Tamil Nadu, eyeing a record-extending sixth Vijay Hazare Trophy title, will be wary of a high-flying Haryana, on an eight-match winning streak, when the two teams lock horns in the semifinal at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium here on Wednesday.
Haryana, having never made it to the summit clash of a white-ball tournament at the senior level, will be all the more determined to usher in a new dawn, while Tamil Nadu will hope to revive its legacy.
However, it will be interesting to see how Haryana contends with the absence of its top wicket-taker in the tournament Yuzvendra Chahal, who has flown to South Africa and was key in his team’s quarterfinal win over Bengal on Monday. Tamil Nadu, despite missing Sai Sudharsan, delivered its most comprehensive batting performance in the competition with a seven-wicket win against Mumbai in the last-eight stage.
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While Baba Indrajith found his mojo with an unbeaten hundred, N. Jagadeesan, Baba Aparajith, and Vijay Shankar, who were woefully out of form, were also among the runs in the quarterfinal, which meant that Tamil Nadu’s most consistent batter and captain Dinesh Karthik didn’t need to pad up.
But his counterpart Ashok Menaria, who has had a quiet first season for Haryana after moving on from Rajasthan, will have no such luxury. Tasked with anchoring an inexperienced middle-order, Menaria rose to the occasion with a 126-run partnership with centurion Ankit Kumar to steer Haryana’s run-chase against Bengal.
The 33-year-old, though, will be relieved to have Rahul Tewatia watching his back lower down the order. Haryana’s man for all seasons, Tewatia, with four fifties in five innings, has bailed the team out on numerous occasions with his whirlwind cameos, while also picking 11 wickets.
He will need young all-rounder Nishant Sindhu to step up with his left-arm spin in the absence of Chahal. Tamil Nadu’s spin arsenal, meanwhile, is well-stocked with R. Sai Kishore and Varun Chakaravarthy finding able support from M. Siddharth and Aparajith.
With Wednesday’s match being held under lights, with a scheduled start of 1.30 pm, how the spinners cope with dew in the second innings will be key. Though teams may prefer chasing, bowling first in the afternoon heat, with little movement in the air and off the pitch, could be sapping and frustrating.
Having played here a couple of days ago, Haryana’s knowledge of the conditions could be superseded by Tamil Nadu’s potential batting firepower at a historically high-scoring venue.
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