So the Ranji Trophy did come home, as someone quaintly put it. When a team wins the national competition for the 34th time in 66 years, it certainly is the apt expression. And there is little doubt that Mumbai were deserving winners - even if they just about squeaked past Tamil Nadu in the semifinal. Displaying teamwork, a tenacity of purpose and riding on the prodigious gifts of Sachin Tendulkar, the team proved that even if the days of `Mumbai cricket is Indian cricket' is long past, they still remain the side to beat by pulling off their fourth triumph in the last seven years.

Naturally some of the finest individual feats during the season were performed by Mumbai players. Tendulkar scored 427 runs in two matches to head the averages - 213.50. Vinod Kambli showed that whatever doubts remain as to his record at the international level, he remains a monarch at the domestic level - 866 runs at an average of 61.85. Amol Muzumdar, Jatin Paranjpe and Wasim Jaffer all crossed the 600 run mark. Rajesh Pawar proved his rising stature by taking 44 wickets at 20.81 apiece. Abey Kuruvilla in his farewell season was still good enough to take 32 wickets at an average of 20.62.

And yet the Mumbai cricketers were not the only players to have the spotlight turned on them. Batsmen and bowlers from other states in fact dominated the season even more than members of the winning team. And heading the list was Hyderabad's VVS Laxman who set the record aggregate for a Ranji season - 1415 runs at 108.84, as also the record for most number of centuries - eight. The second was indeed a bewildering feat for they were made in just nine matches.

Close behind Laxman was Sridharan Sriram of Tamil Nadu who also crossed the 1000 run mark - 1075 runs at 89.58. Then there were many who crossed the 800 run mark. Tamil Nadu left hander Sridharan Sarath had 863 runs at 66.38; Punjab's Pankaj Dharmani scored 830 runs at 83.00; Hyderabad's Md Azharuddin had 815 runs at 81.50, Hyderabad opening batsman A Nandakishore made 815 runs at 40.75 and Orissa's SS Parida hit 804 runs at 67.00. Punjab captain Vikram Rathour just missed that mark but got 796 runs at 56.85. Among those whose opportunities were confined to the zonal league, Abijit Kale of Maharashtra was outstanding. He scored 563 runs in only four games at 112.60.

Among the bowlers, 42-year-old Hyderabad off spinner Kanwaljit Singh finished top of the heap with 62 wickets, just two short of Bishen Bedi's all time record set up in 1974-75. But he played 12 matches and paid out 25.20 runs per wicket. Bengal's veteran left arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee was more niggardly. In eight games, he took 52 wickets at an average of 18.80. Venkatpathi Raju was as expensive as his comrade in arms Kanwaljit in finishing with 52 wickets at an average of 25.84. Tamil Nadu off spinner Aashish Kapoor had a successful season picking up 50 wickets but at a rather high cost of 26.08 each. Punjab's Sharandeep Singh fared better with 37 wickets at 19.43 apiece.

If spinners had it tough on the perfect batting tracks, the medium pacers had an even more uphill task. Not surprisingly, only a handful of them came off with credit. Tamil Nadu's S Mahesh, Uttar Pradesh's Ashish Winston Zaidi and Karnataka's Venkatesh Prasad were among the more successful. Mahesh's 37 wickets cost him 23.54 apiece. Zaidi took 42 wickets but at an average of 24.83. Prasad, who played in only four matches, took 25 wickets at the impressive average of 16.00. Among the bowlers whose opportunities were confined to the zonal league, Railways' left arm spinner Karthik Murali was both successful and inexpensive - he took 17 wickets in three games at an average of 10.11.

There were a handful of wicketkeepers who caught the eye. Tamil Nadu's Reuben Paul was impressive. Not only did he have the season's best bag of 33 victims - 29 of them caught - he also chipped in with 431 runs at an average of 30.78. Karnataka's VST Naidu improved by leaps and bounds as his tally of 25 victims and 507 runs will illustrate. But there was little doubt that the leading wicketkeeper batsman of the season was Bengal's Saba Karim who had 15 victims in six games and 416 runs. India keeper Nayan Mongia with 17 victims and 143 runs was way down the list.

An astonishing fact was that very few of the established players had a successful Ranji Trophy campaign. Players like Sourav Ganguly, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, Nikhil Chopra, Nayan Mongia, Ajit Agarkar and S Ramesh hardly played in the competition and even if they did, most of them did not fare very well. Rahul Dravid was perhaps the exception but he played only one match, getting 220 runs in two innings.

Narrowing the field down to the most outstanding players of the season, one would have to include the following: Batsmen: Laxman, Sriram, Sarath, Dharmani, Azharuddin, Parida, Rathour, Kale. Bowlers: Kanwaljit Singh, Venkatpathi Raju, Utpal Chatterjee, Venkatesh Prasad, Mahesh, Zaidi, Murali Karthik. Wicketkeepers: Saba Karim, Reuben Paul, VST Naidu. Narrowing the field further to a playing eleven will be an immensely difficult target. But if it was a timeless game, one would have to say that Rajiv Nayyar of Himachal Pradesh would be the first choice. Any batsman who can be at the crease for 1015 minutes for 271 has to get the nod. It was certainly the endurance feat of the season.

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