Udit Birla

Early morning showers played havoc with the opening day of the 'A' Division third and final round of the Times Cricket Shield schedule on Tuesday.

It must have been a worrisome deja vu of sorts for Rajasthan.After a disappointing Thursday evening, it was almost an identical Friday twilight for them.

Cricketer Udit Birla, who represented Maharashtra in U-15, U-17 and U-19 categories in BCCI tournaments, is now leading Madhya Pradesh One-day and Twenty20 teams.

After a brilliant performance throughout the season, Railways have set the standard for themselves. Unfortunately on Tuesday, they were well below their standards in all the departments.

Indian selectors sprang surprises while picking the Rest of India squad (for the Irani Trophy) and India 'A' and India 'B' sides for the Challenger Trophy.

The Indians were once poor chasers till Mahendra Singh Dhoni burst onto the scene. He cracked the chasing code keeping cool in tense situations.

The Ranji Trophy is getting tougher by each season. The teams, these days, start their planning and preparations much ahead.

Madhya Pradesh's Ishwar Pandey showed his big hitting prowess to set up a thrilling three-wicket victory over Railways in the Central Zone Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

There's hardly any room for complacency in the shortest format, which generally doesn't give time to recover. MP learned that hard way on Friday.

Chawla's unbeaten 45-run knock not only gave UP their third successive win in the ongoing Central Zone Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Trophy but also broke the Twenty20 jinx against MP.

Thanks to Naman Ojha's brisk 99-run innings and some useful contribution by the middle order batsmen, host Madhya Pradesh managed to score 322 for five at the end of first day's play of four-day Elite Group 'A' Ranji trophy match against Bengal at the Holkar cricket stadium here on Saturday.

The Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association has over the years concentrated a lot on preparations of their teams, and it's no wonder all its teams are doing well in BCCI-organised tournaments.

They had seven changes in the side that played the Vijay Hazare final last year.

Under-19 World Cup star Harmeet has been praised by none other than Ian Chappell who even went to the extent of comparing him with legendary Bishan Bedi.

The start often turns out crucial in the shorter format.

Two best teams -- Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh -- were battling to prove their might in the Central Zone.

In the end, it was apt that Shailendra Gehlot (12-2-20-4) got to hit the winning runs for Railways.The tall pacer could not have asked for a better day than this.