Panaji: Goa will return to the
Plate group
of the
Ranji Trophy
next season where they will now face minnows from the northeast like Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Goa were sitting comfortably among the 32-team
Elite group
but with five losses from seven matches, they are now
relegated
, along with Manipur who lost all seven matches.
Goa collected four points, courtesy of two drawn matches against Chandigarh -- against whom they took a first innings lead for three points -- and mighty Karnataka.
Goa and Bihar were fighting to save relegation, but the loss against Gujarat saw Bihar pip Goa by a point. If Goa had saved the match, with a better run rate, they could have avoided relegation.
"It is disappointing to get relegated once again,” said captain Darshal Misal. “We will have to work hard and get our place back in the Elite group. The batters had to score consistently. There were some good performances, but all came in patches. Their failure did put pressure on bowlers to perform with the bat too.”
Nothing worked for Goa this season. The batters failed to score even at home, while pace bowlers did not live up to the expectations.
In the opening game against Tripura, Goa were bundled out for paltry score of 135, failing to bat even 50 overs. Tripura put up 484 on the board and then got the win they wanted, despite professional player Krishnamurthy Siddharth hitting an unbeaten impressive 151 in the second innings.
Goa should have learnt a lesson from the away loss, but it turned out to be a colossal failure. Siddharth did not register any big score after the opening game. The fact that his 467 from 11 innings was the second highest scorer for Goa told a story.
The other professional player, Rahul Tripathi, performed badly in his first three matches and was dropped midway through the season. His highest score of 40 came against weak Chandigarh on a placid Porvorim pitch.
Except for Suyash Prabhudessai, who scored 687, none of the batters failed to measure up to the challenge. The batter scored 197 at home against Chandigarh, an unbeaten 143 in the second innings to help draw against Karnataka and 104 & 79 against Tamil Nadu in a losing cause.
Opener Manthan Khutkar failed to get past 25 in his four matches, while Ishaan Gadekar could not register a single half century. Middle order batter Snehal Kauthankar had just one good innings of 83 against Karnataka. Deepraj Gaonkar scored an unbeaten 115 against Chandigarh but failed to score a half century in 13 innings.
"We should have scored one victory which would have helped us to lift ourselves. Sadly, it didn't happen," said Darshan.
Whenever the batters failed, the Goa captain stayed at the wicket with the bowlers for company. He was the best bowler with 31 wickets at an average of 23.93 and was ably supported by Mohit Redkar, who took 23 wickets at an average of 29.86.
Arjun Tendulkar had nine wickets from seven matches.
At the start of the season, there was plenty of promise. In the end, huge concerns remain.
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English (US) ·