Guts, glory and heartbreak.. all in one

If anyone missed the Ranji Trophy final today, well, I have nothing to say to you.

Because you missed the greatest ever advertisement for the longer version of the game in India for quite sometime.

Curators from all over India - this one goes out to you guys. Make pitches like these.

More about the match itself, Ganesh Satish and Manish Pandey almost took Karnataka to a glorious win over Mumbai. I had surmised earlier on Facebook to a friend, that if these guys were able to get a 100 runs before the next guy could come in, this match would be of some viewing.

And bingo. It happened.

Manish Pandey has had a wonderful season this year, and I think it's not going to be too long before he gets a chance to don national colours - with his excellent fielding ability, (if you haven't seen it, here goes --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQAD_ygfS_g) and of course, his belligerent batting. It was also heart-warming to see him use his intelligence, and pace his innings beautifully.

Let us not underestimate Ganesh Satish's innings. Sticking like glue at one end, and just giving Pandey the strike. If it weren't for him, Pandey wouldn't have been able to play freely.

Just when it looked like Karnataka almost had it in it's bag, the unthinkable happened. Pandey played at one turning away from Iqbal Abdulla, caught in 2 minds and was caught at slip. Cannot fault him for the stroke though, it was a pretty good piece of bowling.

Also thanks to Amiesh Saheba for giving Amit Verma out when there was D A Y L I G H T between bat and ball. I think this decision cost Karnataka the match, given the fact that they lost only by 6 runs. After Srinivas Venkataraghavan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasaraghavan_Venkataraghavan), I haven't seen a single good quality umpire produced by India.

Dhawal Kulkarni made up for his excruciating number of no-balls in the match (14+) by bowling a couple of PEACH deliveries to get rid of Stuart Binny and Vinay Kumar. Ajit Agarkar was inconsistent, but managed to pick up 5 wickets in the end. I think overall in this match, the rub of the green went Mumbai's way. And if the world had it's way, then maybe this match could have been awarded to both teams, simply because of the stupendous cricket they played.

Test Cricket in India (and I suppose elsewhere) will be alive and well after the people in charge take important notes from this match. What an exhibition of cricket!

If India had shown half the guts and intelligence Karnataka showed today, the result of the Idea Cup could have been different.

After this performance, and since I am not convinced with the kind of fast bowlers India is fielding in ODIs, I would be inclined to think that Agarkar deserves one last chance. What with his slippery pace and the talent to bowl yorkers. He even gives an option with his batting. I think he would be better than Sreesanth atleast at this point in time.

Elsewhere, we had Australia marauding Pakistan, finishing with 302/3 at the end of the first day's play http://www.cricinfo.com/ausvpak09/engine/current/match/406201.html . Ricky Ponting, let off on 0, made sure that the Pakistanis paid with 137*, with Michael Clarke giving him good support on 111*.

On a lighter note, trust the Pakistanis to give Ponting a chance to get to Tendulkar's century tally. :D

With England having won the toss and electing to bat on what seemed to be a juicy Wanderers wicket, the unthinkable happened (ha!). They were all out for 180, Dale Steyn picking up a 5fer and Morne Morkel getting 3. South Africa 29/0 at stumps - I would say, well on course to squaring the series, given the fact that Graham Onions isn't playing this test match and hence there's no chance of him leaving a sour taste in the Proteas's mouth. (pun intended) http://www.cricinfo.com/rsaveng09/engine/current/match/387573.html

All in all, a riveting day of cricket, and some unanswered questions and possibilities.

Cheers,

V