Category Archives: first class match

Ravindra A Jadeja deserves the call for Indian Team

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Saurashtra all-rounder Ravindra A Jadeja, who was in excellent form in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy Series has caught the attention of the national selectors. Jadeja has been selected for the Indian Team for the short tour of Srilanka. His all-round performance in the current Ranji Trophy (scoring 739 runs and taking 42 wickets) has been rightly recognized by the national selectors.

Jadeja who bats left-hand and bowls left-hand orthodox spin, can play the role of an allrounder in the Indian team. He has the ability to score a quick 40 runs in the middle order and take a few quick wickets in the middle overs.

Jadeja was also part of India’s World Cup-winning Under-19 squad and the IPL champions Rajasthan Royals last year. I saw Jadeja’s performance under pressure in the Rajasthan Royals’ game against Kings XI Punjab in the IPL. Jadeja walked in when his team was down 4 wickets for just 99 runs on the board. His unbeaten 36 and valuable 69-run partnership with Watson helped in Rajasthan’s first victory. Jadeja appeared to be a very patient & cool-headed player when he took an important catch at long on in the IPL championship final against the Chennai Super Kings team.

I am sure that Jadeja will start with a bang and play with positive attitude and enthusiasm.

Longest First Class Innings

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In the current Ranji Trophy Series ( 2008-2009), Uttar Pradesh reached the Final because of the spirited innings by Shivakant Shukla. Shukla played the 4th longest in the history of Cricket. Shukla batted for 821 minutes, faced 529 balles & scored unbeaten 178 to take Uttar Pradesh through to the final. It is very difficult to play such a long innings without giving a chance or a half chance. Hats off to Shukla for all his concentration and Disciplined innings. Incidently when I looked at the statistics about the record longest innings,  Rajeev Nayyar, the Himachal Pradesh batsman holds the record for the longest first-class innings. Nayyar has announced his retirement very recently ( 2 weeks ago).  Nayyar batted for 1015 minutes , faced  728-balls and scored 271 against Jammu & Kashmir  in 1999-2000 for the record innings. Nayyar played only the domestic first class matches & his career spanned for 20 years.