Vijay Hazare Trophy: Pressure on Karnataka against Maharashtra

NEW DELHI: Missing an opportunity to lay their hands on the coveted Ranji Trophy this season still hurts Karnataka’s players. The semifinal game that saw Vidarbha winning by a whisker continues to haunt them. Now, they have a chance to make amends in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as they look to put it across Maharashtra in the semifinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Saturday.
It’s a big game and Karun Nair and his men know Maharashtra aren’t going to be pushovers. Realising the intensity of the contest, both teams hit the nets early on a relatively warm Friday morning. Maharashtra have a slight advantage over Karnakata in that they have less pressure of expectation. With their team managers spelling out the need to focus on enjoying the game, it’s Karnataka who will have to battle it out to live up to expectations. Maharashtra, on the other hand, want to stick to the basics, as they did against top guns Mumbai.
Maharashtra will have to think of ways to silence domestic run machines Mayank Agarwal and Ravikumar Samarth, who stuck a century in the previous game. Both of them are in ominous touch and could run away with the game on their day.
The match will be played on the same pitch on which Karnataka got 347/8 in 50 overs against Hyderabad. The runs are expected to come thick and fast again.
Maharashtra will depend on captain Rahul Tripathi and Ruturaj Gaikwad. It will again be interesting to see what kind of role Shrikant Mundhe will play after he was asked to open the innings against Mumbai to lengthen the batting lineup. Karnataka will again be depending on mainstay bowlers Sreenath Arvind, K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal, who took five wickets in the previous game. All-rounder Stuart Binny too has plenty of experience at this level.