Punjab set punishing pace, shut out rest

A relentless juggernaut rolled on in the North Zone league this season crushing all mercilessly beneath its wheels. Punjab won five successive games, the first four by an innings and the fifth by 199 runs to establish their supremacy in unambiguous terms. Second placed Delhi was 11 points behind while Jammu & Kashmir did Robert Bruce proud by finally qualifying for the knockout stage after 41 years of trying.

Punjab's batsmen were in punishing mood, piling up scores of 526/7, 587, 486 and 430 in their first four games. Dinesh Mongia struck a triple century against J&K; he didn't touch 50 in five other innings but still averaged over 73. Last season Pankaj Dharmani had taken a triple off J&K's obliging bowlers, this year they merely allowed him 176. Skipper Vikram Rathour rattled up 203 in the opener against Himachal Pradesh while Reetinder Sodhi, Ravneet Ricky and Manish Sharma also made tons in the course of the season.

The batsmen only failed in the final game against Delhi at the capital's Harbax Singh Stadium. It was admittedly in difficult batting conditions, there being just one fifty in the entire match - Sodhi's 78. Punjab made 187 & 196 in the two innings but Delhi was hard put to match even that, barely raising three figures (104) on the board in their first knock. Set 280 in the fourth innings, Delhi were blown away for 80. This was the game for which Yuvraj Singh had been released from the national team after the first Test against Zimbabwe, avowedly to get match practice ahead of the ODI series. In the event he made only 8 & 20 in his only Ranji foray this season.

Medium pacer Gagandeep Singh took nine wickets to go with another nine wicket haul against Haryana, and closed with 22 wickets at a stunning 10.27. But it was off spinner Harbhajan Singh who emerged as the lynchpin of the attack, snaffling 28 wickets at 13.96. He also batted with freedom, clobbering two fifties including an 84 against Haryana. Sharandeep Singh played only one match before graduating to higher things but his replacement, the 19-year-old leg spinner Sandeep Sanwal was good enough to collect 15 victims at 14 runs apiece.

The outstanding bowler was undoubtedly Delhi's Ashish Nehra with 36 wickets in five games. Until their disastrous head to head with Punjab, Delhi had ridden piggyback on Nehra's strike power to take home three wins and a narrow first innings lead over Haryana. Opener Akash Chopra played the batting lead, aggregating 545 runs, including an effort of 222 against Himachal Pradesh, to take No.1 position in the zone. Former skipper Ajay Sharma who had been left out of the Delhi squad over the match-fixing rumours, signed up with Himachal Pradesh instead. The CBI report broke just as he was batting in the first round of matches, he retired and was not chosen again. The life ban ensures that Amarjeet Kaypee is now safely ensconced as the all time highest rungetter in the Ranji Trophy.

Ajay Jadeja was another who was caught in the maelstrom of the matchfixing scandal. Having moved to J&K as skipper, he made 120 in his first, and also his last, match to oversee a nine wicket defeat of his former team Haryana. Medium pacer Abdul Qayoom, 33, took over the reins and snatched 24 wickets in a campaign that saw two more victories, but two defeats as well, against their two fellow qualifiers. The 24 points that accrued was enough to keep their closest pursuers Haryana 11 points adrift in fourth place.

Haryana are presently going through a rebuilding phase but it should not be long before they are back in business. Youngsters Ajay Ratra, Ishan Ganda and Amit Mishra are likely to form the nucleus of a strong team in the future. But it was 27-year-old skipper Parender Sharma who provided the thrust to Haryana's challenge, making two centuries including a double against Himachal Pradesh. The bottom teams Himachal and Services however have little to look forward to. Himachal's only star, Rajiv Nayyar was a trifle less prolific this season, grafting together 323 runs with one century. For Services, the major gain was the emergence of 26-year-old seamer Sudhakar Ghag, who recorded the best innings haul of 8/122, against Haryana, en route to a place in the Duleep Trophy squad.