Spoilt sporting declarations, and nervous keepers

When declarations backfire
Services, languishing somewhere at the bottom of the Group A of the Plate League, after having attained a first-innings lead against Assam, went for the jugular on the final day. They set Assam, who had a highest score of 259 this season, 306 runs to get in 78 overs. Assam got them in a quite a matter-of-fact way, with S Ramesh and S Sharath scoring nineties.

It was not such a bad move, though, because a win here could have taken Services up to seven points and given them an outside chance to reach the semi-finals.

In Agartala, Kerala who had fallen behind in the first innings, went for a similar gamble, but set a way easier target for Tripura to get. It might have had to do with the low-scoring nature of the match till then, but a target of 270 in 99 overs smelt of over-confidence. Tripura had more than 20 overs to spare when they reached the target with four wickets to spare.

None was a great advertisement for sporting declarations, but what difference does it make if you are No. 4 or No. 5 in the Plate League?

Parental pressure
One wonders how those 18-year-old blondes win Grandslams with their mums and dads watching from the VIP box. Look at our cricketers who develop sweaty palms when playing in front of home crowds. Wriddhiman Saha, Bengal's wicketkeeper who scored a century on debut, just couldn't take the pressure of having to perform in front of his parents. Bharat Arun, the Bengal coach, told the Statesman that Saha perhaps wilted under the pressure. He dropped a sitter, gave away nine byes, and get out for only eight. Unforgivable in passionate Bengal. Not even Daddy had encouraging words for Wriddhi. "The pressure to perform on home soil is always very high. But it is sad that Wriddhi couldn't cope with the pressure," said Prasanta Saha, who allegedly didn't miss a single ball of the match till then.

It is sad, indeed, that when Saha was letting the nerves get the better of him, Bengal's very own Sourav Ganguly was burying the home-pressure ghost. In his 99th Test, Ganguly finally scored a century at the Eden Gardens, and there was Saha mucking up in Siliguri.

Hard yards
During the current Test series against Pakistan, India have been following the creditable practice of sending the reserves to play Ranji Trophy. Ishant Sharma, who suddenly came into the Indian equation after injuries to RP Singh and Sreesanth, has been travelling to the Test venue first and after not being selected in the final XI, to wherever Delhi are playing. He was at the Delhi airport, with the Ranji team team going to Mumbai, when he was asked to stay back for the first Test and then sent back to Mumbai a day later. Then he travelled to Kolkata and trained with the Indian team, from there went all the way to Dharamsala to play against Himachal Pradesh. Now, that's what they mean by doing the hard yards, literally.

Yuvraj Singh, in Kolkata with the Indian team, tried the same, as his state side - Punjab - were playing Bengal not too far in Siliguri. Yuvraj, keen to play there, reached the venue, but came down with dysentery and had to be sent back to Kolkata. Yuvraj's absence, though, gave Avik Chowdhury, who is yet to represent Bengal in a first-class game, the thrill of his life: Chowdhury it was who fielded for India in the Kolkata Test when Ganguly went out for an over. He got to share the dressing room and wear the India whites.

Most glorious day for Mumbai selections
Never has a Mumbai selection meeting generated more interest than it did yesterday. And there wasn't a crucial decision, on which hung Mumbai's fate, to be made. Yet as soon as Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, came out of the Mumbai dressing room, he was mobbed by the media, the cup in his hand spilled, and he had to somehow escape.

Now, the Mumbai Cricket Association doesn't have any problems with Dilip Vengsarkar, an honorary selector, writing columns in newspapers. And Vengsarkar doesn't have any issues with being present at the Mumbai selection meetings. The hoopla had all to do with his other job, and whether he would go to Bangalore to select the Indian team for the Australia tour. All the selection meetings could do with a superstar or two, one feels.

Quotehanger
"I just wanted to get it done with," said Robin Bist, after ending his innings against Karnataka with a rash pull shot, on 99. "It was a silly shot, but batting in the nineties is so very tough that it seems like you're stuck there for ages and you just want to get past the hundred."