Vijay Hazare Trophy: All set for a thrilling finish

November 22, 2014 10:30 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 04:44 pm IST - Ahmedabad:

India’s topmost limited-over competition for the Vijay Hazare Trophy is all set for a thrilling finish with the semifinals to be played here on Sunday and the final on Tuesday.

Defending champion Karanaka would aim to prove its supremacy for the second time running while three other teams in Bengal, Punjab and Odisha feel they have the wherewithal to have a genuine shot at the top prize.

After getting rid of a major hurdle in Mumbai in the quarterfinal at Vadodara on Saturday, Karnataka will take on Bengal in a semifinal that will be played at a second ground within the Gujarat Cricket Association’s facility at Motera and the star-studded Punjab will face Odisha at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium. Odisha beat Goa by one run in the quarterfinals played at Rajkot, to advance to the semifinals.

The tournament assumes significance as it will provide an opportunity to impress the selectors and win a place in the 30-member probables’ list for the ICC World Cup to be played early next year in Australia and New Zealand.

In fact, the BCCI advanced the Vijay Hazare and Prof. D.B. Deodhar Trophy (to be played in Mumbai from November 29 to December 3) to motivate the established players to come up with some spectacular performances and also enable the selectors to look for the x-factor player — someone like Gujarat’s left-arm spinner all-rounder Axar Patel. Also watched with interest will be Karnataka’s Manish Pandey and Bengal’s Manoj Tiwary, both on the fringe for two or three years and Punjab’s Amitoze Singh who has scored 285 runs and taken 10 wickets.

Punjab, with seasoned cricketers such as Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh in the squad and some more powerful players, may appear to enjoy the edge. Odisha has some quality players too among whom Biplab Samantaray stands out.

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