Ahmedabad will be hosting the semi-final matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy on December 29 at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad. Tamil Nadu will be having a face-off with Rajasthan in the first game whereas Punjab and Baroda are gearing up to meet in the second one.
Tamil Nadu v Rajasthan
Tamil Nadu finished the league stage as the table toppers of Elite Group B with five wins from as many games. Even for Rajasthan, the situation is quite similar as they also won all their five league stage games and ended the group league as the toppers of Elite Group D.
Tamil Nadu defeated Himachal Pradesh in the 2nd quarter-final by five wickets and dominated the matches throughout. At first the bowlers did their job by dismissing Himachal Pradesh for a decent and reachable 135 runs. In reply, thanks to Baba Aparajith and Shahrukh Khan, Punjab could chase down the target in 17.5 overs by losing just five wickets. However, it should have been a wake-up call for the middle-order. Baba Aparajith has been an effective bowling option too and this all-rounder will be a key player for Tamil Nadu tomorrow. In the 4th quarter-final, against Bihar Rajasthan batters set a target of 164 for five wickets and the bowlers defended the same. Rajasthan batting is heavily dependent on three players, Manipal Lomror, Ankit Lamba and Ashok Menaria. Manilal Lomror emerged as the hero for them during batting last time out as well. But in this important fixture the middle-order needs to show more stability. The bowlers have been the strength of Rajasthan. Aniket Choudhary, Khaleel Ahmed and Ravi Bishnoi must click to claim this very important win.
Predicted Playing XIs
Tamil Nadu
Hari Nishanth, N Jagadeesan, Arun Karthik, Dinesh Karthik (C & WK), Baba Aparajith, Shahrukh Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Sandeep Warrier, M Mohammed, Murugan Ashwin, Sonu Yadav.
Rajasthan
Bharat Sharma (WK), Ankit Lamba, Arjit Gupta, Ashok Menaria (C), Mahipal Lomror, Rajesh Bishnoi, Chandrapal Singh, Aniket Choudhary, Ravi Bishnoi, Khaleel Ahmed, Akash Singh.
Punjab v Baroda
Punjab won all five league stage games and ended the league stage as the table toppers of Elite Group A. Baroda were also unbeaten in the group stage having won all of their five matches. No wonder, the second semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy is also going to be a cracker one.
Punjab won the first quarter-final against Karnataka, the defending champions. It was a very comfortable win as they bowled out Karnataka for 87 runs and completed the target in 13 overs. In the batting front, Punjab will look up to their opener Prabhsimran Singh who by the way is the highest run-scorer of the tournament and also scored an unbeaten 49 to win the quarter-final for the side. While the side has a good batting line-up, it also has one of the best bowling units in the competition.
Every bowler has maintained an economy rate of less than 7 so far. For Baroda, it will not be an easy task to face Punjab. They however beat Haryana in a thriller. They chased down 149 runs, thanks to a brilliant showcase by Vishnu Solanki. With 18 runs needed from six balls for Baroda to win the match, Solanki sealed it for the side and remained unbeaten on 71. Solanki and Kedar Devdhar are the mainstays for Baroda batting while Lukman Meriwala is leading the wicket chart.
Predicted Playing XIs
Punjab
Prabhsimran Singh (WK), Mandeep Singh (C), Anmolpreet Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Abhishek Sharma, Ramandeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Siddarth Kaul, Arshdeep Singh, Mayank Markande, Sandeep Sharma.
Baroda
Kedar Devdhar (C), Smit Patel (WK), Vishnu Solanki, Abhimanyusingh Rajput, Bhanu Pania, Atit Sheth, Ninad Rathva, Karthik Kakade, Babashafi Pathan, Bhargav Bhatt, Lukman Meriwala