After 129 matches, the Vijay Hazare Trophy has entered the last-eight stage which begins in Ahmedabad on Monday. Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir won their respective pre-quarters clash to advance in India’s premier 50-over tournament. The group stage of the competition saw some exciting, and lopsided, contests between bat and ball. While giants like Delhi, Haryana and Mumbai are missing from the knockout line-up, rise of Assam and Jammu & Kashmir has been very encouraging this season.
Assam, in particular, have been very consistent and ended as joint-second in a group featuring the likes of Karnataka, Vidarbha, Delhi, and Rajasthan. Jammu and Kashmir on the other hand finished Group D in the second position and qualified for the pre-quarters. In their pre-quarters clash, J&K registered a comfortable seven-wicket win over Kerala to set up a quarters date with Assam.
Before the teams battle it out for a spot in the semis, here’s quick recap of how things have unfolded in the group stages featuring talent across the country:
Fire at top: Top-order batters have enjoyed this year. The likes of N Jagadeesan (Tamil Nadu), Sai Sudarshan (Tamil Nadu), Rahul Tripathi (Maharashtra), Tilak Verma (Hyderabad), Ankit Bawne (Maharashtra) and Rohan Kunnummal (Kerala) have been among the runs, and have scored them at a very consistent rate. Jagadeesan in particular has been on song with five hundreds on the trot and the right-hander would look to keep the show going against a formidable Saurashtra unit in the quarters.
Mighty have fallen, again: It’s been another disappointing season for Delhi and Haryana as both teams, featuring plenty of established names, have failed to make it to the knockout stages. Delhi, who had the services of India players Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Navdeep Saini and Nitish Rana, lost four games out of the seven they played this season. Haryana on the other hand won three, lost two, drew one and one of their contest ended as NR. Even last edition, Delhi lost three out of their five games while Haryana could only win one out of the five games they played. It was also a disappointing season for defending champions Himachal Pradesh as the Rishi Dhawan-led unit could only win two of the seven games they featured in.
The lop-sided contests: The decision to club NorthEast teams with regular teams has sparked a debate. All teams have struggled and featured in some of the most lop-sided games in history of the competition. The teams would definitely take a sigh of relief in the Ranji Trophy as they would contest in the Plate group featuring teams with similar exposure and experience in the circuit. In the Vijay Hazare, it was more like a net session for the opposite teams. The numbers featuring these teams wear an inflated look and has certainly not helped the health of the competition.
Consistency of Uttar Pradesh, Saurashtra & Tamil Nadu: Both Saurashtra and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as one of the few consistent sides in the domestic circuit. The teams made the knockouts last time around too and are again in contention for the title. While Saurashtra have some domestic giants in their ranks, Uttar Pradesh, with a very inexperienced squad, continue to find match-winners to do the job on the day. It will be their bowling vs Maharashtra’s formidable batting when the two sides lock horns in the quarters. For Saurashtra, they would look to keep the on-song Tamil Nadu pair of Jagadeesan and Sudarshan quiet in the knockout fixture. For Tamil Nadu, consistency in white-ball continues as the side reaches another white-ball final. They were the runners-up last time around and would like to do one better this time around.
Number cruncher: N Jagadeesan tops batting charts with 822 runs in 7 fixtures. He has hit five hundreds on the trot. Kuldeep Sen has been the most consistent bowler with 18 wickets from six games. Two four-fors and one fifer
Sai Sudarshan and N Jagadeesan hold the record for the best opening partnership. They put on 416 runs vs Arunachal Pradesh
Quarters line-up:
Karnataka vs Punjab
Maharashtra vs Uttar Pradesh
Assam vs J&K
Tamil Nadu vs Saurashtra
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