Last year was productive for Tamil Nadu.
It reached the Ranji Trophy semifinals, won the Vijay Hazare and Deodhar Trophy titles and finished second in the inter-State T20 zonal stage.
The team was expected to fight hard for that elusive third title this season. Instead, it heads into its final league game against Baroda at the Motibaug cricket ground here with the chances of qualifying looking slim.
While the batsmen have been delivering, the bowlers have not been up to the mark.
K. Vignesh, the second highest wicket-taker last year, has been impressive so far picking up 18 wickets, but has lacked support from the other end. This hurt the side against Andhra, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
Coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar has no qualms in admitting it. “The one area we haven’t done well this year has been that we have failed to drive home the advantage. We did not take the opportunities we had and that has cost us.”
It will be interesting to see who replaces Vijay Shankar. With the conditions expected to favour the pacers, Tamil Nadu — which played an extra bowler in the last match — might opt for an all-rounder like J. Kousik.
Skipper Abhinav said, “we have to play aggressive cricket and that’s what we will try to do.
“This is one ground where there have been several outright results in the past and where we as a team have also had good results.”
After a slow start, Baroda — which hit form in its last three matches, almost pulling off a big win against Mumbai — would be a tough opponent for Tamil Nadu. Baroda (10 points), one behind TN, also has an outside chance of qualifying.
The teams:
Tamil Nadu: Abhinav Mukund (Capt.), B. Aparajith, B. Indrajith, N. Jagadeesan, M. Kaushik Gandhi, M.S. Washington Sundar, V. Ganga Sridhar Raju, V. Yo Mahesh, R. Rohit, K. Vignesh, M. Mohammed, R. Malolan, R. Sai Kishore, D.T. Chandrasekar, S. Lokeshwar, J. Kousik
Baroda: Deepak Hooda (Capt.), Kedar Devdhar, Aditya Waghmode, Vishnu Solanki, Swapnil Singh, Atit Sheth, Mitesh Patel, Lukman Meriwala, Abhijeet Karambelkar, Kartik Kakade, Noor Ahmed Pathan, Dhruv Patel, Vijay Halai, Akshay Brahmbhatt, Rudresh Waghela.
