The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Confident Gujarat vs. star-studded U.P.

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Confident Gujarat vs. star-studded U.P.

J.R. Shridharan

VADODARA: A keen contest is on the cards when Gujarat, riding high on its success in the Super League phase of the Ranji Trophy, takes on a star-studded Uttar Pradesh led by former India international Mohammad Kaif in the quarterfinals here from Friday.

The teams are evenly balanced and the batsmen and bowlers of both sides have come up with superb performances in the current season.

Gujarat, which finished next to Mumbai in Group ‘A’, will be led by the experienced Parthiv Patel who notched up an impressive double hundred against Orissa.

The team’s batting fortunes would revolve around Bhavik Thaker (662 runs with three hundreds), Nilesh Modi, who made a double century against Hyderabad, and all-rounder Timil Patel, who slammed a hundred against Saurashtra and has also been taking wickets as a leg-spinner.

All eyes on Parmar

Off-spinner Mohnish Parmar will be the bowler to watch out for, as he has picked up 34 wickets and is the leading wicket-taker.

The onus of handling the new ball will be on Siddharth Trivedi (33 wickets), Amit Singh and Ashraf Makda. Makda also demonstrated his batting skills by making a quick-fire 73 off 78 balls against Mumbai.

“We have had a brilliant run so far and the boys are peaking at the right time. We are well versed with the Motibaug wicket as we played many tournaments here,” said Parthiv.

“The strip has always been seamer-friendly and also helps batsmen who show patience and temperament,” the Gujarat skipper added.

With five internationals in its ranks — Kaif, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar and Rudra Pratap Singh — Uttar Pradesh is a formidable opponent.

The feat by the batsmen against Karnataka is still fresh in coach Gyanendra Pandey’s mind. “Never in the history of Uttar Pradesh cricket has a team overhauled more than 500 to gain the lead. The chase has made the players more determined to give it their best shot in this important game,” Pandey said.

Dream chase

The Uttar Pradesh skipper said the team was performing well as a unit and the dream chase was special to him.

“Tanmay Srivastava is having a fine run with the bat and has scored 585 runs, including two hundreds. Chawla (23), medium-pacer Bhuvnesh Kumar (19) and left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta (17) have been consistent with the ball,” said Kaif.

The teams (from):

Gujarat: Parthiv Patel (Capt.), Niraj Patel, Nilesh Modi, Priyank Panchal, Bhavik Thaker, Sunny Patel, Timil Patel, Siddharth Trivedi, Ashraf Makda, Mohnish Parmar, Amit Singh, Ishwar Choudary, Jay Desai, Rinkin Chauhan and Anupam Patel.

Uttar Pradesh: Mohammad Kaif (Capt.), Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Tanmay Srivastava, Ravikant Shukla, Shivakant Shukla, Parvender Singh, Praveen Gupta, Sudeep Tyagi, Bhuvnesh Kumar, Imtiaz Ahmed, Mohd. Amir Khan, Tahir Abbas, Kshitij Lall and Ashish Yadav.

Umpires: Subrat S. Das and M.R. Singh; Match referee: Col. Chinmaya Sharma.

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