There has been an intense rivalry between the two teams this season after Railway skipper Murali Kartik 'Mankaded' Sandipan Das and Bengal players refused the customary handshake after conceding three points in hot-tempered match in New Delhi.
Rahul Dravid feels that the likes of Mohammed Shami , Bhuvneshwar Kumar could have gained match practice before their tour of New Zealand while Mumbai pair Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma could have 'raised the profile' of the tournament.
Jammu and Kashmir advanced to the quarterfinal for the first time in the history of Ranji Trophy and will face experienced players like Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh.
While Maharashtra advanced to the Ranji Trophy elimination phase by finishing on top of Group C, 40-time champions Mumbai staged a grand comeback from the brink in Group A after conceding a 99-run first innings lead to Gujarat in their final league game before winning outright to qualify for the quarter-final.
An upbeat Karnataka side come up against Uttar Pradesh in the quarterfinal of the ongoing Ranji Trophy.
Bengal had to wait for 51 years to clinch their second Ranji title in 1990 under Banerjee's leadership after they had won their first in 1939.
Manoj Tiwary was named as a 17th member in the squad, won't be available for Bengal's quarterfinal against Railways from January 8-12.
Gautam Gambhir said it would be unfair to blame just Virender Sehwag for Delhi's failure to reach the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals.
Former India batsman Sunil Gavaskar says the culture of gaining first innings lead in domestic cricket does not encourage Indian sides to go for outright wins after batting well in the first innings.
Zaheer is just back from South Africa and his inclusion will boost a depleted Mumbai, who have been found struggling this season and there bowling has floundered at times.
In a fantastic achievement, the Jammu and Kashmir cricket team qualified for Ranji Trophy quarterfinals for the first time since 2000, following a draw against Tripura in their final Group C league match at Agartala.
Jammu & Kashmir's previous best was pre-quarterfinal in 2000-01. Their draw vs Tripura however helped them edge past Goa - by a quotient of 0.001 - and set-up a quarterfinal clash vs Punjab.
Maharashtra ended their Ranji Trophy group league engagements as table toppers with 35 points from eight games.
Baroda needed a win to advance to the quarterfinal stage but were simply outplayed by a better pace attack of Rajasthan led by Chahar Singh and Pankaj Singh who took nine and seven wickets respectively in the match at Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Iqbal Abdulla ended the second innings with bowling figures of five for 44 in addition to his 6/42 in the first innings. He also scored 68 runs (30 in the first innings and 38 in the second) in the low-scoring match.
The visitors got some nice match practice ahead of their quarterfinal match, as they chased down a paltry victory target of 115 in 29 overs after dismissing Delhi for 201 in 77.4 overs. This was Karnataka's fifth outright win this season.
Yusuf Pathan said that he got exposed to cold while practicing which caused the sickness and now he was fine.
Railways, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are all but through from Group B with Baroda effectively 15/6 against Rajasthan.
