Focus on Dhawan, Karthik, Manish as India B meet TN in Deodhar final

VISAKHAPATNAM: Unbeaten in the competition so far, India B start favourites against a tenacious Tamil Nadu team in the Deodhar Trophy final here on Wednesday.

The Parthiv Patel-led India B has been the dominant team in the tournament, winning both their league games against India A and Tamil Nadu rather comfortably. For the Vijay Hazare Trophy winners Tamil Nadu, the game will be about continuing their domestic form and avenging the defeat they suffered at the hands of India B here on Sunday.

However, they bounced back in the following game against India A to make the final.

The Indian cricket team selectors will be closely tracking the players’ performance tomorrow with the final being the last 50-over domestic game before the Champions Trophy in June.

THE KEY MEN

Though they have the whole of IPL to make a statement, the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey would like to end the tournament on a high. Discarded India opener Dhawan has hit form with the scores of 128 and 50 in the previous two innings. Pandey, also playing for India B, attracted attention with a match-winning 104 against Tamil Nadu in the league phase.

Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik too would like to be among the runs, having already scored a bagful in Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy where he ended as the leading scorer with 607 runs .

The stylish batsman has made a case to be picked in the Indian team with M S Dhoni doing the keeping job. Among the bowlers, Mumbai pacer Dhawal Kulkarni has provided timely breakthroughs for India B, picking up three wickets in both the previous games. Left-arm spinner Sai Kishore has been the standout bowler for Tamil Nadu with seven scalps in two matches.

India B have batted first on both occasions and ended up hammering 300 plus runs before defending them convincingly.