DEFENDING champions NECO Master Blasters will renew their rivalry when they take on last year’s finalist Pagariya Strikers in the opening match of the Vidarbha Premier League Season 2 at Vidarbha Cricket Association’s Jamtha International Stadium on Monday evening. The tournament will be telecast live on Sony Sports Network and streamed on JioHotstar. The second season of VPL will be much more entertaining and fiercely contested with all the six franchises getting enough time to train and have best players in their squad. In the inaugural year, VCA prepared teams and handed over to the franchises. But this year, auction were held where all the franchises get locked in bidding war and secured most of the players they wanted. Apoorv Wankhade emerged as the costliest player with Nagpur Heroz getting him for Rs 8.30 lakh. Apart from Neco Master Blaster and Pagariya Strikers who will open the tournament, India Warriors, Nagpur Heroz, Bharat Rangers and Orange Tigers all would fight it out for the coveted title in this 14-day tournament. Meanwhile, Neco Master Blaster will miss captain Jitesh Sharma who was playing IPL final for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Gujarat Titans.

 

The team will be led by Adhyayan Daga in the opener. Jitesh Sharma will take over from the second match. Similarly, Master Blaster will be missing Harsh Dubey who has been named in Indian team for Afghanistan series. The team also has Vedant Dighade, Ananmay Jayaswal, Sanmesh Deshmukh, Dipesh Parwani, Vaibhav Chandekar among others. Pagariya Strikers will be captained by Yash Kadam. The team also has quality players in Mohd Faiz, fast bowler Lalit, Aditya Ahuja, R Sanjay, R Samarth, Shivam Deshmukh, Sooraj Rai. It would exciting to see how the teams fare in the tournament proper. All the teams have played had ample of practice matches where they ironed out their flaws and now it is the time to deliver.Daily two matches will be played starting 2.30 pm. The tournament will be played in IPL-like format. Six teams will play each other once and will play two teams twice. Top four will make it to the play-offs. The Eliminator will be played between third and fourth placed teams while top two teams will play Qualifier 1. In Qualifier 2, the winner of Eliminator 1 will take on loser of Qualifier 1. The final will be played on June 14.