Padikkal, Sarfaraz in focus as Mumbai meet Karnatka in VHT quarters
Sarfaraz Khan and Devdutt Padikkal would be expected to extend their breathtaking form when domestic heavyweights Mumbai and Karnataka meet in the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarterfinals here on Monday.
The second quarterfinal between Uttar Pradesh and Saurashtra will also be held at the Centre of Excellence on Monday. Karnataka’s solitary loss in the group stage came in their final league game on January 8 but they would be confident of bringing their A game to the fore against Mumbai. With 640 runs in seven innings, including four hundreds and a half century, Padikkal is the tournament’s leading run-getter.
If he continues to be a run machine, it would be tough for the selectors to ignore him as they look towards the 2027 ODI World Cup after the T20 showpiece is out of the way in a couple of months’ time.
Sarfaraz too is knocking on the doors by extending his sensational T20 form to one-day cricket. In the unexpected loss against Punjab in the final league fixture, Sarfaraz smashed the fasted fifty by an Indian in men’s List A cricket. Though Mumbai lost the inconsequential game, it was yet another reminder from Sarfaraz to the selectors of his special abilities in the shorter formats.
In the other quarterfinal between Saurashtra and Uttar Pradesh, the latter will be the favourites having stayed unbeaten in the league stage, the only side to have done so across the four groups. However, they would need to do without the services of Dhruv Jurel who has linked up with the Indian ODI squad following a side strain to Rishabh Pant.
Jurel had amassed 558 runs in seven innings over the course of the league stage and was simply unstoppable. Saurashtra, after losing two of their first three games, won their last four to qualify for the last-eight stage. Their batters seem to be peaking at the right time with pacer Chetan Sakariya also in good rhythm.
