Vijay Hazare Semi-Final: Devdutt Padikkal’s fire vs Vidarbha’s stormy batting – who will make the first move in the final?

Bengaluru: Devdutt Padikkal, who is in excellent form, can be the main difference between the two teams in the first semi-final of Vijay Hazare Trophy against Karnataka and Vidarbha to be held here on Thursday. Padikkal is batting brilliantly at the moment. He showed his best form in the semi-finals against Mumbai where Karnataka won with the help of his unbeaten half-century. This 25-year-old player has scored four centuries in the current season and has reached the top in the list of batsmen who have scored the most runs in the tournament. Apart from them, Karnataka team has experienced batsmen like captain Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Abhinav Manohar, due to which it looks very strong in this department.

Karnataka’s bowlers have also performed well so far. Their fast bowling quartet of Vidwath Kawerappa, Abhilash Shetty, Vidyadhar Patil and Vijaykumar Vaishak have consistently performed brilliantly this season. Vidarbha’s batsmen have also performed well this season, with their team being successful in touching the 300-run mark on several occasions. Notable was his nine-wicket win against Baroda in the group stage, in which his team achieved the target of 293 runs with 50 balls to spare. Top-order batsman Aman Mokde performed brilliantly and scored four centuries and one half-century.

However, he could not reach double digits in the last two matches. Players like Atharva Tayde and Dhruv Shorey provide further strength to Vidarbha’s batting. Right-arm fast bowler Yash Thakur is in excellent form and has taken 13 wickets in seven matches. Left arm spinner Harsh Dubey has also made important contributions at important times.

The teams are as follows:

Karnataka: Mayank Agarwal (captain), Karun Nair, Abhilash Shetty, Srisha Achar, Harshil Dharmani, Shreyas Gopal, Abhinav Manohar, Manwant Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Prabhakar, Prasidh Krishna, KL Rahul, BR Sharath, Krishnan Srijit, Ravichandran Smaran, Vijaykumar Vishak.

Vidarbha: Harsha Dubey (Kaptain), Yash Thakur, Ganesh Bhosle, Nachiket Bhute, Shivam Deshmukh, Shubham Dube, Prafulng, Prafulng, Prafulngese, Nalaknde, Deepsh pari, darluk pari, sart rhy tuthud, sart rhe rhy tuthui, vathu rwat whistur, shtumth valu.

Match start time: 1:30 pm.