Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20, Final: Karnataka vs Tamil Nadu, Preview - A mouth-watering southern derby in prospect at the Chinnaswamy stadium

Tamil Nadu is yet to lose a game this season.

Published - 24 Oct 2019, 21:01 IST | Updated - 24 Oct 2019, 21:01 IST

3 Min Read

So here we are then! After a plethora of damp squibs, rain, more rain, humdingers, one-sided encounters, swashbuckling individual performances, and of course a whole host of controversy regarding the tournament’s format, we are finally down to the marquee clash of the 2019-20 season of Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Two teams- Karnataka and Tamil Nadu- will battle it out to earn the right of being called the premier 50-over side in the Indian domestic circuit. Both sides have made it to the summit clash courtesy a streak of consistent performances. Karnataka earned their ticket to the final after they swept aside Chhattisgarh courtesy a four-wicket-haul from V Koushik (4-46) and an imperious 155-run opening stand between KL Rahul (88*) and Devdutt Padikkal (92).

Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, is yet to drop a game in the 2019-20 Vijay Hazare Trophy. They come into this game after having beaten Gujarat five wickets thanks to an unbeaten 85-run-stand between Shahrukh Khan and Washington Sundar. It will be about who keeps their nerve at the Vijay Hazare Trophy final.

Team Combination

Karnataka:

Karnataka’s top-4- KL Rahul (546 runs at 60.66), Devdutt Padikkal (598 runs at 74.75), skipper Manish Pandey (525 runs at 105.00) and Mayank Agarwal, who scored an unbeaten 47 in the semis, will once again be the key to their fortunes in the summit clash. The onus will also be on V Koushik to do an encore of what he did against Chhattisgarh and hope that the likes of Krishanppa Gowtham (14 wickets), Shreyas Gopal (13 wickets) and Abhimanyu Mithun (15 wickets) also chip in.

Probable XI:

KL Rahul (WK), Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey (C), Mayank Agarwal, Praveen Dubey, K Gowtham, Abhimanyu Mithun, Shreyas Gopal, V Koushik, Ronit More

Tamil Nadu:

The major reason for Tamil Nadu’s winning streak in this tournament is that they are not too heavily dependent on only one facet. If the likes of Baba Aparajith (532 runs at 66.50), Abhinav Mukund (515 runs at 46.81) and Murali Vijay (284 runs at 40.57) don’t get you, the lower-middle-order boasting of skipper Dinesh Karthik (407 runs at 67.83), Vijay Shankar (346 runs at 57.66) and Shahrukh Khan (217 runs at 54.25) will most certainly will!

Their all-rounder batting is ably backed by their bowlers: M Mohammed (16 wickets), Murugan Ashwin (14 wickets) and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Probable XI

Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, Baba Aparajith, Dinesh Karthik (C & WK), Vijay Shankar, Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, M Mohammed, T Natarajan

Focus will be on

Devdutt Padikkal (KAR): The left-hander has been in the form of his life, scoring 598 runs at an average of 74.75 which includes seven fifty-plus scores. Can the youngster do an encore of his performance of the semis in the summit clash against a very good Tamil Nadu bowling line-up? We’ll wait and see!

Baba Aparajith (TN): Another uncapped cricketer who has been in outstanding form this season, Baba Aparajith has racked up 532 runs at an average of 66.50 which includes six fifty-plus scores.