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Sunday, October 19, 2025

Jharkhand hands down a humiliating defeat to veteran Tamil Nadu

 

In Mahabharata, the region was referred as Kark Khand due to its location near Tropic of Cancer. In those days, the region  was a part of Magadha and Anga. In Mauryan period, this region was ruled by a number of states, which were collectively known as the Atavika (forest) states.

 


Are you following domestic season; unlikely you recognize this Cricketer !!  Sadly the cup of woes is complete for Tamil Nadu, yet another humiliating defeat in  Ranji trophy  - when will we get to see another Balu Alagannan or S Vaduevan ?? 

Jharkhand, the 28th  state of India was formed on November 15, 2000 after a long standing tribal movement for statehood. Jharkhand was earlier a part of Bihar, precisely it was then South Bihar, a highly mineral rich area with a substantial tribal population. The formation day  is the birth anniversary of tribal leader Birsa Munda who fought the British in the 1870s in the Chota Nagpur plateau. 

For Tamil Nadu, Ranji trophy title has been a pipe-dream save on two occasions : 1954-55 & 1987-88.  They have been runners-up 10 times, the last being 2014-15 season. 

At Coimbatore, in Elite Group A match -   little over an hour after lunch on Day 4, as Anukul Roy trapped Sandeep Warrier in front, the celebrations in Jharkhand ranks spoke much. In three meetings against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, they have won all, including twice this year alone in successive seasons. But none had been as astounding as the one in Coimbatore on Saturday, where they won by an innings & 114 runs to take home seven points.   

The scorecard reads : Tamil Nadu (fo) 93 & 212; Jharkhand won by an innings and 114 runs.  Player Of The Match - Ishan Kishan

 


Of the handful of Cricketers from Tamil Nadu who have played for India, there have been few pace-bowlers (includes medium pacers) starting with CR Rangachari, KJ Gopalan, the fastest from the State Thirumalai Ananthanpillai Sekar, Bharat Arun, Robin Singh, Laxmipathi Balaji, T Natarajan.  So the team’s reliance on spinners that would include Vaman Kumar, Srinivasan Venkatraghavan, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, WV Raman, M Venkatramana, mercurial GOAT Ravichandran Ashwin & Washington Sundar.   There have been players like R Vasudevan who excelled for the State but could not get a chance to play for India. 

Looking back, in Apr 1973 when Venkat led side lost to Wadekar’s Bombay in the finals – the new ball attack was Kalyanasundaram and P Mukund.  In Mar 92, when we lost to Delhi,  it was Diwakar VAsu and Robin Singh.  In Mar 2015 when Karnataka humiliated TN by defeating by an innings & 217 runs, new ball was shared by Lakshmipathy Balaji and Prasanth Parameswaran.                                                         

Going back even further there was this Triplicanite – MJ Gopalan, a double-international.  Morappakam Josyam Gopalan  from the village of Morappakam in Chingleput district, was discovered by C. P. Johnstone, one of the founding fathers of Madras cricket. He dismissed Jack Hobbs   in both innings in match against Vizianagaram; in the second he clean bowled the great man with a leg-cutter that pitched on the leg stump and took the off bail. Against Ceylon in 1933, he took a famous hattrick, the first in Chepauk.  When Ranji Trophy was inaugurated in 1934, Madras and Mysore (now Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) played the first match.  The very first ball of the tournament was delivered by legendary MJ Gopalan.    His only Test match was against England at Calcutta in early 1934. In 1935, he toured New Zealand with the Indian hockey team which enjoyed enormous success.  He missed out Berlin Olympics whence    team captained by Dhyan Chand,   won the gold medal.

 

At Coimbatore, there were handful of debutants. Jeganathan Hemchudeshan & Ambarish for TN;  Jatin Pandey, Rishav Raj & Shikhar Mohan for Jharkhand.  For J the recognizable player of Indian ranks was Ishant Kishan. It was in many ways inevitable from the moment Tamil Nadu let Jharkhand recover from 157/6 on Day 1 and eventually have 419 on board with Ishan Kishan playing a mature knock. The lone India cap holder, who is deemed not good enough for any format by the national selectors, is all it took for TN’s best laid plans to hit a wall. Thereafter, the batting crumbled at the first visibility of pressure, first getting shot out for 93 and in the second essay showing no signs of any corrective measures.  Jharkhand humbled former champions Tamil Nadu by an innings and 114 runs with young off-spinner Rishav Raj, playing his maiden first-class match, grabbing four wickets.   

 


Ishan Kishan scored 173; Gurjapneet took 4/71; in TN first  - debutant Jatin Pandey took 5/35; Sahil Raj 4/21;  in the 2nd – Rishav Raj took 4/499; Anukul Roy 3/42. 

Statistically, Jharkhand made their debut in 2004  against Saurashtra   and the match was drawn.  The Madras cricket team, now known as the Tamil Nadu cricket team, started playing in the Ranji Trophy on November 4, 1934, in the very first match of the inaugural season.  

The man at the start is Gurjapneet Singh, aged 25 bowling left arm medium fast, A 6'3" left-arm seamer, was born in Ludhiana (Punjab) and grew up in Ambala (Haryana), Gurjapneet moved to Chennai when he was about 17. Seven years later, on his Ranji Trophy debut against former champions Saurashtra, he bagged 6 for 22, the best figures in a first-class innings by a TN fast bowler at home since 2005-06. Gurjapneet's record haul included the prize scalp of Cheteshwar Pujara for a duck. 

Tamil Nadu has the best system, scores of former players, Coaches – but something wrong with players, selection and more .. .. sad for the die-hard Tamil Nadu fan.

 
Regards – S Sampathkumar
19.10.2025

 

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