Sport - Cricket

Old rivalry likely to be renewed

Bangalore: An old rivalry is likely to be renewed as Karnataka takes on Tamil Nadu in a Ranji Trophy super league Group B match commencing at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday. The two teams, known for dishing out close contests, have come in to the second round with contrasting fortunes.

Karnataka lost the first innings honours to Railways and a second innings slump almost nudged it towards defeat before the overs ran out and the only cheers from the match were skipper Robin Uthappa’s century and debutant Manish Pandey’s mettle.

Meanwhile Tamil Nadu, powered by openers Abhinav Mukund’s unbeaten 300 and M. Vijay’s 243, set a breathless pace that proved too tough to emulate for Maharashtra though the host salvaged a draw at Nashik.

On the eve of the crucial match, Karnataka coach Vijay Bharadwaj said: “We want to win against Tamil Nadu. The wicket is a bit dry and we might go in with an extra bowler and if our spinners Sunil Joshi and Sunil Raju strike and the other batsmen also contribute alongside Robin, we should do well.”

Karnataka needs to bat well, especially in the first innings and perhaps should take a cue from the way Tamil Nadu batted at Nashik.

Tamil Nadu coach W.V. Raman meanwhile struck an optimistic note. “Our batsmen have done well and not getting 20 wickets at Nashik is not a concern. It was a flat wicket.

“L. Balaji is getting into his rhythm and we are expecting S. Badrinath to join the team in time for the match,” Raman said though he was a bit puzzled with the last-minute shift of the match from the RSI ground to the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Tamil Nadu captain Dinesh Karthik missed out on the run feast at Nashik and the home team will hope that his bat stays mum. Raman confirmed that Arun Karthik will make his debut as opener in the slot created by M. Vijay, who flew to Nagpur.

The visitor’s seam attack spearheaded by Balaji and Yomahesh has a seasoned look and with left-arm spinner C. Suresh having a match-haul of seven wickets at Nashik, there is no dearth of confidence, which can come in handy on a track that is expected to aid the spinners.

The teams (from):

Karnataka: Robin Uthappa (captain), K.B. Pawan, C. Raghu, Bharath Chipli, Ganesh Satish, Thilak Naidu, Manish Pandey, Sunil Joshi, Vinay Kumar, N.C. Aiyappa, Sunil Raju, S. Aravind, Deepak Chougule, Vinu Narayanan and C.M. Gautam. Coach: Vijay Bharadwaj.

Tamil Nadu: Dinesh Karthik (captain), Abhinav Mukund, Arun Karthik, R. Srinivasan, R. Prasanna, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Suresh Kumar, R. Ashwin, C. Suresh, L. Balaji, Yomahesh, P. Amarnath, Ganapathy Chandrasekhar, K.H. Gopinath and S. Badrinath. Coach: W.V. Raman.

Umpires: Subrat Das and K.N. Ananthapadmanabhan; Match Referee: Anand Patel.

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