Dinesh Karthik led Tamil Nadu will be playing in their third Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final and for the first time in two consecutive finals after being beaten by Karnataka in a thriller last year. This time around the opposition is Baroda, who have shocked most cricket pundits by beating two heavyweights in Haryana and Punjab in the knockouts and Gujarat at the group stage, remaining unbeaten throughout their campaign.
Both the teams in the finals are battle-hardened having come out of all sorts of trouble in the entire tournament and remaining unbeaten throughout. While Tamil Nadu faced their biggest hurdle in the quarterfinal against Himachal Pradesh, Baroda had been subjected to danger right in their first game against Uttarakhand which they won by four runs and then again against Haryana which they won on the last ball of the match through Vishnu Solanki’s heroics.
Thus in this game both the teams would be looking to bank on their skills to come out of the troublesome situations. A lot will also depend on the captaincy of Kedar Devdhar and Dinesh Karthik as both of them have been great with their decision-making skills. How they deal with the best team they are going to face would be interesting to see.
Baroda would also be a bit more pumped in a way that they have beaten quality sides on their run-up to the finals in their last three games while Tamil Nadu’s win over Himachal and Rajasthan could not be rated as highly, mostly due to the absence of stars in both the teams as compared to those present in Punjab and Haryana, which Baroda have beaten.
Both the teams have some great players who have shown throughout the tournament. Some of them have really shone and turned the game on its head from unbelievable situations. Thus, in the final, the following players can turn out to be the game-changers.
Jagadeesan has been Mr Consisitent for the team from down south so far with 350 runs in seven innings with an average of almost 88 (87.50), which is huge for a T20 tournament. His strike rate of 142.27 is also as good as it gets for an opener. Thus he is going to be an important wicket for Broda, although he hasn’t been able to make a big impact in the Knockouts so far.
Sai Kishore is another Tamil Nadu youngster who has utilised the opportunity to make a case for himself, especially in this tournament with an amazing economy rate of 5.16, although he has taken just eight wickets in seven games. But more than the wickets, it’s the amount of pressure that he puts on the batsmen which eventually leads to wickets for other bowlers too.
The name is enough for this man. With the amount of experience that he has got of playing at higher levels, he is always going to be a man to watch out for. In this tournament heh has socred 161 runs but has been out only twice in seven innings and has an average of 80 alongside a strike rate of 161.
For Baroda, their acting captain (in absence of Krunal Pandya) Kedar Devdhar has done amazingly well as he is the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 333 runs at an average of 83 and with a best of 99*. He occupies one end and plays the anchor and therefore could be dangerous as he allows the likes of Vishnu Solankis and Karthik Kakade to attack from the other end before takes on the charge after settling down as well.
Meriwala could be really dangerous and it was evident during the semi-finals against Punjab as he removed two of the best Punjab batsmen Prabhsimran Singh and Abhishek Sharma quite early in the game. He is quick and can bounce the batsmen out as well along with the ability to bring the ball back in for the right-handers. He has so far picked up 14wickets in the tournament with a brilliant average of 11.78 and an economy rate of 6.22
Solanki has won a game that was almost over for Baroda with 15 required from three balls. But apart from that also he has scored 218 runs in seven innings with an average of 54 and thus he could be a good prospect for Broda at the top of the order.
The pitch at the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad has been on the slower side in the day games and n the night, it has been difficult to chase down totals, even as a lot of dew is there on the ground. There is an initial movement for fast bowlers in the evening and that plays an important role for the team fielding second as the fast bowlers come into play.
The weather at Motera for tomorrow is going to be perfect for a cricket game as there is no chance of rain. The dew is going to heavy as usual and therefore the skipper winning the toss would choose to field first.
Tamil Nadu Strongest XI
Hari Nishanth, N Jagadeesan, Baba Aparajith, Arun Karthik, Sonu Yadav, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Shahrukh Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, M Mohammed, Murugan Ashwin, Aswin Crist
Baroda Strongest XI
Kedar Devdhar (c), Smit Patel (wk), Vishnu Solanki, Abhimanyu Rajput, Ninad Rathva, Atit Sheth, Bhanu Pania, Babashafi Pathan, Lukman Meriwala, Bhargav Bhatt, Karthik Kakade
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