The three-day final of the all-India Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup invitation cricket tournament between Hyderabad Cricket Association XI and Tamil Nadu will be played at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal) from Saturday.
A confident HCA, with a batting line-up in good nick and led by captain D.B. Ravi Teja, is expected to face a tough fight against a spirited Tamil Nadu, which scored a sensational one-wicket win over Karnataka in the semifinal the other day at Gymkhana Grounds.
With opener P. Akshath Reddy likely to set up the tempo very early, in the company of the flamboyant Ravi Teja, HCA should feel comfortable given the form of southpaw B. Sandeep and wicketkeeper-batsman Ibrahim Khaleel (who hit tons in the semifinal), besides the gusty all-rounder Paramveer Singh, whose gritty batting and useful leg-spin should be more than handy.
With in-form left-arm spinner A. Lalith Mohan likely to play a bigger role in the final by way of getting more number of overs (the selectors preferred to give the other bowlers equal opportunities in the semifinal against HCA Colts), the bowling attack has the variety — especially in spin — as off-spinner Amol Shinde too is expected to chip in with wickets.
Kanishk Naidu, Anwar Khan and Minash Gabriel are the new ball bowlers.
Brilliant effort
For Tamil Nadu, the brilliant batting of Y. Sunil Kumar Singh — his all-round show under pressure turned the semifinal in his team's favour — should be a huge plus and the team will be raring to have a go.
Openers Ganga Sridhar Raju and Kaushik Gandhi are expected to provide a solid start for the others like Vijay Shankar, V. Srinivasan, B. Indrajith and Ra. Arvind to come good.
L. Vignesh, Sunil Singh and Rahil S. Shah have been the main wicket-takers for Tamil Nadu. With curator Y. L. Chandrasekhar promising a pitch which should have bounce and carry, the final should be an absorbing one.
