Keen contests likely in Ranji Trophy pre-quarterfinals

With six Ranji Trophy pre-quarterfinals starting all over the country on Saturday (and a seventh commencing on Sunday), Indian domestic cricket is well and truly swinging into top gear. With all the leading players in the country away doing national duty in the second Test against Australia starting at the Eden Gardens at Kolkata on Sunday, the premier first class championship does lose some glamour. However, that is easily offset by two factors. Firstly, most teams have been without their big guns in any case. Secondly, it gives fringe players a chance to rise above the rest and once more stake a claim for national selection.

The match that will probably attract most of the attention will be the clash between Tamil Nadu and Delhi at Chennai. With both opponents being well matched, the game is likely to go down to the wire. The home side is without the services of Sadagoppan Ramesh and Hemang Badani who are away on national duty. However, the Delhi side is also left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra. But Sridharan Sriram has been in cracking form all season and will look to come good. The home side picked up 26 points in their league phase with just one outright win, against Goa by 203 runs. Delhi in turn secured 29 points, winning three games outright and yet ended up in second place behind Punjab who managed a whopping 40 points.

Speaking of Punjab, they play hosts to Rajasthan in what should be another interesting clash. The setting for that game is the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium to Mohali, which has always been one of the more sporting wickets in the country. Add to that the fact that Punjab is without both off spinners Sarandeep Singh and Harbhajan Singh and there is a case for preparing a wicket with a bit in it for the fast bowlers. Gagandeep Singh with 22 wickets thus far and Sandeep Sharma will be keen to have a go at the Rajasthan batsmen. In their own right, the Rajasthan batsmen are no mugs. With Gagan Khoda at the top of the order and youngsters like Nikhil Doru coming good, Rajasthan will back themselves to put up a good batting display.

Last year's runners up, Hyderabad will travel to Indore for their encounter with Madhya Pradesh. Hyderabad is another team without its big guns. Mohammed Azharuddin has been banned for life and the absence of Venkatapathy Raju and VVS Laxman, both on national duty, weakens the team. However, there will be a clash of veteran spinners as Kanwaljit Singh comes up against Narendra Hirwani.

Maharashtra take on Railways at the Poona Club, Pune. Maharashtra holds the home advantage in what would turn out to be a keenly fought contest. The men to watch for the hosts would be Abhijit Kale, who has scored 504 runs from four matches and Iqbal Siddiqui, who has claimed 19 from four matches so far. Maharashtra will bank on captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar's experience to guide them through. Railways would be looking to Reza Ali, Yere Goud and Amit Pagnis for runs as all of them have a century each this season. On the bowling front the spinning trio of Murali Kartik, TP Singh and right-arm off spinner Kulamani Parida would be a force to reckon with.

Baroda go into their Ranji Trophy encounter against Bengal with their nose ahead. Visitors Bengal are in for a tough match at the GSFC Ground in Baroda. Devang Gandhi leads Bengal in the absence of Sourav Ganguly, who will be in action at the Eden Gardens against the Aussies. Apart from Gandhi, Bengal will count on Rohan Gavaskar, Srikant Kalyani and Nikhil Haldipur to score heavily. Baroda will sorely miss Nayan Mongia and Zaheer Khan, who are in the national squad for the second Test. Possibly this match will be decided on the first innings lead, as is the case in domestic cricket in India. Baroda's main strength is also their batting and in this area they are well served by skipper Jacob Martin, Tushar Arothe, Connor Williams, Himanshu Jadhav and Ajit Bhoite.

Assam who has been the surprise package of the season, play host to the powerhouse from the south, Karnataka, at Guwahati. Assam are clearly the underdogs against the formidable Karnataka team who will be without Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad who are on national duty. Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, easily the best bowlers in India who are nursing injuries will also be missed. Assam will have to deal with the likes of Sunil Joshi, Dodda Ganesh, Vijay Bharadwaj and the junior India player Mulewa Dharmichand. Assam does not have big the big names to make tall claims. Sukhwinder Singh and Sunil Subramaniam, the two left-arm spinner who has been good form in this season will carry Assam's hopes of making it to the quarterfinals.

Orissa take on Jammu and Kashmir at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, on Sunday. All rounder Sanjay Raul will lead Orissa in the absence of Shiv Sundar Das who is on national duty. India discard Debashish Mohanty who recently picked up ten wickets in an innings against South Zone in the Duleep Trophy will be the Orissa trump card. Orissa's batting revolves around Rashmi Ranjan Parida, who has been in good form with the bat will have to deliver in the absence of SS Das. Kavaljit Singh will be the cornerstone of J&K batting. Ajay Jadeja who made 120 runs in the only inning he played for J&K this season, misses out after being banned for five years by the BCCI. The J&K bowling attack will revolved around left-arm pace bowler Surendra Singh and right-arm medium pacer Abdul Qayoom.

Current Ranji Trophy holders Mumbai have already qualified for the quarter-finals and await the winners of the Punjab - Rajasthan clash. All seven matches in the pre-quarterfinals promises to be high scoring games. The team with the first innings lead will go into the quarter-finals in the event of a draw. With slots for grab in the national side, many of the hopefuls will try to make an impression on the selectors.