The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Delhi faces J&K

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Delhi faces J&K

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Underdogs would fancy their chances against some of the traditionally stronger teams in the region when the North Zone Twenty20 cricket league begins at the two Palam grounds here on Tuesday.

On the opening day, Delhi takes on Jammu and Kashmir at Palam ‘A’ ground while Haryana plays Punjab at the adjacent Palam ‘B’ ground. In the afternoon, Himachal Pradesh faces host Services at Palam ‘A’.

Delhi’s coach Vijay Dahiya was cautious on the eve of his team’s opener against rank outsider J & K. “Some of our big names (Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma) will be on international duty (against Australia) while Mithun Manhas is unfit.

“The experience of Aakash Chopra and Rajat Bhatia should come handy since the team has a couple of new faces. I expect the youngsters to cash in on the opportunity and make an impact. In this format, there are no clear favourites,” he said.

Bhupinder Singh, former National selector and now coach of Punjab, chose to label his team as an “underdog” against Haryana.

“We have a young team that also has three players who’ve played the ICL. We have kept out seniors like Pankaj Dharmani, Ankur Kakkar and Gagandeep Singh from the T20 team. I hope our youngsters show their worth in this exciting format,” he said.

Himachal Pradesh, which is fast emerging from under the shadows of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, will be looking to add to the gains from the past couple of seasons. With five rounds to be played over six days, six teams will be battling for the two qualifying spots in the knockout phase, to be played in the second week of March next year.

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