Hoping Tamil Nadu to win the title - Ranji Finals

In the Semis this Season [2011-12]  Rajasthan defeated Haryana in a low scoring match, Tamil Nadu beat Mumbai by virtue of First innings lead.  The Finals will be a 5 day match to be held at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai from 19^th Jan 2012.    The finals is devoid of big names – there are some good players in both sides and obviously they have been instrumental in bringing their teams to the title clash.  Bist has scored heavily this season – so also has been Abhinav Mukund.  Rituraj Singh has been among wickets and bowled his team to victory in the Semis against Haryana.  There is Pankaj Singh also.  TN have the home advantage and their bowlers – Captain Lakshmipathi Balaji, 

Yo Mahesh, J Kaushik, Aushik Srinivas have all been bowling well.    The Tamilnadu Team would probably be : Mukund, Murali Vijay, S Badrinath, Dinesh Karthik, Vasudevadas, Ramaswamy Prasanna, Mahesh, Sunny Gupta, Balaji, J Kaushik and Aushik Srinivas.

Unlike Rajasthan, Tamilnadu is under tremendous pressure as it is after  7 long years, Team Tamil Nadu are in with a chance to lift the Ranji Trophy.  Statistically they are in the Finals for the 11^th time and have won it only twice.    The first Ranji Trophy was played here in Nov 1934 and Morapakkam Josyam Gopalan, delivered the first ball in Ranji history to N Curtis of Mysore. Here is how Team Tamil nadu nas performed in the Finals of Ranji Trophy.

Season	Winner	Runner-up
1954–55	Madras	Holkar
1987–88	Tamil Nadu	Railways
1935–36	Bombay	Madras
1940–41	Maharashtra	Madras
1967–68	Bombay	Madras
1972–73	Bombay	Tamil Nadu
1991–92	Delhi	Tamil Nadu
1995–96	Karnataka	Tamil Nadu
2002–03	Mumbai	Tamil Nadu
2003–04	Mumbai	Tamil Nadu

The Ranji Competition began before Independence in 1934-35 and the State Team won at Indore in 1955 defeating Holkar. Holkar put Madras in and Madras made 478 with CD Gopinath making 133.  Holkar were bowled out for 417.  Madras made 311 in its second innings with Kripal Singh scoring 91.   Balu Alaganan was the Captain and the victory margin was 46 runs.

Years later, in Mar 1988, Tamilnadu defeated Railways by an innings and 144 runs to win the Trophy.  This time they were lead by suave S Vasudevan, a great left arm bowler and a capable batsman.  The great team player he was – Vasudevan is often quoted for his simple life despite his significant achievements and longevity. He took over 200 wickets in Ranji partnering another great Srinivasan Venkatraghavan.  In  Jan 1980, he played for South Zone against touring Pakistanis and took the wickets of Zaheer, Imran and Mudassar – creditable achievement at that.  Unfortunately, he never played for the Zonal team even again. 

At Chepauk, in the Ranji finals, Railways won the toss and chose to bat.  Despite a century by NK Churi, Railways mustered 317 runs.  M Venkataramana who played for India as an Off spinner took 7 for 94 in 41.3 overs.    Tamilnadu opened with flamboyant left hander  UR Radhakrishnan and hard hitter VB Chandrasekhar.  The batting line up was Radha, VB, PC Prakash, M Senthilnathan, V Sivaramakrishnan, Robin Singh, D Girish (keeper),  L Siva, B Arun, Captain S Vasudevan and M Venkataramana. Most of the batsmen made runs :  the first wicket fell at 57; then a century partnership took it to 172; 92 run partnership for the 6^th wicket; 82 for 7^th wicket; 47 for the 9^th and another 84 runs for the last wicket took the tally to 709.  VB Chandrasekhar made 89; PC Prakash 50; V Siva 94; Robin Singh 131; L Siva 101; D Girish 55; Vasudevan 30 & Venkatramana 24 *.  Remember Sunil Valson, who had toured England for WC 1983 without opportunity play (infact he never got a chance to represent the Country) bowled unsuccessfully for 19-4-75-1.  In the Second, Railways were all out for 248 in 85 overs.  The genial Vasudevan led from front taking 7.  His figures read 37-12-59-7.

As you would know, the Title holder gets a chance to play Rest of India – that is Irani Trophy.  It was a real thriller of match in Oct 1988 which brought VB Chandrasekhar into National reckoning.   ROI captained by Arunlal made 433 with good contributions from IB Roy 60; Navjot Sidhu 86, Srikant Kalyani 93; Jeshwant 62.  S Vasudevan took 5 for 116.  Krish Srikkanth leading TN made 57 and TN were all out for 226.   Gopal Sharma took 6/69.  ROI made the blunder of batting again and this time were shot out for 132 in less than 50 overs with Vasudevan taking 4 and Srikkanth taking 3 for 14.  Chasing a target of 340, Srikkanth and VB Chandrasekhar plundered at will and TN made the required runs in 79 overs brining out a remarkable victory which remains etched in memory.  Hirwani and Gopal Sharma were hit to all parts of Chepauk. 

 Photo of Vasudevan from pttraveller.blogspot.com

The Cup winning match happened to be the last Ranji for Vasudevan -  most fitting finale, a grand moment of glory.  The victorious team went on to play in Australia in 1988.  Besides his other significant achievements, Vasudevan once took 8 catches in a Ranji match – that was against Goa in Nov 1986. 

L Balaji is a mature player now and perhaps a good Captain too.  He repeating the lofty achievement of S Vasudevan is what we are looking forward to……

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.