UP, MP to bank on strength and courage in semi-final
LUCKNOW: It’s going to be a tussle of strength and courage when hosts and former champions Uttar Pradesh take on Madhya Pradesh in their four-day semifinal match of the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy, starting Friday, at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur.
Having almost a similar performance throughout the season in the league phase and then in quarterfinals, the two teams seem determined to teach a lesson or two to each other on a batsmen friendly wicket, which is also expected to help spinners as well.
“We are at par, and it would all depend on the mental strength and courage of a side. One needs to show character all four day and in all departments to emerge victorious,” UP’s coach and former Ranji Trophy stumper Mohd Aamir said soon after team’s rigorous training on Thursday.
Madhya Pradesh’s coach Suresh Pandey while terming the match a crucial one for both the sides accepted that his side was a balanced one. “It’s a match between the equals as the both the teams have equal strength. Certainly, we are a balanced side, but we need to play according to our plan.”
Before scripting wins on the basis of the basis of the first innings lead against Delhi and Bengal, respectively in the quarterfinals last week, both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh enjoyed a good run in the league phase.
Uttar Pradesh begun with a 26-run win against Hiamachal Pradesh, before conceding first innings lead against Vidarbha. Thereafter, they had first innings lead against Hyderabad, an emphatic an innings and 57-run win against Jammu and Kashmir, an innings and 68-run win against Tripura before scripting an innings and 266-run victory against A&A.
Madhya Pradesh also had an innings and 100-run win against Assam in the first match, before scripting a facile 10-wicket win against Gujarat. They also conceded first innings lead against Karnataka, before outplaying Andhra Pradesh by an innings and 43 runs. In their last league match, MP had an innings and 266-run triumph over Railways.
Skipper Aryan Sharma, Priyam K Garg, Sameer Chaudhary and leggie Zeeshan Ansari for Uttar Pradesh, Yash Dubey and Atharva Kale for MP would be the players to watch during the four-day encounter.
TEAMS
MP: Rishabh Chauhan, Rahul Chandrol, Rishabh Choubey, Sanket Shrivastava, Pranjal Dixit, Adarsh Singh, Suraj Vasistha, Amarnath Yadav, Yash Dubey, Irfan Ali, Ankush Singh, Ashdeep Hada, Shivam Dwivedi, Dev Barnale, Rajrishi Shrivastava, Saad Baggad, Navin Paraswani and Chandrabhan S Panwar.
UP: Aryan Sharma (captain), Kritagya Singh, Priyam Garg, Mohd Wajid, Sameer Chaudhary, Abhishek Pandey, Ankur Malik, Mohit Jangra, Rajat Nirwal, Akshay Sain, Kunal Yadav, Pranjal Saini, Vikas Singh, Aman Razi, Ayush Vats, Shivam Bansal, Kartik Tyagi, Sawan Singh and Zeeshan Ansari.