Mumbai retains Ranji Trophy

Sanjay Manjrekar, skippering the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, looked visibly relieved after his team retained the national cricket championships for the 33rd time in 37 appearances in the final. "We owe it to our better frame of mind, and perfect coordination among our players," the Mumbai skipper said in Gwalior, after leading his side to a win on the basis of a 71-run lead in the first innings over Delhi.

Mumbai marked the first ever Ranji Trophy final to be played at a neutral venue and under floodlights, by regaining the trophy that had slipped away from them last year.

The flat batting track at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium proved, over the course of the game, a veritable graveyard for bowlers. Mumbai, batting first, totalled 630 in the first innings and in reply, Delhi got to 559 thanks to huge centuries by 22-year-old Ashu Dani (178) and Ajay Sharma (176). The two featured in a 313-run stand for the third wicket and looked, at one stage, like they would carry the side through to victory.

The dismissal of skipper and prolific run-getter Ajay Sharma in the first hour of play on the fifth day for 176 - just one run short of Raman Lamba's record 1,034 runs in a season - however turned the tide, and despite a 50-run partnership between Dani and Akash Malhotra for the fourth wicket, the Delhi challenge never really took off. The last six Delhi wickets fell for just 53 runs.

A major reason for the Delhi collapse was the tactics of skipper Sanjay Manjrekar who, realising that there was nothing in the wicket for his bowlers, went totally on the defensive and forced the Delhi batsmen to take increasing risks if they wanted to score runs. For medium pacers, Manjrekar employed a field of seven on the on and two on the off while for the slow bowlers he had five on the on and four on the off. In both cases, the bowlers consistently bowled on or outside the leg stump, making conventional run-scoring next to impossible.

At lunch, Delhi still seemed in with a chance, with the score on 445 for four and still needing 186 runs to take the crucial lead, and a maximum of 56 overs left to play in the day. Soon after the break, however, Dani's 712-minute vigil at the crease ended when he gave Sulakshan Kulkarni a record-breaking 38th dismissal for the season off Nilesh Kulkarni, and with that the Delhi challenge was as good as ended.

Manjrekar was all praise for his bowlers who toiled hard on an unfriendly strip, and said that Nilesh Kulkarni (4 for 143 in 74.4 overs) was the main architect of the win.

Asked if at any moment he felt that the match was going out of hand, Manjrekar responded: "Today, we were quite confident. Yesterday, though, we were a bit worried as Dani and Ajay Sharma were on song. I think Delhi left too many runs (on the fifth day, Delhi still needed 265 to take the first innings lead) for the last day, they should have got more runs yesterday to ease the pressure on the last day."

Asked about the innovations, most especially the playing of the game under floodlights, Manjrekar had some relevant points to make: "It is encouraging from the crowd's point of view. Switching to the new conditions was not easy for the players, however. The white ball needed us to make adjustments to our tactics, and with the ball being changed after every 50 overs, spinners didn't really get a good purchase."

One factor for concern, though, is the final scoreline. Over five days of play, 1,189 runs were scored for the loss of a mere 20 wickets - arguing a pitch on which batsmen would get runs provided they just stayed out there.

How relevant, the question bears asking, are such wickets? More so at a time when the Indian senior team has been caught out of its depth on the fast, result-oriented wickets of South Africa and, to a lesser extent, the West Indies?

Following the defeat in South Africa, administrators, former players and the media have been crying themselves hoarse for a reform in domestic cricket. The common thinking has been that Indian wickets are too batsman-friendly, permitting mediocre players to make tons of runs. They then get into the national team, and find themselves woefully out of their depth when they face top international bowling attacks on good competitive pitches.

The most startling fact underlining this is that in the ongoing season alone, as many as 34 players have walked into and out of the Indian side - a turnover unmatched by any other contemporary side. And player after player, riding great performances in domestic cricket, has walked into the national side and been seen to be totally mediocre in ability.

At such a time, should the final of the premier domestic tournament be played on perhaps the flattest batting track of them all?

The fact that the game, played over five days, had to be decided late on the last day on the basis of the first innings lead indicates that for all the brave words regarding the preparation of faster wickets, nothing has really changed in Indian domestic cricket.

Sanjay Manjrekar echoed, albeit guardedly, the general feeling of frustration when he said, "It was rather a let down that the game only lasted one innings each, instead of being decided over four innings. The preliminary stages of the competition were very competitive, a tighter contest here would have been fitting."