Padikkal set to lead Karnataka’s charge
Devdutt Padikkal, who appears to have found a magic bat of sorts and is scoring runs at will, will hold the key to Karnataka’s chances as they take on Vidarbha in the first semifinal of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Thursday. Padikkal is batting like a man possessed, and his latest display of fluency came against Mumbai in the semifinal, where his unbeaten half-century pushed the rivals out of the contest.
This season, the 25-year-old has scored four centuries, placing him at the top of the run charts in the tournament. With skipper Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Abhinav Manohar in their ranks, Karnataka’s batting appears well settled. Complementing it perfectly, their pace quartet of Vidwath Kaverappa, Abhilash Shetty, Vidyadhar Patil and Vijaykumar Vyshak has delivered consistently this season, driving the team’s impressive run.
However, they will need to guard against the law of averages, which could prove costly after such an assertive run. Vidarbha have shown the intent to post multiple 300-plus totals this season and they are equally adept at chasing big targets. Their nine-wicket group-stage win against Baroda stands out, having chased down 293 with 50 balls to spare. Young top-order batter Aman Mokade has also enjoyed a prolific season, scoring four centuries and a half-century.
However, his single-digit scores in the last two matches are something skipper Harsh Dubey would want him to address. Stalwarts like Atharva Taide and Dhruv Shorey add further solidity to Vidarbha’s batting, while veteran right-arm pacer Yash Thakur has been in excellent form, carrying his Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 performance into the 50-over tournament with 13 wickets in seven matches. Left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey has also made crucial contributions at key moments.
Teams: (From)
Karnataka: Mayank Agarwal (c), Karun Nair, Abhilash Shetty, Shreesha Achar, Harshil Dharmani, Shreyas Gopal, Abhinav Manohar, Manvanth Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Prabhakar, Prasidh Krishna, KL Rahul, BR Sharath, Krishnan Shrijith, Ravichandran Smaran, Vijaykumar Vyshak.
Vidarbha: Harsh Dubey (c), Yash Thakur, Ganesh Bhosle, Nachiket Bhute, Shivam Deshmukh, Shubham Dubey, Praful Hinge, Yash Kadam, Aman Mokhade, Darshan Nalkande, Dipesh Parwani, Yash Rathod, Parth Rekhade, Ravikumar Samarth, Dhruv Shorey, Atharva Taide, Akshay Wadkar.
