The 2016-17 Ranji season has brought with it, a major change in rule to tackle poor quality pitches prepared in some venues to provide an unfair advantage to home teams. This season will not have any home games. All games will be played in neutral venues.
While this may indeed end up achieving its goal, it does come with its fair share of ill fortune for some teams.
Having a home venue has 2 advantages - Familiarity of the home team to the settings, the pitch and the backing of the crowd.
Karnataka has been one of the teams in the past few seasons that has enjoyed a significant backing of the fan base. The crowd acts almost like another member on the field with its constant cheering of the home team.
Week 1 was a bye week for Karnataka.
The Opposition:
Karnataka kicked things off during week 2 against Jharkhand, who had been promoted from Group C by virtue of finishing in the top 2 in that group the previous season.
The Venue:
The match was played in Noida, "home venue" for the Afghanistan cricket team. The venue had hosted all the Duleep trophy matches in August and September and in almost all the matches, the spinners played a crucial role in the 3rd and 4th innings (top wicket taker in the 3rd and the 4th innings was invariably a spinner). So the pitch was expected to assist spinners in the 3rd and 4th innings.
The Squad:
The batting lineup, as expected, did not have KL Rahul and Manish Pandey. Rahul was still recovering from the injury suffered during the New Zealand test series and Pandey was part of the India ODI squad against the Kiwis. Kaunain Abbas was making his debut in the middle order in Pandey's spot. K Gowtham was the off spinner to take the spinners responsibility alongside Shreyas Gopal, the leggie.
The Match:
Batting first, Karnataka racked up 577 - helped largely by Samarth's double century and steady contributions through the order by Nair, Kaunain, CM Gautam and Shreyas Gopal. The plan was to bat the opposition out and then go for 20 wickets.
Vinay Kumar suffered a calf injury late on day 2. He would not be able to bowl effectively. This hampered the plans. On day 3, Karnataka managed to get 6 wickets but it was clear that the pitch was offering very little to the bowlers. With a bowler short, it also made sense to look at the long term and not go for broke in Game 1 and risk further bowler injury on an unresponsive pitch.
Hence, on Day 4, despite having dismissed Jharkhand for 374, Karnataka did not enforce the follow-on and, instead, batted out the day.
3 points from this one. On to Kolkata to face the Delhi squad led by Unmukt Chand and featuring a certain Rishab Pant.
While this may indeed end up achieving its goal, it does come with its fair share of ill fortune for some teams.
Having a home venue has 2 advantages - Familiarity of the home team to the settings, the pitch and the backing of the crowd.
Karnataka has been one of the teams in the past few seasons that has enjoyed a significant backing of the fan base. The crowd acts almost like another member on the field with its constant cheering of the home team.
Week 1 was a bye week for Karnataka.
The Opposition:
Karnataka kicked things off during week 2 against Jharkhand, who had been promoted from Group C by virtue of finishing in the top 2 in that group the previous season.
The Venue:
The match was played in Noida, "home venue" for the Afghanistan cricket team. The venue had hosted all the Duleep trophy matches in August and September and in almost all the matches, the spinners played a crucial role in the 3rd and 4th innings (top wicket taker in the 3rd and the 4th innings was invariably a spinner). So the pitch was expected to assist spinners in the 3rd and 4th innings.
The Squad:
The batting lineup, as expected, did not have KL Rahul and Manish Pandey. Rahul was still recovering from the injury suffered during the New Zealand test series and Pandey was part of the India ODI squad against the Kiwis. Kaunain Abbas was making his debut in the middle order in Pandey's spot. K Gowtham was the off spinner to take the spinners responsibility alongside Shreyas Gopal, the leggie.
The Match:
Batting first, Karnataka racked up 577 - helped largely by Samarth's double century and steady contributions through the order by Nair, Kaunain, CM Gautam and Shreyas Gopal. The plan was to bat the opposition out and then go for 20 wickets.
Vinay Kumar suffered a calf injury late on day 2. He would not be able to bowl effectively. This hampered the plans. On day 3, Karnataka managed to get 6 wickets but it was clear that the pitch was offering very little to the bowlers. With a bowler short, it also made sense to look at the long term and not go for broke in Game 1 and risk further bowler injury on an unresponsive pitch.
Hence, on Day 4, despite having dismissed Jharkhand for 374, Karnataka did not enforce the follow-on and, instead, batted out the day.
3 points from this one. On to Kolkata to face the Delhi squad led by Unmukt Chand and featuring a certain Rishab Pant.
No comments:
Post a Comment