The best of the rest
So the Ranji Trophy did come home, as someone quaintly put it
Partab Ramchand
25-Apr-2000
So the Ranji Trophy did come home, as someone quaintly put it. When a
team wins the national competition for the 34th time in 66 years, it
certainly is the apt expression. And there is little doubt that Mumbai
were deserving winners - even if they just about squeaked past Tamil
Nadu in the semifinal. Displaying teamwork, a tenacity of purpose and
riding on the prodigious gifts of Sachin Tendulkar, the team proved
that even if the days of `Mumbai cricket is Indian cricket' is long
past, they still remain the side to beat by pulling off their fourth
triumph in the last seven years.
Naturally some of the finest individual feats during the season were
performed by Mumbai players. Tendulkar scored 427 runs in two matches
to head the averages - 213.50. Vinod Kambli showed that whatever
doubts remain as to his record at the international level, he remains
a monarch at the domestic level - 866 runs at an average of
61.85. Amol Muzumdar, Jatin Paranjpe and Wasim Jaffer all crossed the
600 run mark. Rajesh Pawar proved his rising stature by taking 44
wickets at 20.81 apiece. Abey Kuruvilla in his farewell season was
still good enough to take 32 wickets at an average of 20.62.
And yet the Mumbai cricketers were not the only players to have the
spotlight turned on them. Batsmen and bowlers from other states in
fact dominated the season even more than members of the winning
team. And heading the list was Hyderabad's VVS Laxman who set the
record aggregate for a Ranji season - 1415 runs at 108.84, as also the
record for most number of centuries - eight. The second was indeed a
bewildering feat for they were made in just nine matches.
Close behind Laxman was Sridharan Sriram of Tamil Nadu who also
crossed the 1000 run mark - 1075 runs at 89.58. Then there were many
who crossed the 800 run mark. Tamil Nadu left hander Sridharan Sarath
had 863 runs at 66.38; Punjab's Pankaj Dharmani scored 830 runs at
83.00; Hyderabad's Md Azharuddin had 815 runs at 81.50, Hyderabad
opening batsman A Nandakishore made 815 runs at 40.75 and Orissa's SS
Parida hit 804 runs at 67.00. Punjab captain Vikram Rathour just
missed that mark but got 796 runs at 56.85. Among those whose
opportunities were confined to the zonal league, Abijit Kale of
Maharashtra was outstanding. He scored 563 runs in only four games at
112.60.
Among the bowlers, 42-year-old Hyderabad off spinner Kanwaljit Singh
finished top of the heap with 62 wickets, just two short of Bishen
Bedi's all time record set up in 1974-75. But he played 12 matches and
paid out 25.20 runs per wicket. Bengal's veteran left arm spinner
Utpal Chatterjee was more niggardly. In eight games, he took 52
wickets at an average of 18.80. Venkatpathi Raju was as expensive as
his comrade in arms Kanwaljit in finishing with 52 wickets at an
average of 25.84. Tamil Nadu off spinner Aashish Kapoor had a
successful season picking up 50 wickets but at a rather high cost of
26.08 each. Punjab's Sharandeep Singh fared better with 37 wickets at
19.43 apiece.
If spinners had it tough on the perfect batting tracks, the medium
pacers had an even more uphill task. Not surprisingly, only a handful
of them came off with credit. Tamil Nadu's S Mahesh, Uttar Pradesh's
Ashish Winston Zaidi and Karnataka's Venkatesh Prasad were among the
more successful. Mahesh's 37 wickets cost him 23.54 apiece. Zaidi took
42 wickets but at an average of 24.83. Prasad, who played in only four
matches, took 25 wickets at the impressive average of 16.00. Among the
bowlers whose opportunities were confined to the zonal league,
Railways' left arm spinner Karthik Murali was both successful and
inexpensive - he took 17 wickets in three games at an average of
10.11.
There were a handful of wicketkeepers who caught the eye. Tamil Nadu's
Reuben Paul was impressive. Not only did he have the season's best bag
of 33 victims - 29 of them caught - he also chipped in with 431 runs
at an average of 30.78. Karnataka's VST Naidu improved by leaps and
bounds as his tally of 25 victims and 507 runs will illustrate. But
there was little doubt that the leading wicketkeeper batsman of the
season was Bengal's Saba Karim who had 15 victims in six games and 416
runs. India keeper Nayan Mongia with 17 victims and 143 runs was way
down the list.
An astonishing fact was that very few of the established players had a
successful Ranji Trophy campaign. Players like Sourav Ganguly, Javagal
Srinath, Anil Kumble, Nikhil Chopra, Nayan Mongia, Ajit Agarkar and S
Ramesh hardly played in the competition and even if they did, most of
them did not fare very well. Rahul Dravid was perhaps the exception
but he played only one match, getting 220 runs in two innings.
Narrowing the field down to the most outstanding players of the
season, one would have to include the following: Batsmen: Laxman,
Sriram, Sarath, Dharmani, Azharuddin, Parida, Rathour, Kale. Bowlers:
Kanwaljit Singh, Venkatpathi Raju, Utpal Chatterjee, Venkatesh Prasad,
Mahesh, Zaidi, Murali Karthik. Wicketkeepers: Saba Karim, Reuben Paul,
VST Naidu. Narrowing the field further to a playing eleven will be an
immensely difficult target. But if it was a timeless game, one would
have to say that Rajiv Nayyar of Himachal Pradesh would be the first
choice. Any batsman who can be at the crease for 1015 minutes for 271
has to get the nod. It was certainly the endurance feat of the season.