. For a change Saurabh Tiwary failed, albeit only in the 1st innings but also for a change the likes of Nemat, Jaggi and Kumar Deobrat helped to prop the innings. Samar Quadri then recorded the best season fugures by any Jharkhand bowler to give a chance for an outright victory. But a familiar second innings collapse put paid to such hopes. They did set a target of 276 runs but Vidarbha ran out of time and the game petered out into a draw.

Season Stats:

Leading Scorer: Saurabh Tiwary - 815 runs @74.09

Top Wicket-taker: Varun Aarom - 18 wickets @20.28

Standings: 9 points from 7 games. Moved upto 8th place. Relegation fight with bottom placed Haryana (7 points) is on. 

Coming Up Next - Last game of the season. Against Punjab who have the likes of  Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Manpreet Gony and Jiwanjot Singh in their ranks. The match could be quite critical to avoid being relegated back to Group C. 

P.S. If you are a Jharkhand fan, you might like to keep an eye on Haryana's last game against Odisha.

Ranji Trophy - 2012-13: Jharkhand Team

For the upcoming Ranji season, this is the team selected to represent Jharkhand for the first 2 games.

Shahbaz Nadeem (c), Manish Vardhan (vc), Deepak Chogule, Kumar Deobrat, Shiv Gautam (wk), Sunny Gupta, Amir Hashmi, Ishank Jaggi, Jaskaran Singh, Rameez Nemat, Samar Quadri, Shiv Shankar Rao, Rahul Shukla, Saurabh Tiwary, Ajay Yadav.

Jharkhand's Ranji record is nothing much to speak of. Hopefully they will get some success in the revamped Ranji format. MS Dhoni playing any game looks a very remote possibility but Varun Aaron might get a few games if he is fit. 

The victory of East Zone in the Duleep Trophy owed quite a lot to the contributions from the Jharkhand boys, in the absence of some key players appearing in the Champions League. Centuries by Saurabh Tiwary in the semi-finals and Ishank Jaggi in the final were the chief contributors to the East Zone victory. 

Performance of the Jharkhand boys in the semi-finals against South Zone - 

• Manish Vardhan (5 & 0)
• Saurabh Tiwary (145 & 0)
• Shiv Gautam (11 & 4)
• Samar Quadri (4 &1, 2/37 & 0/4)

Finals vs Central Zone

• Ishank Jaggi (100*)
• Saurabh Tiwary (0)
• Shiv Gautam (34 & 4*)

Will make an attempt to capture the team's fortunes through this blog. 

Here is wishing all the best to Shahbaz Nadeem and team for the Ranji Trophy. 

Ranji Trophy 2011-12 - Jharkhand Update -2

Sometime back had written about Jharkhand's performance in the first 2 rounds of Ranji Trophy. Since then 3 more rounds have been held. here is a small piece on the team's performance. Jharkhand had collected a total of 3 points after the 1st 2 rounds and were placed at the bottom of the pile.

In the 3rd round Jharkhand took on Maharashtra at Nashik. Maharastra batted first and got to 460 with good contributions from their top order. The captain Shahbaz Nadeem picked up 4 wickets, while keeper Shiv Gautam had a good outing with 6 catches and a stumping. In reply Jharkhand were all out for 283 with Rameez Kemat & Gautam scoring half centuries. Following on Jharkhand managed 1 run less in their 2nd outing with opener Manish Vardhan getting 88. Maharastra was set a victory target of 106 runs which they achieved in 21 overs for the loss of 1 wicket. Points - Maharastra - 5, Jharkhand - 0.

The 4th round was a home game at Dhanbad against Assam. Assam racked up a big score of 502 in the 1st innings with 3 centurions. Shahbaz Nadeem was once again the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets for 170 runs in 61 overs, while Samar Quadri picked 3 for 158 in 51 overs. In reply, Ishank Jaggi scored a daddy hundred (188) while the keeper Shiv Gautam scored 82. The duo was involved in 200+ partnership. There were hardly any other contributions though and the team  conceded a big 1st innings lead. In the 2nd innings Assam's Dheeraj Jadhav scored his 2nd hundred of the match. Points: Assam -3 & Jharkhand -1.

The 5th & final round saw the team take on Goa at Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur, the only ground to have hosted international cricket in the state. (India has probably their poorest home ODI track record in this ground, 1 win against 7 losses). Jharkhand batted first and managed 218 runs with Manish Vardhan top scoring with 84. In reply Goa were knocked out for 189 with Quadri picking a 5-for. 2nd time around Jharkhand scored 204 with Vardhan again top scoring with 67. Chasing a victory target of 234, Goa were seemingly cruising at 133/1 before collapsing to 188 all out. The spin duo of Nadeem & Quadri was once again in action with Nadeem taking 5 & Quadri 4. The 45 run victory gave Jharkhand 5 points for its only outright victory of the season while Goa got 0 points.

Overall Jharkhand finished with 9 points from its 5 matches and finished 4th in the group, thus failing to reach the play-offs. Absence of Aaron was definitely felt, though it was the poor form of the Saurabh Tiwary which hurt the team most. Manish Vardhan, Shiv Gautam & Ishank Jaggi were the regular contributors with the bat while Shahbaz Nadeem & Samar Quadri were good with the ball. 

Bad luck this time around, hopefully will do better next year.

P.S. Only 5 first class matches for the entire year sounds too little cricket to me. And all this within a 6 month period. Maybe a 3 level league with 9 teams each could be a better solution. That would ensure at least more matches for all teams. The Duleep Trophy & Deodhar trophy can be done away to ease out the calendar.

P.P.S. Once again thanks to the operator of the twitter handle @ranjiscores for doing a stellar job of providing regular score updates from across all matches happening in the Plate & Elite leagues. Something which BCCI should be doing through their own account.