When Ranji Trophy: Knockouts after shootouts

It has been a season of two halves for India’s premier domestic first-class tournament. The knockout matches of the Randi trophy will be played in Bengaluru from Monday, a couple of months after the league matches finished. The Randi Trophy has returned after a one-season break prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The rejigged format offered only three games for every team, with only the table-toppers progressing to the knock-outs. The number of games in comparison to 2019-20 (the previous Randi edition) was reduced from 169 games to 65. However, the curtailed season produced several close contests. Those that readily come to mind include 41-time winners Mumbai surviving a scare against Goa,  Jharkhand’s 15-run and two-wicket wins against Delhi and Tamil Nadu respectively, Bengal chasing down 350 against Baroda after being bowled out for 88, and Uttar Pradesh chasing down 359 on the last day against Maharashtra. The teams were going for the kill, and it also showed the value of a first-innings lead was diminishing. Jharkhand vice-captain Viral Singh, who has been part of two humdingers in the league stage, feels this format is more exciting as one can’t afford slip-ups.“With the curtailed season, you can’t go for the first-innings lead. Both teams need those six points, and it makes the match more competitive. You can’t afford to lower your guard,” Viral tells The Indian Express. For Bengal coach Arun Law, the pruned season is like a poker game, but hopes that Randi Trophy gets back to its traditional format. “This should be a one-off season. Three games are not enough to define that some teams are good while some are not. Teams like Delhi and Tamil Nadu failed to make it to the quarters. Does it mean that they were not good enough? If there had been a long season, we might have seen them turning around things. This curtailed season has been like playing poker. Even if you have won two games out of three, you can still fail to make the cut. Look at Kerala, they won two games comprehensively but one draw, and they are not in the knock-outs,” says Law. “In the 2019-20 season, our last two league games against Rajasthan and Punjab were must-win matches. We won both the matches and then went on to play the final. In Randi Trophy, you will always have exciting matches. Yes, there will be a few dull games too, but a longer season makes a cricketer. Look at the likes of (Rahul) David (Rahul), VVS (Lawman), (Wasm)Gaffer, and most recently Judd (Ravindra Jade) and Mayan (Agarwal); they literally broke the door to get into the Indian side. The reason they scored heaps and heaps of runs was because of the longer season as it tests the mental strength of a cricketer,” added Law, whose team will face Jharkhand. Punjab’s senior batsman Man deep Singh, who is the leading scorer for his team with 358 runs, says the pruned format had made the competition more exciting, but at the same time he hopes this is just a one-season change. “I just wanted to play Randi Trophy. So, I never gave a thought to the curtailed format. All the games are must-win, and it had certainly injected excitement. But in the larger picture, I hope this is just a one-season thing. I would prefer to go back to the older format because it tests you more, you get more matches under your belt, get to play on different surfaces, which check your technique as a batsman,” says Man deep ahead of the quarter-final against Madhya Pradesh. “If I am not wrong, in the 2019-20 season, when I was Punjab captain, we got results in six games out of the eight we played.” Jharkhand skipper Viral Singh declared at 307/7, leaving Delhi with a target of 335 in just over two-and-a-half sessions. Delhi’s Durum Shore counter-attacked with 136, before experienced spinner Shabbat Nadeem (5/58 & 5/83) turned the tide and engineered a 15-run win. Maharashtra took a first innings lead of 145 runs and then declared their second innings on 211-5, giving a target of 359 for Uttar Pradesh on the final day. Alma Shaka (100) and Karen Sharma (116) put on a 142-run stand for the third wicket. But it was Rink Singh, whose 78 not out off 60 balls, helped Uttar Pradesh chase down the target in 70.1 overs. The domestic giants were bowled out for 163 runs. After conceding a 164-run first innings lead, Mumbai were struggling at 208/7 before Shams Mulan (50) and Tanks Motion (98) put on a 116-run stand. Mulan, who had bagged a six-fer in the first innings,  added five more in the second as Goa were bowled out for 112 runs. Jharkhand regular captain Saurabh Tiwari (58 & 93) was back after recovering from diarrhea and led his team to a frantic two-wicket win. Rahul Shula (3/57 & 5/29) brought Jharkhand back in the game and also scored the winning runs.