Vijay Hazare Final: Karnataka SWOT analysis

A major title has eluded Karnataka this season despite its terrific run. Will it be third time lucky?

Will Karnataka finally have the last laugh?

Ahead of the Vijay Hazare final between Karnataka and Saurashtra, we do a SWOT analysis of Karnataka.

Road to final: Finished second to Baroda in Group A, winning four of the six matches (a win per cent of 66.66) --> beat Hyderabad  in the quarterfinal --> beat Maharashtra in the semifinal

Strengths:

The onus will once again be on the Karnataka top order in the final.

 

The in-form batting trio of Mayank Agarwal, skipper Karun Nair and R. Samarth has done maximum damage at the top - a combined tally of 1211 runs bending the opposition attack at will. And Saurashtra will have to work its way past them to stand a chance of restricting Karnataka to a modest score.

M. Prasidh Krishna has been prolific with the ball this Vijay Hazare season.

M. Prasidh Krishna (14 wickets from seven matches) and Shreyas Gopal (13 wickets from seven matches) have done bulk of the damage with the ball. They've found able allies in K. Gowtham and T. Pradeep. It's this all-rounded nature of the team that makes Karnataka the favourite going into Tuesday's encounter.

Weaknesses:

Saurashtra could put to sword Karnataka's untested middle-order.

Karnataka's weakness, if ever there has been one, is it's middle-order that hasn't spent enough time in the middle thanks to the scintillating form of its top three. Saurashtra will have to make early inroads into its batting to stand a chance.

Opportunities:

All-round Karnataka would be hoping to continue its fine form against Saurashtra in the Vijay Hazare final.

Karnataka, which lost narrowly to Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy semifinal and finished behind Rajasthan and Punjab in the league phase of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, will be itching to get its hand on the Vijay Hazare title.

Threat:

Dharmendrasinh Jadeja has starred with the ball for Saurashtra.

 

Saurashtra slow left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja has lapped up 16 wickets from eight games at an economy rate of 4.75 and could prove to be his team's bowling linchpin against a team filled with power hitters.