Ranji Trophy: Mumbai Face TN In Clash Of Heavyweights; Confident Vidarbha Face Spirited MP (preview)
The Ranji Trophy: The Ranji Trophy 2023/24 Elite Group semi-finals will see Mumbai take on Tamil Nadu in a clash of heavyweights, while a confident Vidarbha will face spirited Madhya Pradesh from March 2-6.
The winners from the two semi-finals, to be held at BKC Ground, Mumbai and VCA Stadium in Nagpur respectively, will face each other in the final of the prestigious tournament, to be played from March 10.
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41-time championship winning team Mumbai, led by Ajinkya Rahane (enduring a lean patch with the bat), finished with the most points among all teams, including elite and plate levels, in the competition.
Shreyas Iyer, recently dropped from the BCCI central contracts, is available for the semi-final clash after missing the quarter-final game due to back spasms. Musheer Khan, Hardik Tamore, Bhupen Lalwani, Shardul Thakur, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, and Tushar Deshpande have made significant contributions for Mumbai in the campaign.
On the other hand, Tamil Nadu are on a seven-match winning streak, after having just one point from the first two rounds. They eliminated reigning champions Saurashtra in the quarter-finals, winning by an innings and 33 runs at Coimbatore.
Spin duo of skipper R Sai Kishore and S Ajith Ram have claimed 47 and 41 wickets, while N Jagadeesan and Baba Indrajith have been the mainstays with the bat. They also welcome off-spin all-rounder Washington Sundar, who’s been released from the India Test squad for the semi-final.
On the other hand, two-time Ranji Trophy winners Vidarbha have won three of their four games at the venue for their semi-final clash against 2021/22 champions Madhya Pradesh. Vidarbha have found contributions from Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Karun Nair and Akshay Wadkar.
Pacer Aditya Thakare and left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate have done the heavy lifting for Vidarbha with the ball. For Madhya Pradesh, Venkatesh Iyer, Himanshu Mantri and Yash Dubey have done the bulk of scoring with the bat, while Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya and Saransh Jain have been effective with the ball.
Vidarbha secured their semi-final berth with a 127-run victory over Karnataka, led by Atharva Taide’s century. Madhya Pradesh, meanwhile, won a nail-biting match against Andhra Pradesh by four runs to make it to the semi-finals. Both semi-finals will be streamed live on JioCinema from 9:30am, with the Mumbai-Tamil Nadu clash also available on Sports18 Khel channel on TV.
Squads:
Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Bhupen Lalwani, Amogh Bhatkal, Musheer Khan, Prasad Pawar (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Shardul Thakur, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Aditya Dhumal, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Avasthi, Royston Dias and Dhawal Kulkarni.
Tamil Nadu: R Sai Kishore (captain), Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Baba Indrajith, Narayan Jagadeesan (wk), Suresh Lokeshwar (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, Vimal Khumar, Balasubramaniam Sachin, Washington Sundar, Sandeep Warrier, Trilok Nag, T Natarajan, Mohammed Mohammed and S Ajith Ram.
Vidarbha: Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Yash Rathod, Karun Nair, Akshay Wadkar (captain & wicketkeeper), Mohit Kale, Aditya Sarwate, Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Aditya Thakare, Faiz Fazal, Akshay Wakhare, Sanjay Raghunath, Rajneesh Gurbani, Lalit M Yadav, Siddhesh Wath, Jitesh Sharma, Darshan Nalkande and Shubham Dubey.
Madhya Pradesh: Yash Dubey, Himanshu Mantri (wk), Harsh Gawli, Shubham S Sharma (captain), Venkatesh Iyer, Sumit Kushwah, Saransh Jain, Anubhav Agarwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Avesh Khan, Kulwant Khejroliya, Amarjeet Singh, Aditya Shrivastava, Mihir Hirwani, Rishabh Chouhan and Aryan Pandey.
