14/01/2017
‘Cricket With Dinesh Bhagwat-27’-RANJI---“खुदा मेहेरबान , तो गधा पेहेलवान” !RANJI-FINAL-2017
Congrats to Gujarat for winning the Ranji Trophy for the 1st time & creating history.
[1]Being a staunch Mumbai supporter, I am certainly saddened by Mumbai’s defeat.
[2] But I am more saddened & disappointed due to the manner in which Mumbai lost.
[3] No fight . NO ‘TYPICAL –NEVER-SAY-DIE-MUMBAI’ SPIRIT!
[4] NO CONTEST BETWEEN BAT & BALL. IF AT ALL THERE WAS A CONTEST, IT WAS BETWEEN BALL & BUTTER FINGERS…….YESSSSS, threeeeee mannnny catches dropped. Both sides did it, but Mumbai beat Gujarat hollow at it. Only on the 5th day, Mumbai dropped 4 simple regulation catches………sittersssss & did not even attempt 3; the ball flying at waist height between 2 closely placed slip fielders. In all , 7 catches dropped in Gujarat’s 2nd innings.
[5] It was a beautiful HARD green-top-seamers-friendly pitch with almost Aussie bounce & carry . No bowlers’ footmarks even on the 5th day ; leave alone crumbling ! No side should have scored 300 here. But the 300 mark was crossed in 3 innings ; which speaks volumes of the quality of the seamers & the poor catching ! Mumbai’s main strike bowler Shardul Thakur got his only wicket in the 2nd innings only when he himself took the catch……..others simply refused to take catches off his bowling ! Even R.P.Singh was not much successful.
[6] Gujarat’s ‘GENTLE-MEDIUM-PACER’ Gaja [112-118KPH] will attain instant stardom with his 6 wkt haul in Mumbai’s 2nd innings. He should not . He doesn’t deserve it. Each of his 6 wickets came from rash , brash &/OR stupid strokes from Mumbai batters. Not a single wicket came off a brilliant delivery.
[7] Prithwi Shaw & Vijay Gohil are poor fielders on any part of the ground.
[8] I have never seen such a poor fielding unit even in ‘underarm-box-gully’ cricket. In the 1960s & 70s people like Dilip Sardesai, Bishen Bedi & Prasanna had to be ‘hidden’ in the field. Yet, we used to have v.good slip & close-in fielders like Borde , Nadkarni, Sunny , Viswanath , Solkar , Venkat & Abid Ali. This Mumbai Team hasn’t any.
[9] My hats off to the ‘OLD WORK-HORSE’ who TROTS & FIGHTS LIKE A STUD OR A BULL……..SALUTE YOU ABHISHEK NAIR !
[10] NOW about the ‘MATCH-WINNING INNINGS’ OF 145 by Parthiv Patel. Yessss ; he did play a few lovely shots , but rode his luck heavily….He was dropped at least 4 times. At least 7 times, his inner edges[French cuts] did not hit the stumps , in spite of being perilously close. I can’t describe it as a responsible OR attacking OR positive knock. His aggression was almost idiotic. I would describe this knock as
“खुदा मेहेरबान , तो गधा पेहेलवान” ! I strongly recommend Parthiv Patel to buy the costliest & highest rewarding LOTTERY TICKET IN THE WORLD URGENTLY & ONLY THEN CELEBRATE HIS VICTORY !
Overall, this Ranji Final was disappointing & painful !
