(Last week's Irani Trophy kicked off a new domestic season in India. Playing with the reigning Ranji champions Rajasthan, Aakash Chopra will share his experiences on the circuit in a series of posts, exclusively on Yahoo! Cricket. This post is the second in the series.)

Battered and bruised - that's how I'm feeling after getting a serious pounding over five days in the season opener - the Irani trophy. Yes, the match was in Jaipur - our home ground and yes, the Rest of India team wasn't as strong a team as it could've possibly been, yet it did little to change the outcome of the game.

High-Pitched!

First things first, the track at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium was prepared under the watchful eyes of the Chairman of the Pitch committee - Venkat Sundram. The thought behind supervising the pitch preparation was to avoid the repeat of last year's Irani trophy tie at the same venue. Back then, the track was as flat as a pancake, forgive the cliche, and thousands of runs were scored