Giant slayers Rajasthan will meet Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy semifinals at home in Jaipur while last year's runners-up Karnataka will clash with Baroda in the latter's backyard, according to the Cricket Board.
Both the semi finals would be held from January 3-6, 2011.
Rajasthan, in fact, made it to the last four as one of the two qualifiers from the plate division and knocked out 39-time champions and holders Mumbai by virtue of their first innings lead in the quarter-final that ended in a draw on Monday at Jaipur.
If Rajasthan have reached where they are today, credit should go to the three outstation pros -- Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Aakash Chopra and Rashmi Ranjan Parida -- who have guided a young team and instilled self-belief in them that they can beat the best in the business.
Not to forget the kind of defining performances they put up in crunch games. Like Chopra's triple hundred in the Plate Group semi-finals against Maharashtra or Kanitkar's timely century against Mumbai-- they have risen to the occasion.
The bowlers led by Pankaj Singh also performed well within their limitations. The emergence of a fine swing bowler in Deepak Chahar whose unbelievable debut of eight for 10 against Hyderabad will definitely be one of the highlights of this edition.
Tamil Nadu edged out Haryana on net-run-rate after the inconclusive weather-hit quarter-final in which even the first innings of both teams could not be completed at Rohtak.
Karnataka got the better of Madhya Pradesh by five wickets at Indore to book a berth in the semifinals.
In Baroda, Railways fought their heart out but the hosts qualified for the semifinals on the basis of their first innings lead as their quarter-final clash ended in a draw.
The average first innings effort, both in batting and bowling, cost Railways dear as they were always doing the catch up job after that, though their performance improved as the match progressed.
Brief scores:
Madhya Pradesh: 200 and 337 lost to Karnataka: 361 and 180/5 (Amit Verma not out 68, Robin Uthappa 37; TP Sudhindra 2/34).
Railways: 248 & 366/8 dec. drew with Baroda: 416 & 136/3 in 60 overs (C Williams 52*, K Devdhar 55; J P Yadav 1/15).
Mumbai: 252 & 290-1 (AM Rahane 102*, SO Kukreja 100*) drew with Rajasthan: 589 (VA Saxena 143, AL Menaria 121, H Kanitkar 113, A Nayar 7-131).
Haryana: 379/6 dec. in 116 overs (N Saini 150, Sunny Singh 102, S Sam 2-56, R Ashwin 2-76) drew with Tamil Nadu 285/6 in 79 overs (R Sathish 106, Dinesh Karthik 57, S Budhwar 3-70, Joginder Sharma 2-41).
© PTI
Both the semi finals would be held from January 3-6, 2011.
Rajasthan, in fact, made it to the last four as one of the two qualifiers from the plate division and knocked out 39-time champions and holders Mumbai by virtue of their first innings lead in the quarter-final that ended in a draw on Monday at Jaipur.
If Rajasthan have reached where they are today, credit should go to the three outstation pros -- Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Aakash Chopra and Rashmi Ranjan Parida -- who have guided a young team and instilled self-belief in them that they can beat the best in the business.
Not to forget the kind of defining performances they put up in crunch games. Like Chopra's triple hundred in the Plate Group semi-finals against Maharashtra or Kanitkar's timely century against Mumbai-- they have risen to the occasion.
The bowlers led by Pankaj Singh also performed well within their limitations. The emergence of a fine swing bowler in Deepak Chahar whose unbelievable debut of eight for 10 against Hyderabad will definitely be one of the highlights of this edition.
Tamil Nadu edged out Haryana on net-run-rate after the inconclusive weather-hit quarter-final in which even the first innings of both teams could not be completed at Rohtak.
Karnataka got the better of Madhya Pradesh by five wickets at Indore to book a berth in the semifinals.
In Baroda, Railways fought their heart out but the hosts qualified for the semifinals on the basis of their first innings lead as their quarter-final clash ended in a draw.
The average first innings effort, both in batting and bowling, cost Railways dear as they were always doing the catch up job after that, though their performance improved as the match progressed.
Brief scores:
Madhya Pradesh: 200 and 337 lost to Karnataka: 361 and 180/5 (Amit Verma not out 68, Robin Uthappa 37; TP Sudhindra 2/34).
Railways: 248 & 366/8 dec. drew with Baroda: 416 & 136/3 in 60 overs (C Williams 52*, K Devdhar 55; J P Yadav 1/15).
Mumbai: 252 & 290-1 (AM Rahane 102*, SO Kukreja 100*) drew with Rajasthan: 589 (VA Saxena 143, AL Menaria 121, H Kanitkar 113, A Nayar 7-131).
Haryana: 379/6 dec. in 116 overs (N Saini 150, Sunny Singh 102, S Sam 2-56, R Ashwin 2-76) drew with Tamil Nadu 285/6 in 79 overs (R Sathish 106, Dinesh Karthik 57, S Budhwar 3-70, Joginder Sharma 2-41).
© PTI
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