An interesting battle between two confident teams is in the offing when Madhya Pradesh hosts Delhi in their crucial Ranji Trophy Elite group match here from Tuesday.
With the India-West Indies fourth One-Day International scheduled at the Holkar Stadium here on December 8, the four-day clash will once again be staged at the Emerald Heights International School on the outskirts of the city.
Both teams, after indifferent starts, tasted unexpected home victories last week. Delhi overpowered Baroda and MP stopped Gujarat to provide an interesting twist to the proceedings. The picture looked different last month, when Gujarat humiliated Delhi and Baroda embarrassed MP for their lone triumphs.
Delhi's 10-wicket triumph was worth much more than the six points it took. The fighting victory instilled the confidence back in a team which once appeared vulnerable on more counts than one. As a result, the dressing-room talk has shifted from avoiding a possible relegation to the prospect of qualifying for the knockout.
After all, Delhi heads the group with 10 points having played one match more than most other teams.
Redemption course
MP, bowled out for 63 against Baroda, is surely on a redemption course. The way it battled to take the first innings lead against Bengal and then brought down Gujarat reflects the team's character.
With eight points from the last two matches, MP has reasons to be optimistic.
Looking at Delhi's pace attack, with Ashish Nehra agreeing to play a third match on the trot and Pradeep Sangwan back in the squad, MP will find it tricky to provide a pacer-friendly pitch. MP has depth in batting and it should not come as a surprise if it decides to test Delhi in a battle of batsmen.
The teams:
Delhi: Mithun Manhas (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Unmukt Chand, Milind Kumar, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Nagar, Punit Bisht, Ashish Nehra, Parvinder Awana, Vikas Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Pawan Negi, Manoj Chauhan, Ankur Jhulka and Hrishit Saini.
Madhya Pradesh: Devendra Bundela (captain), Naman Ojha, Jalaj Saxena, Mohnish Mishra, Abbas Ali, Harpreet Singh, Udit Birla, Ankit Sharma, T. P. Sudhindra, Anand Rajan, Ishwar Pandey, Amit Sharma, Asif Ali, Zafar Ali and Murtaza Ali.
