NEW DELHI: IT will be a recap of the Vijay Hazare Trophy final on Thursday, with two domestic heavyweights — Tamil Nadu and Karnataka — once again facing each other in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Surat.
Coming into their Super League Group B match, both teams have emerged victorious five out of six times in their group-stage clashes. While Karnataka headlined many days with their batting prowess, the Dinesh Karthik-led team have been riding high on their bowling performances.
Devdutt Padikkal has been the go-to man for Karnataka, scoring a bulk of the team’s runs. The 19-year-old left-hander has aggregated 303 runs — third highest so far in the tournament — including one century and two fifties. There have been valuable contributions from the likes of Karun Nair, Rohan Kadam and Manish Pandey, with their average total being 172 in this edition.
Bowlers have stood out for Tamil Nadu. After posting three 150-plus totals, they restricted Manipur, Tripur and Vidarbha for 55, 79 and 55. Karthik & Co have picked up 49 wickets in six matches, compared to Karnataka’s 43. Their left-armers — R Sai Kishore and T Natarajan — have been at the forefront, taking 12 wickets each. That Sai Kishore has done so with a stellar economy of 3.86 paints a picture in itself.
For Manish Pandey & Co, this is the one aspect that they need to be wary of. They have conceded more than 170 thrice — against stronger opponents — with only Shreyas Gopal being the only bowler keeping batsmen quiet. The leg-spinner has 13 wickets to his name — the third-joint highest wicket-taker in this edition — at an economy of 5.57.
When it comes to batting, Tamil Nadu skipper Karthik has led from the front. He has notched up three quick-fire fifties in four innings, and has a strike rate of 149.25. An ankle injury has ruled opener Murali Vijay out of the Super League and knockout stages. That means there will be added responsibility on seniors like Baba Aparajath, Karthik and Vijay Shankar. Batting will be one aspect that the team would want to be cautious of, given that they were not tested much in the last three encounters.
Both teams will play four matches in the Super League stage.
Today’s fixtures: Maharashtra vs Delhi (9.30 AM); Punjab vs Jharkhand (1.30 PM); Baroda vs Rajasthan (2.30 PM); Karnataka vs Tamil Nadu (6.30 PM).
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