Vijay Hazare final
Bengaluru: The spotlight will be on India players Mayank Agarwal, R Ashwin and KL Rahul when the evenly-matched Karnataka and Tamil Nadu lock horns in the title clash of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Friday.
The Manish Pandey-led Karnataka were convincing in their victories in the knockout games but Tamil Nadu, who dominated the league phase, were a tad lucky as the rain rule allowed them to go past Punjab in the quarterfinals before young M Shahrukh Khan guided them home in the semifinal against Gujarat.
The two sides are equally matched, with a formidable batting line-up and a set of quality bowlers, though the presence of R Ashwin gives the TN attack more experience and variety. The Friday’s clash will be decided by how the two bowling attacks perform given that both teams have a lot of depth in batting. The home side has been well served by out-of-favour Test opener K L Rahul (546 runs in 10 games), who has come into his own in the quarterfinals and semis and his opening partner Devdutt Padikkal (598 runs from 10 matches). Captain Manish Pandey has been in good touch too and he will look to pull his weight in the summit clash as would Mayank and Test discard Karun Nair.
Tamil Nadu have an equally formidable batting unit with Baba Aparajith (480 runs), southpaw Abhinav Mukund (440 runs) and the stylish Murali Vijay at the forefront. Skipper Dinesh Karthik has donned the finisher role with some telling knocks and would be expected to lead from the front in the final. All-rounder Vijay Shankar and young Shahrukh Khan have made crucial contributions with the latter putting his hand up in a tricky chase on Wednesday. The Karnataka bowling has seen an unlikely hero emerge with V Kousik picking up four wickets in the semifinal demolition of Chhattisgarh. (PTI)