Nagpur, Dec18
Vidarbha has a slight edge over its opponent Tripura in the three pre-quarterfinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy to be played here on Sunday. While the Faiz Fazal-led Vidarbha should go as favourites against minnows Tripura, it will be a clash of equals when Karnataka take on an equally upbeat Rajasthan at the KL Saini stadium.
Vidarbha finished in second position on the points table in Elite Group A behind Himachal Pradesh with three wins out of five. They will be high on confidence after defeating Jammu and Kashmir in their last group game and will look to carry forward the winning momentum.
Vidarbha would rely on the performance of skipper Fazal, who has always delivered on the big stage and come Sunday, he would be eyeing for another big knock.
He, however, would need support from the likes of Athara Taide, Ganesh Satish, Yash Rathod and Akshay Wadkar to tame Tripura's attack.
On the bowling front, young pacer Yash Thakur is among the wickets and is the second highest wicket-taker from the league stage with 14 scalps.
The role of his co-pacer Darshan Nalkande and seasoned off-spinner Akshay Wakhare and left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate would be key for their chances of making the last eight. Tripura, on the other hand, are on a roll in the competition. They have played five games so far and are yet to lose any. Tripura defeated Meghalaya comprehensively in their last league game to seal a berth in the knockout stages.
Probable XI Vidarbha: Faiz Fazal (c), Atharva Taide, Ganesh Satish, Yash Rathod, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Aditya Sarwate, Lalit M Yadav, Apoorv Wankhade, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Thakur, Akshay Wakhare.
Probable XI Tripura: Samit Gohel, Samrat Singha, Bishal Ghosh, Subham Ghosh, KB Pawan (c & wk), Manisankar Murasingh, Rajat Dey, Rana Dutta, Rahil Shah, Ajoy Sarkar, Amit Ali