By Paritosh Pramanik
A GENTLE cool breeze welcomed Vidarbha and Tamil Nadu teams at Vidarbha Cricket Association’s Civil Lines Stadium on Friday morning. As the day grew up, the temperature soared and so did the intensity in the training session. Both the teams aimed at ironing out their flaws before their Ranji Trophy quarter-final match to be played from Saturday.
Going down with their drills and nets sessions, both the teams looked match ready for the five-day encounter.
Vidarbha, on a high with the unbeaten tag this season, would aim for a knock-out punch against the team from the South. They have six outright wins and a first innings lead under their belt and finished with maximum 40 points to top Group B.
The team is on a roll this season and if one goes by their form, they are the firm favourites for this last-eight game. The team has shown great determination and resilience as on three occasions, they have conceded the lead only to win the game outrightly.
The match would be played on the track which was used for Vidarbha’s opening game against Andhra. But that was in October and the weather conditions were totally different as compared to what it is today.
With the temperature dipping in the morning a bit since last couple of days, the wicket would assist seamers in early part of the game. Vidarbha might go in with three seamers and two spinners but the final decision will be taken on the match morning.
“The wicket looks good. I think it was the same one on which we played our opening match against Andhra. But the weather condition is different from then. I think the wicket might help our seamers,” Vidarbha captain Wadkar said after team’s nets session on Friday. Aditya Thakare and Yash Thakur will man the pace department while the spin section will be handled by season’s highest wicket-taker Harsh Dubey. He is in form of his life taking 55 wickets to equal former Vidarbha spinner Aditya Sarvate’s record of most wickets in a season. The left-arm Vidarbha tweaker will definitely break that record in the next five days. Apart from winning matches with his magical deliveries, Dubey is also a finisher and has helped Vidarbha win games with his exploding batting. In Vidarbha’s last league match against Hyderabad, Dubey had scored back to back half centuries apart from taking eight wickets in the match.
The batting looks solid with Athrava Taide and Dhruv Shorey taking first strikes.
Danish Malewar, in-form Karun Nair and Yash Rathod apart from captain Wadkar will hold the middle order with Dubey coming down and throwing his bat for fours and sixes.
With wicket assisting seamers, as hinted by Wadkar, Vidarbha might include pacer Nachiket Bhute who can clear the ball into the stands with his brute power.
It would be interesting to see whether veteran spinner Akshay Wakhare or Parth Rekhade, who made his debut against Hyderabad, get to sit out.
Rekhade holds edge over Wakhare as he can bat well too. He and Dubey had added crucial 69 runs in the second innings against Hyderabad to help Vidarbha score 355 runs against Hyderabad. Wakhare, on the other hand, is an experienced spinner with over 100 First-Class matches.
Vidarbha will have to see off the first hour as they are throwing their wickets early. In their first match against Andhra and in their last league match against Hyderabad the top and middle-order failed to stay put.
For Tamil Nadu, they have had a mixed league round with three wins, as many draws, and a loss as they finished second best team from Group D behind Saurashtra.
They are coming into this match with a loss against a lowly Jharkhand. Their morale would have been hurt and they would aim to pull their socks in this do-or-die battle. They received a blow as Baba Indrajit, who pulled up a calf muscle, was left out of the 16-member squad for the quarter-finals. Sai Sudharsan is back in the squad while Sonu Yadav has also found a place in the team after recovering from an injury. Pacer G Govind has also been added to the squad.
Tamil Nadu would look up to openers Momammed Ali and Narayan Jagadeesan to give them a good start. India player Vijay Shankar will hold the middle-order along with Pradosh Rajan Paul and Ajith Ram.
Ram and captain Sai Kishore, both left-arm orthodox, will have to deliver their best if Tamil Nadu fancy any chance to reach the semis.
The match will be streamed
live on Jio.
Teams: Vidarbha: Akshay Wadkar (Captain & WK), Atharva Taide, Aman Mokhade, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Yash Kadam, Akshay Wakhare, Aditya Thakare, Shubham Kapse, Nachiket Bhute, Siddhesh Wath (WK), Yash Thakur, Danish Malewar, Parth Rekhade, Karun Nair, Dhruv Shorey.
Tamil Nadu: Sai Kishore R (C), Jagadeesan N (VC), Mohamed Ali S, Sai Sudharsan B, Boopathi Vaishna Kumar, Vijay Shankar, Andre Siddarth, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Mohammed M, Ajith Ram S, Sonu Yadav R, Trilok Nag H, Achyuth C V, Lokeshwar S, Siddharth M, Govind G.
No comments:
Post a Comment