Mumbai’s Rahane stays on top of the Ranji charts

The grand final of the 2009-10 Ranji season is upon us, but even before it begins several interesting trends have emerged from the season gone by.

The grand final of the 2009-10 Ranji season is upon us, but even before it begins several interesting trends have emerged from the season gone by.

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The repeat contenders

From last season’s final four — Mumbai, Saurashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — only two went as far this year. While Mumbai are in the hunt for their 39th title, UP fell in the semis. Saurashtra and Tamil Nadu remained teams who had strong individual performers, but could not break into the semifinals.

About Delhi’s performance this season, who couldn’t make it beyond the semis, coach Vijay Dahiya said: “We reached semis despite regular players not available due to injuries.

Earlier we use to depend on individuals but this season was good as there was a lot of good work witnessed behind the stumps, with bat and ball. So definitely, this was an improved season.”

Suspect actions

This season was marked by umpires calling bowlers for suspect actions.

Umpires at different venues called over half a dozen bowlers and this could have serious consequences for some veteran practitioners.

The list includes Yogesh Nagar of Delhi, Sarandeep Singh (Himachal Pradesh) and Kulamani Parida (Railways).

Services unavailable

Assam and Haryana have made it to the Elite Group, but it was Services who hogged the early headlines. Their failure to turn up for a fixture away against Jammu and Kashmir led to the team being banned for the season by the BCCI.