Baroda, Railways set for Ranji showdown
The road to the Ranji Trophy final
The five-day Ranji Trophy cricket final between Baroda and Railways, beginning at the GSFC
grounds in Baroda on Thursday, promises to be an interesting duel
for supremacy with the rival skippers oozing confidence.
The team handling the pressure better is expected to do
well as the final is bound to be more of a mental game.
Both the teams played seven league and knock-out matches before entering the final.
It is also the first time that the final is being played on the same ground where a pre quarter-final, quarter-final and semi-final match was held.
It was on this wicket that Baroda had scored outright victories in their pre-quarter final
against Bengal and quarter-final against Tamil Nadu. The semi-final against Orissa, played on the adjacent wicket, ended in a draw.
Railways' coach Vinod Sharma, after seeing the wicket,
said the strip would help the seamers initially but the batsmen too could score freely if they showed some patience.
Baroda captain Jacob Martin will take another look at the
wicket on Thursday morning before deciding his playing eleven.
Railways' skipper Abhay Sharma said winning the final is his team's goal and "we are confident of achieving it".
"My boys are firm in their resolve and determined to
achieve the goal. They are young and energetic, with an average
age of 23 years," Sharma added.
Martin said he is satisfied with the performances of his
batsmen, including Indian stumper Nayan Mongia, Satyajit
Parab, Connor Williams, Tushar Arothe, Valmik Buch, Himanshu
Jadhav and Ajit Bhoite, who did well in the league and kock-out matches and helped
the team in pile good scores.
The selection committee of the Baroda Cricket Association,
headed by former India coach Anshuman Gaekwad, nominated
Martin as the captain after Arothe stepped down due to
personal reasons.
The inclusion of paceman Zaheer Khan, who missed the previous
matches as he was on national duty against the Australians, will
add more sting to the Baroda attack.
Baroda may play two more medium pacers -- Rakesh Patel and
Irfan Pathan (sr) or Irfan Pathan (jr) -- apart from Khan, as the
wicket has always helped the medium pacers.
The toss too will be vital as the team batting first has
always managed to win. The wicket is known to help the spinners in the latter part of the match.
The road to the Ranji Trophy finals...
Mail Cricket Editor
