Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19, Quarter-Finals: Mumbai vs Bihar – Dream11 Fantasy Tips

The Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19 quarter-final between Mumbai and Bihar will be marked for the appearance of Rohit Sharma, who will certainly benefit from some match time ahead of the five-match ODI series against Windies. Last time Rohit played for Mumbai was in the 2016-17 edition of this tournament during his recovery from an injury that put him out of cricketing action for nearly six months. The Indian opener will be playing this game before joining the national team.

Mumbai, led by Shreyas Iyer, will face Bihar, who are making a comeback to Indian domestic cricket after 15 years. Both the teams remained unbeaten in the group stage and topped their respective groups. Mumbai won all the six completed matches and finished with 28 points to top the Elite Group A & B. Bihar won all the seven matches they played and ended up as the winners of Plate Group with 30 points.

Mumbai, that is the most successful team in the Ranji Trophy, has been well behind in the limited-overs formats. They have not won the domestic One-Day tournament in the last ten years and would want to end the jinx this time. Bihar have a point or two to prove against the top domestic side as they are coming from the Plate Group which is filled with newcomers.

Match Details: The game between Mumbai and Bihar will be played on 14th October 2018 at the Just Cricket Academy Ground in Bangalore.

The match starts at 9:00 AM IST (Local time).

Recent Form:

Mumbai in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018/19 –W, W, W, W, W, W

Bihar in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018/19 – W, W, W, W, W, W, W

Pitch Condition/Report:

The Just Cricket Academy ground hasn’t produced any big totals in the tournament yet. The 2017-18 edition of the tournament recorded three 300+ totals at this venue but the highest this season has been only 281/5. This could be due to the rain factor as it has been pouring down every other day in Bangalore during the Group Stage as the pace bowlers enjoyed a good amount of success here. However, the ground staff could produce a better deck for the knockout game given the fact that it hasn’t rained here in the last couple of days.

Squads:

Mumbai: Shreyas Iyer (C), Rohit Sharma, Jay Bista, Akhil Herwadkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dubey, Aditya Tare (wk), Dhawal Kulkarni, Shams Mulani, Royston Dias, Shubham Ranjane, Eknath Kerkar, Akash Parkar, Vijay Gohil, Tushar Deshpande.

Bihar: Vikash Ranjan (wk), Kumar Mridul, Babul Kumar, MD Rahmatullah, Keshav Kumar (C), Anunay Singh, Ashutosh Aman, Samar Quadri, Manish Rai, Rohit Raj, Rehan Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Eshaan Ravi, Anshuman Gautam, Kundan Sharma, Ashish Sinha.

Probable XI:

Mumbai: Shreyas Iyer (C), Rohit Sharma, Akhil Herwadkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dubey, Aditya Tare (wk), Dhawal Kulkarni, Shams Mulani, Royston Dias, Vijay Gohil.

Bihar: Vikash Ranjan (wk), Babul Kumar, MD Rahmatullah, Keshav Kumar (C), Anunay Singh, Ashutosh Aman, Samar Quadri, Rohit Raj, Rehan Khan, Eshaan Ravi, Anshuman Gautam, Manish Rai.

Power Picks:

Dhawal Kulkarni could continue to run through the opposition line-ups as he did in the previous matches. On his day, in useful conditions, Kulkarni can do any sort of damage to the opposition.

Bihar’s Babul Kumar could be a good pick given his recent form as he has scored two centuries and two fifties in the seven games he played in the tournament.

Best Playing XI:

Vikash Ranjan, Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Babul Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav, Ashutosh Aman, Shams Mulani, Anunay Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Royston Dias, Rehan Khan.

Captain and Vice-Captain:

The captain and vice-captain should be among Dhawal Kulkarni, Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer and Shams Mulani. Rohit and Iyer are in a good batting form and could prove to be hard over the Bihar bowlers. The bowling duo of Kulkarni and Mulani have regularly claimed wickets at the start. They could run through the Bihar’s inexperienced batting line-up if the conditions go in their favour.

Expert Advice:

It is better to keep the number of players from Bihar to a minimum as they might find it difficult to match the level of Mumbai players. Bihar’s dramatic collapse or a huge total from Mumbai cannot be ruled out either. The leg-spinner Samar Quadri has experience of playing for Jharkhand and is the leading wicket-taker for the Bihar team in this tournament.

However, he has taken only one wicket in the last four matches after claiming 11 in the first three games. He could be ignored due to his price tag. The Indian batsman Rohit Sharma could be a hit and miss in this game. Rohit, who has been amongst runs recently, could be seen dominating the inexperienced Bihar bowlers if he manages to escape the swing at the start.

Probable Winners:

The experienced Mumbai team is expected to enter the semi-final with a thumping win over Bihar. The Shreyas Iyer-led side will know the conditions and pitch at the venue much better.

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