Ranji Trophy semis: Karnataka start favourites

Karnataka hold all aces against Vidarbha

Bengaluru, December 16: Karnataka will face Vidarbha in the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy at Kolkata from Sunday (December 17) and the R Vinay Kumar-led side will start as the overwhelming favourites.

But that's not a statement to undermine the fine work done by Vidarbha this season. Both the teams have two big run makers each in the top 10 list.

The run machines

Karnataka

Mayank Agarwal: 1142 runs from seven matches. Avg: 126.88. Hs: 304 n.o., 100: 5 50: 2

R Samarth: 643 runs from 7 matches: Avg: 64.30. Hs: 129, 100: 3, 50: 2.

Vidarbha

Faiz Fazal: 831 runs from seven matches. Avg: 92.33, HS: 206, 100: 5, 50: Nil.

Sanjay Ramaswamy: 696 runs from 7 matches: Avg: 77.33, Hs: 182, 100: 3, 50: 2.

In bowling too, we can see a player each from Karnataka and Vidarbha in the top 10.

Karnataka

K Gowtham: 34 wickets from 7 matches. Avg: 21.67, BB: 7/72, 5 wkts: 2, 10 wkts: 1.

Vidarbha

Akshay Wakhare: 29 wickets from 6 matches: Avg: 20.82, BB: 5/16; 5 wkts: 3, 10 wkts: 1

The separating factor

Karnataka's big match temperament. They have been here several times and have gone all the distance too. But they cannot write off Vidarbha especially when pacer Umesh Yadav to feature in the playing eleven. Also, Vidarbha has a master tactician like Chandrakant Pandit as coach.

Squads: Karnataka: R Vinay Kumar (captain), Karun Nair (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, R Samarth, D Nischal, Stuart Binny, CM Gautam (wk), Shreyas Gopal, K Gowtham, A Mithun, S Arvind, Pavan Deshpande, J Suchith, Mir Kaunian Abbas, Sharath Srinivas, Ronit More.

Vidarbha: Faiz Fazal (Captain), Ganesh Satish, Umesh Yadav, Wasim Jaffer, Akshay Wakhare, Sanjay Ramaswamy, Karn Sharma, Akshay Karnewar, Lalit Yadav, Siddesh Neral, Aditya Sarwate, Jitesh Sharma, Ravikumar Thakur, Apoorv Wankhede, Siddesh Wath, Shrikant Wagh, Shalabh Shrivastava.