So you think you are Klusener?

Special moment for Amit Bhandari: 300th first-class wicket © Cricinfo Ltd

Veterans reach landmarks
Guess who's just got to 300 first-class wickets? Here's a clue: he's the second Delhi bowler after Madan Lal to reach the landmark. Well, it's Amit Bhandari and he thinks the 'achievement' doesn't prove anything. "We play on pitches where bowling even at 100% may fetch you nothing, you have to bend your backs till it hurts. My reaching this feat does not really prove anything. I think it should be used as an inspiration for this newer crop of pacers." Bhandari had a shoulder operation last year and, even as one thought the curtains were coming down on his career, he continues to surprise us.

Another landmark: Pankaj Dharmani, who hit 94 against Andhra and shared a 181-run partnership with Uday Kaul to help Punjab take the vital first-innings lead, became Punjab's leading scorer in Ranji Trophy. He overhauled Vikram Rathore's 6494 and has now 6497 from 91 games at 61.87.

Left in the lurch
Hyderabad were in for a rude shock when they flew into Calcutta on a Friday morning for the Ranji game against Bengal. The Telegraph reported that the team was stranded for an hour at the airport before they could find a team bus to take them to the hotel. Apparently there was no local manager, hence the chaos. Their troubles, however, didn't end there. With Eden Gardens booked by the national team for a net session on the eve of the game, Hyderabad struggled to find a proper alternate venue. Vivek Jaisimha, Hyderabad's coach, said: "When we boarded the bus somebody told us that CC&FC ground was not available... so the next option was the Jadavpur University ground in Salt Lake. But when we reached there, the ground was slushy and unfit for practice. The covers were up and the nets were down. I was not ready to risk my players by training there. So eventually we had to cancel our practice and come back."

'It's the ego that takes over'
On the field, Jaisimha pinned his hopes on VVS Laxman to repeat his Eden magic. "Laxman knows the importance of this game and I am sure he has something special in store for us." Well, Laxman was out for a duck in the first innings- three of his team-mates met the same fate - and made just 18 in the second. Murtaza Lodhgar made one stop and bounce and Laxman's pull went straight to Sourasish Lahiri standing at short midwicket.

VVS was Very Very Silent at Eden and while he avoided the media, Bharat Arun, Bengal's coach, revealed his success formula. "Laxman loves to dominate the attack, and especially when it's Eden Gardens. It's the ego that takes over ... we knew that while chalking out a special strategy for him. We attacked him with a short midwicket and no deep midwicket, knowing that he loves to play in that area. It was a kind of gamble, which worked for us. It just clicked at the right time."

Thanks to ICL
Wriddhiman Saha would not have made his debut as Bengal's wicketkeeper this season had it not been for Deep Dasgupta's decision to cross over to the ICL. And Dasgupta was on hand to watch as Saha hit a boundary to move past 99 and emulate his feat of scoring a ton on debut. "He's a good cricketer and is doing a good job ... I wish him luck," said Dasgupta who later went into the dressing room to congratulate Saha, the 15th Bengal player to score a hundred on debut. The ICL also brought joy to his team-mate Lodhgar, the veteran left-arm spinner who got a spot to play in the place of Shib Sagar Singh who had defected to the parallel league. Lodhgar removed Laxman in the second innings and called it - surprise, surprise - a "very very special dismissal".

Dravid goes down-market
Rahul Dravid stayed with his Karnataka team-mates at the Sea Green hotel in downtown Mumbai. While Dravid would not have thought much about the transition from five-star to a three-star hotel, the staff were delighted the former India captain chose to stay there. "Never in my tenure in this hotel have we had a celebrity of this stature as our guest," S Joseph, the receptionist, told DNA. Chintaman Mohite, a hotel waiter, looked at it differently. "He spoke to me in Marathi. I never thought that Dravid would speak so fluently."

The newspaper reported that Dravid stayed in room no. 103, a 'deluxe suite [which] has the best view of the vast expanse of the Arabian sea and is as airy as it can get". Then it adds: "But it can hardly match the standards in luxury most modern cricketers are used to."

40th time lucky
Hemal Watekar, Andhra's opening batsman, had just four fifties and never made a 100 from 39 first-class games before he played in this season's opener against Punjab. He vindicated the decision of the coach, former Test cricketer S Abid Ali, to play him by hitting hundreds in each innings. However, he was not allowed to linger over his accomplishment as he was hit on the nose by a bouncer from Manpreet Gony and retired hurt at 100.

End of the drought
A moment to cherish for Kerala as they beat Vidarbha by 150 runs, the third time ever that they have won by such a margin. It is also their first win in almost two years.

The sun is shining in the east
Although Assam were crushed by Gujarat in their first-round game, things are beginning to look up for the state team. Give us three years and you could see an Assamese play for India," says Rajesh Borah, the head coach at the Assam Cricket Association. "Five years back I wouldn't have been speaking about an exclusive cricket stadium in Assam, neither would I be watching talented 15-year-olds play three-day games. Cricket in Assam has come a long way."

Run orgy
Last season witnessed only two double-centuries in the Elite group but we have three already in this festive season. Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary each scored 203 - against Orissa and Hyderabad - before Rahul Dravid lit up the Wankhede with 214, one run short of his highest Ranji Trophy score.

Tiwary, competing with Raina for a middle-order spot in the national squad, chose modesty when asked whether his knock was better as it came against a stronger attack. "Orissa is a good side, and besides it's a double-century. It takes a lot of determination, hard work and temperament to bat for such long hours. Whatever the attack, you cannot take that away from him [Raina]. I think we are on an even platform."

Tiwary, however, missed out on the opportunity to beat Devang Gandhi's Bengal record of 323. "Devang-da had called me in the evening and reminded me of the record. I wanted to go for it, but I don't know what went wrong. My shot selection for that particular ball was not right and I paid the price for it. But I guess I shouldn't complain."

The parsimonious mechanic
Madan Yadav, Railways left-arm spinner, who is a mechanic by profession, turned in figures of 22.4-12-22-4 in the first innings against Jammu & Kashmir. He was relatively expensive in the second, giving away 12 runs in six overs as Railways routed Jammu & Kashmir by an innings and 88 runs in less than three days.

The great escape
Vineet Jain, with an unbeaten 3 from 36 balls, and Jayanta Debnath, with 13 from 37, added 25 valuable runs in 11.2 overs for the final wicket to stave off defeat. Hari Prasad, Services' opening bowler, took 4 for 50 and the other bowlers chipped in with wickets but Services failed to take that last wicket and Tripura finished on 202 for 9.

The quotehanger
So you think you are Klusener? Anil Kumble to Abhishek Nayar , after the young Mumbai batsman hit him for three successive boundaries.