The star-studded Mumbai will rely on its depth against a competent Vidarbha in the semifinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday.
The Ajinkya Rahane-led team, packed with well-known batters such as Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, all-rounder Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal, showed the capability of its long batting line-up when it notched up a two-wicket win over Saurashtra in the quarterfinals.
Mumbai bowling, comprising proven wicket-takers such as Tushar Deshpande, Shams Mulani, Mohit Avasthi, Tanush Kotian, have served the team well and will be ready to give their best against their Maharashtra opposition.
Vidarbha has benefitted from the good showing of its batters including Akshay Wadkar, Apoorv Wankhede and Atharva Taide so far and will expect them to rise to the occasion.
Umesh Yadav, Yash Thakur, Aditya Sarwate and Darshan Nalkande checked Delhi’s progress in the last-eight and will look to do so against Mumbai.
In the other semifinal, Himachal Pradesh may face a tough challenge against a formidable Punjab.
Punjab, consisting of last match’s centurion Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh, has enough resources in the batting department.
Led by ace pacer Siddharth Kaul, whose role was crucial in thwarting Karnataka, Punjab’s bowling attack has a few potent weapons in Baltej Singh and Mayank Markande.
Himachal, which pipped host Bengal, will bank on the experienced Prashant Chopra and fine finisher Akash Vashisht in batting and the utility trio of all-rounder Rishi Dhawan, K.D. Singh, Mayank Dagar and Vaibhav Arora in bowling.
Semifinal fixtures: Punjab vs Himachal Pradesh (11 a.m.), Mumbai vs Vidarbha (4.30 p.m.).
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