Vidarbha to face Karnataka challenge

Nagpur, Nov 19

Akshay Wadkar-led undefeated Vidarbha will face resurgent Karnataka in the semifinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday.Vidarbha entered the semi-finals for the first time in this T-20 format thrashing Rajasthan by nine wickets. They would like to continue the winning streak. As far as opponents are concerned, then, it was Manish Pandey's brilliance that helped Karnataka overcome Bengal via a Super Over in their quarter-final. So far everything is going in the right direction for Vidarbha. Their batters including batters Atharva Taide, Ganesh Satish and skipper Wadkar are in tremendous form and would need to continue their good form to tame a formidable Karnataka attack . For the Vidarbha opener, Atharva Taide has emerged top scorer with 238 runs in six matches with an average of 59.00. Explosive Jitesh Sharma's dominance can be gauged from the fact that he has scored 202 runs in 7 matches with the strike rate of 246.34. So far he is the only batsman whose strike rate is more than 200.

Skipper Wadkar (180 in 7 matches) is also in good form.

In the pre-quarter after the failure of Siddesh Wath, the Pritam Gandhe-coached Vidarbha opted to open with Ganesh Satish in the quarters and the move worked wonders.

But the top three would need equal support from Shubham Dubey and Apoorv Wankhede, if Vidarbha are to post or chase a big total.

Bowling has played an important role in Vidarbha's success so far in the national T20 championship, and again, the eight overs by left-arm orthodox spinner Akshay Karnewar and seasoned off-spinner Akshay Wakhare could decide the game's fate. As far as successful bowlers are concerned then Karnewar is on fifth place with 13 wickets in seven matches. He has bowled very economical spessls throughout the tournament. his economy rate is 3.57 which is one of the rare things in T-20 cricket.

Another important cog in the wheel is young right-arm pacer Yash Thakur, who has delivered so far. He would need support from pace colleagues Darshan Nalkande and Lalit Yadav.

For Karnataka, the biggest positive is Manish Pandey regaining form. Openers Rohan Kadam and BR Sharath and middle-order batters Karun Nair, Aniruddha Joshi and Abhinav Manohar would be more than keen to score big in the marque clash. On their day, Karnataka can take any attack to cleansers and Vidarbha's won't be an exception. Their bowlers, particularly spinners J Suchith and KC Carippa, and the pacers led by Vijaykumar Vyshak would also need to play a vital role if the team is to make it to the summit clash. Since it's a day game, dew would not be a factor at all.