ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2014

looked anything but a side containing two of the eight men in history with three first-class triple hundreds (Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindrasinh Jadeja – although the latter, totally ineffective with bat and ball, was dropped for the last Test). It says everything about the state of the batting that India’s last five innings of the rubber were 178, 152, 161, 148 and 94. Of the leading batsmen, only Murali Vijay could really be said to have maintained his position; while Pujara and Virat Kohli, although (like Vijay) ever-present in the side, looked like shadows of their former selves by the end of the tour of England. The bowling, meanwhile, was, if anything, even less satisfactory. Individuals performed well on occasion: Pragyan Ojha and Ravichandran Ashwin took wickets in the home series against West Indies, during which Ashwin had the satisfaction of reaching 100 wickets in fewer Tests (18) than any Indian. Only four bowlers in history have achieved it in fewer matches, the most recent of them in 1930/31, and their names – Lohmann (16 Tests), Turner, Barnes, Grimmett (all 17) – give some idea of the company that Ashwin is keeping; but the fact remains, Ashwin played in only three further Tests and Ojha not at all. The debutant fast bowler Mohammad Shami also prospered against West Indies and looked like becoming a regular fixture in the side, but his performances fell away and he was dropped by the end of the England tour. Ishant Sharma was brought back and performed well in New Zealand and against England at Lord’s, while the veteran Zaheer Khan had his moments in South Africa and New Zealand and Bhuvneshwar Kumar looked easily the best bowler on the tour of England. But none of the bowlers could claim any consistency or even appear certain of a place in the team; while Jadeja frequently seemed unsure whether he had been selected for batting or bowling and he too was eventually dropped. So whereas three batsmen appeared throughout, no bowler did; the only other ever-present was wicketkeeper-captain M.S.Dhoni – and by the end of the tour of England, even he looked jaded and out of sorts. All in all, it was no surprise that by the end of the 2014 season India, for all its wealth and its unquestioned prominence in the modern game, had fallen behind Sri Lanka to fifth in the rankings, only fractionally ahead of sixth-placed Pakistan. On the domestic first-class scene, there was no doubt about the team of the season. Karnataka started slowly by drawing their first three Ranji Trophy games and followed this with relatively narrow wins against unfancied Orissa and Haryana. But they gained in strength and confidence as the season wore on, ending as the only side to claim five wins during the league stage and easily winning Group A. Going on to defeat Uttar Pradesh in the quarter-final before dominating a rain-hit semi-final against Punjab, Karnataka overcame dogged opposition from Maharashtra in the final to claim the Ranji Trophy for the first time since 1998/99 and the seventh time in all. This brings Karnataka level with Delhi as the most successful side in the Trophy, with the obvious exception of Mumbai, far in the distance with 40 wins. Karnataka’s season was then crowned by a crushing Irani Cup win against what must be acknowledged as a less than stellar Rest of India side. Defending Ranji champions Mumbai never seriously threatened to retain the title. Qualification in third place in Group A was followed by a comfortable quarter-final defeat at the hands of eventual runners-up Maharashtra. It was notable that, in marked contrast to many previous years, six of the seven matches at the knockout stage reached a definite conclusion. The sole draw, the semi-final between Karnataka and Punjab, was the result of the loss of two days to the weather rather than the epic run-scoring on dead pitches so often seen in the past. In the league stages, too, there was a lower proportion of draws than in some past years, at least in Groups A and C, so that these groups were dominated by the sides with most victories and winning draws were less significant. In Group B, with more draws, the top six teams all had either two or three wins and consequently points for a lead in drawn games were important (note that Baroda, the only side other than Group champions Railways with three outright victories, had no points from winning draws at all and therefore finished as low as fifth). India in 2013/14 114