Goa failed to rise to the challenge of clinching the top-twoposition and yet again found themselves in the bottom half in the Ranji Trophy.Goa will now play in Group C in the next season. This sixth-place finish, hascome as a big disappointment for the Goan camp, given the fact that thebuild-up to the season was high-voltage with former Sri Lankan pacer NuwanZoysa coming in for a special 10-day consultation session.
Analysing the Goan performance, the state team lookedreasonably strong in the batting department but were weak in bowling. The banon Amit Yadav for his IPL-related misdemeanour, meant that Goa missed theoff-spinning all-rounder. A look at the statistics show that, Saurabh Bandekarand Shadab Jakati had to shoulder the most of bowling responsibility.
Medium-pacer Bandekar bowled 271 overs for his 29 wickets atthe average of 27.24 runs per wicket average. Experienced left-arm spinnerJakati laboured to bowl 344 overs and took 27 wickets at the average of 27.62.At times, the Goan team looked a bowler short as they failed to bowl theiropponents out twice, when there were real opportunities to clinch outrightvictory.
The batting department had been reinforced at the beginningof the season. The weak link over the past few seasons was batting, hence thearrival of Manvinder Singh Bisla and Ravikant Shukla, was a boost. Moreover,both batsmen were hungry and looking to make statements of given their classand talent is material enough, to carry them to the fringe of probables forTeam India.
Both these batsmen had a decent season, especially theleft-handed Shukla, who top scored with the total of 507 runs in eight matchesat an average of 56.33 including one century and four half-centuries. Thehard-hitting Bisla could have done better than his 380 aggregate runs, but thenhis agressive 60-plus strike-rate means that the dashing KKRwicketkeeper-batsman is a gamble that can win you the game if he stays on thepitch bit longer.
Goa lost crucial chances to clinch outright victories, mostnotably in the opening match against Jammu and Kashmir at Porvorim. Goaclinched 3 points for first-innings lead in four out of eight matches.Unfortunately, the Goans missed a chance of adding more points to their kittywhen their match in Tripura (weakest team in the group), was abandoned due tobad weather. In the end, Goa finished with 16 points from their eight matches.
