If the pre-quarterfinal matches are any indication, the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals should again be marked by tall scores. Batsmen have already dominated the first two day's play in the one match that commenced on Tuesday between hosts Mumbai and Punjab. And the match-up of the contestants for the three remaining quarterfinals also do not portend well for bowlers. For the batsmen of the six sides involved - Karnataka, Railways, Tamil Nadu, Baroda, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa - have displayed splendid form not only in the pre-quarterfinals but also at the league stage.

Karnataka meet Railways at New Delhi. Karnataka turned a nine run deficit on the first innings against Assam to victory by seven wickets. The batsmen displayed good form with Arun Kumar, Barrington Rowland and wicketkeeper VST Naidu among the runs. But more heartening was the fact that Dodda Ganesh, Sunil Joshi and Anand Yalvigi took wickets at economical cost. But six time champions Karnataka should find Railways tougher opponents than Assam. The Railways batsmen put up an awesome showing in the previous game against Maharashtra at Pune. They ran up totals of 431 and 656 for five. Veteran Yere Goud covered himself with glory by scoring an unbeaten 221. Skipper Abhay Sharma shone with 59 and 188 and also among the runs were Tejinder Pal Singh, Shreyas Khanolkar, Amit Pagnis, Sanjay Bangar and Kulamani Parida. Another encouraging factor for Railways was the vital role played by Bangar and Harvinder Singh in restricting the Maharashtra batsmen. It would be a surprise if the five day match does not feature a few `batathons'.

Going by the events of the pre-quarterfinal concerning the two teams, there is little doubt that the Tamil Nadu-Baroda match is also going to be marked by tall scores. Baroda notched up totals of 467 and 355 while registering a 222-run victory over Bengal. Baroda are again playing hosts in the quarterfinal and the visitors will find the going tough against the mighty Baroda batting line up which includes Connor Williams, Tushar Arothe, Ajit Bhoite, Satyajit Parab and skipper Jacob Martin. But then for Tamil Nadu, the heartening factor is the form shown by their own batsmen who ran up totals of 592 and 515 for eight in getting the better of Delhi. Hemanth Kumar got a hundred, Sarath got a double century and last man Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan created history by becoming the first batsman in the Ranji Trophy to get a century at No 11.

Another match in which batsmen are expected to dominate is the remaining quarterfinal between Orissa and Madhya Pradesh at Gwalior. Admittedly Orissa had weak opponents in Jammu & Kashmir but they won by 420 runs. The batting of Rashmi Parida (220) and Pravanjan Mullick (191) and their 358-run fourth wicket partnership was the most heartening feature from Orissa's viewpoint and skipper Sanjay Raul also came up with an unbeaten century. Off spinner Sanjay Satpathy took seven wickets in the match and may have to do a lot of bowling in the face of an imposing MP batting line up which includes Jai P Yadav, skipper Chandrakant Pandit, Devender Bundela, Abbas Ali and HS Sodhi. MP certainly has an edge in the bowling with Rajesh Chauhan and Narendra Hirwani around. The two former Test spinners along with Yadav did their job commendably as MP got the better of Hyderabad in the pre-quarterfinal.

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