The domestic season-ending five-day Irani Cup game between newly crowned Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai and the Rest of India, commencing in Mumbai from Sunday, will provide fringe players a good opportunity to stake claims for the national team. The first class match is the last occasion for hopefuls from both ranks to impress the five-member national selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil before attention shifts totally to the T20 format, commencing with the ICC World T20 Championships. With the country expected to play over 15 Test matches post Indian Premier League till the end of next season, this match is the ideal platform for these players to strengthen their claims for the long Test haul. Mumbai, who clinched the Ranji crown for the 41st time last week by defeating Saurashtra by an innings, have a settled combination led by wicket keeper batsman Aditya Tare. They appear to be better prepared than the motley bunch of Rest of India, being led by Madhya Pradesh stumper Naman Ojha. However, they would take the Rest of India lightly at their own peril as the latter have a good bowling attack at their command even without originally named Barinder Sran and Nathu Singh who have been injured and replaced by Ankit Rajpoot and Anureet Singh, according to their coach Ashish Kapoor.
Pallavkumar Das (55) and Amit Verma (57) came up with twin fifties as Assam grabbed a crucial first innings lead over defending champions Karnataka after posting 194 all out on the second day of their Group A Ranji Trophy match in Guwahati.
Virat Kohli has finally clarified his stance on unfriending the Australian team, saying he 'meant only a couple of guys' and that his comments were blown out of proportion. But what has made the Indian captain changed his tune? Does the Indian Premier League ring any bells, asks Norma Godinho/Rediff.com.
In an interesting move, the Mumbai selection committee decided to include 14-year-old Armaan Jaffer in the Ranji Trophy probables list along with his uncle and state team stalwart Wasim Jaffer.
A summary of the day's play in the Ranji Trophy matches at various venues across the country.
'You could not look like Ranveer Singh and act like Kapil Dev, so performing like Kapil Dev was double the challenge.'
Maharashtra's Swapnil Gugale slammed a triple century while Ankit Bawane hit a double hundred as the duo registered the highest-partnership in the history of the Ranji Trophy, against Delhi, in the Ranji Trophy Group B match at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, on Friday.
A round-up of Ranji matches played across India on Friday.
BCCI Secretary Ajay Shirke explains the process of zeroing in on the preferred candidate from the 57 applications received for the job of India coach.
Round up of the Ranji Trophy match being played across the country
Medium pacers Dhawal Kulkarni and Tushar Deshpande wrecked havoc by grabbing four wickets apiece as Mumbai put themselves in the drivers seat by dismissing Tamil Nadu for a paltry 87 on the opening day in their Ranji Trophy Group A match, in Lahli, on Thursday.
Gujarat batsmen have hogged the limelight for the entire season but their unheralded bowling line-up, sans India stars Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah, came to the party by dismissing defending champions Mumbai for a paltry 228 on the first day of the Ranji Trophy final, in Indore on Tuesday.
Punjab looked on course for a crushing victory after bundling out Uttar Pradesh for a paltry 95 in their second innings, on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Group A match in Hyderabad, on Monday.
'We felt like we were a part of something bigger than just a film.'
Karnataka outplayed a Mumbai team by 112 runs to enter the final of the Ranji Trophy.
Mohammed Shami may be struggling with form and rhythm but India's 1983 World Cup-winning squad member Sunil Valson feels that the West Bengal medium-pacer will be the team's 'go to' man in the upcoming cricket World Cup.
Round-up of the Ranji Trophy games being played in different parts of the country
'The West Indies' pace battery was lethal.' 'Watching Gavaskar, Gaekwad, Amarnath and Vengsarkar play against those bowlers I learnt so much.' 'Everybody was getting hit.' 'Someone got hit on the fingers, someone on the chest, someone on the face, but they all showed guts.'
Will it be a foreigner from among the 57 applications received for job? Is it a race between Anil Kumble, Ravi Shastri, Sandeep Patil and Venkatesh Prasad?
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Opener Kedar Devdhar hit a stroke-filled 145 as Baroda took a sizeable lead of 303 runs, despite narrowly falling short of Mumbai's first innings total, on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match.
A summary of the opening day's play in the Ranji Trophy matches played across the country.
Haresh Pandya recounts one of the biggest upsets in One-day cricket.
A summary of Wednesday's play in the Ranji Trophy matches at various venues across the country.
A summary of the opening day's play from the Ranji Trophy matches at various venues across the country.
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