It will likely be a battle of the big-hitters when prodigiously gifted openers Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal sq. off towards one another in a semifinal clash between home giants Mumbai and heavyweights Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day championship right here on Thursday (March 11).
While Padikkal, who smashed 4 consecutive List A lots of to turn into the primary Indian to attain the feat, is the main run-scorer of the event with 673 runs, Shaw shouldn’t be far behind with 589 runs in his kitty. Shaw, who will likely be main Mumbai, has been on a record-breaking spree. The diminutive right-hand batsman grew to become the very best particular person scorer in the historical past of the event when he smashed an unbeaten 227 towards Puducherry in the group stage match.
On Tuesday (March 9), he added one other document to his title by notching up the very best rating by an Indian in a chase in a List A recreation when he smashed an unbeaten 185 towards Saurashtra in the quarterfinal, surpassing the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
Both kids could be eager to attain huge and push their groups into the ultimate come Thursday. Padikkal wish to impress the nationwide selectors as soon as once more and push his case for a berth in the ODI squad for the upcoming three-match sequence towards England.
Karnataka have an array of skilled gamers like Manish Pandey, pacers Ronit More, M Prasidh Krishna, all-rounder Shreyas Gopal and spinner Okay Gowtham and will have a slight edge over Mumbai, who boasts of a number of kids and will likely be with out the companies of normal skipper Shreyas Iyer, prolific Suryakumar Yadav and pacer Shardul Thakur.
For Karnataka, one other benefit is the type of skipper Ravikumar Samarth, who’s second highest on the main run-scorer listing for this yr, having amassed 605 runs. He hit a whirlwind 192 in the quarterfinal towards Kerala and could be greater than eager to place up a present as soon as once more.
For Mumbai, who final gained the event in 2018-19, so much may also rely on how their bowlers led by medium pacer Dhawal Kulkarni (13 wickets) carry out. The function of spinners Shams Mulani, Prashant Solanki and Tanush Kotian and all-rounder Shivam Dube may also be equally necessary.
The second semifinal between Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, to be performed on the Arun Jaitley Stadium, will be touted because the battle of equals. Both groups will depend on the efficiency of their skippers — Priyank Panchal (Gujarat) and Karan Sharma (UP).
Line-up: Gujarat vs Uttar Pradesh match begins at 9am on the Arun Jaitley Stadium; Mumbai vs Karnataka match begins at 9 AM at Air Force Ground, Palam.
