ALL the teams that have made the cut for knock-out stage of Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 cricket tournament will have one opponent in common — the hazardous Delhi air. Eleven teams comprising five Elite Group winners, five Elite Group runners-up one Plate Group winner will vie for national glory in the final leg of the tourney that kicks-off at New Delhi on Tuesday. All the Elite Group winners have been given direct entry into the quarter-finals. The other six teams will fight it out for the remaining three spots. In one of the three pre-quarter-finals, Plate Group winners Vidarbha will play Maharashtra at Feroze Shah Kotla in the morning game starting at 8 am. Demoted to Plate Group, Vidarbha vented their anger on minnows recording big wins to top the eight-team group. But even against weaker opponents, one has to perform on the ground to come good. Vidarbha batters including big-hitters like Jitesh Sharma, Apoorv Wankhade, Atharva Taide and Siddhesh Wath ensured that the team maintained a healthy net run rate throughout their campaign.

 

In the bowling department, ambidextrous Akshay Karnewar has been phenomenal. The bowler scripted his name in the World Record book becoming first bowler to bowl all four maiden overs in any Twenty20 cricket. He celebrated his feat with a hat-trick in the next game. Lanky veteran offie Akshay Wakhare has been on the money. The young pace department looks inexperienced but the trio of Darshan Nalkande, Yash Thakur and Aditya Thakare have been associated with various IPL teams. Lalit Yadav adds to the experience quotient. All in all, Vidarbha will have to play out of their skins and excel in all the departments if they are to upset Maharashtra. Vidarbha have made just one change bringing in pacer Lalit Yadav in place of Umesh Yadav. Umesh has taken a break to be fresh and fit for the upcoming India Test series against New Zealand in which he is expected to feature as one of leading pacers after a good showing against England. Maharashtra will miss their key and in-form player Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has been called for national duty. Ruturaj was the chief architect of Maharashtra’s wins in the league stage and he had continued his good run from the IPL, where he was the leading run-scorer for his side Chennai Super Kings. But having earned a national India call-up for the T20 series against New Zealand, Maharashtra will miss his services.

 

In his absence, senior players Kedar Jadhav and current vice-captain Naushad Shaikh, will have to shoulder responsibility if the side has to score or chase big. On Monday, the highest Air Quality Index (AQI) level in Delhi was 349, which comes under ‘harzardous’ category. TEAMS (from) Vidarbha: Akshay Wadkar (C), Siddhesh Wath (VC) Atharva Taide, R Sanjay, Ganesh Satish, Yash Rathod, Jitesh Sharma, Apoorv Wankhade, Shubham Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Akshay Wakhare, Harsh Dubey, Parth Rekhade, Ganesh Bhosale, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Thakur, Siddhesh Neral, Aditya Thakare, Sooraj Rai, Lalit Yadav. Maharashtra: Naushad Shaikh (C), Kedar Jadhav, Yash Nahar, Azim Kazi, Ranjeet Nikam, Satyajeet Bachhav, Taranjitsingh Dhillon, Mukesh Choudhary, Ashay Palkar, Manoj Ingle, Pradeep Dadhe, Shamshuzama Kazi, Swapnil Fulpagar, Divyang Hinganekar, Sunil Yadav, Dhanrajsingh Pardeshi, Swapnil Gugale, Pawan Shah and Jagdish Zope.