Tennis to start Down Under Mushtaq Ali T20 semis today

With a coronavirus-enforced quarantine coming to an end, the world's elite tennis players will go from two of the quietest weeks of their lives in Australia to three of the busiest. The government-mandated quarantine ahead of the Feb. 8-21 Australian Open had a controversial start. The No. 2-ranked Nadal told CNN that international tennis players needed to maintain a "wider perspective on what's going on in the world," although he sympathized with the 72 players who were deemed to be close contacts of positive coronavirus cases from three charter flights and who had to stay in their rooms for 24 hours a day and could not practice.

Big bodied Shahrukh Khan's brute power will be countered by experience and guile of Chahar brothers Deepak and Rahul, when a formidable Tamil Nadu lock horns with spirited Rajasthan in the semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on Friday.

Rajasthan on the other hand have been a steady side with a host of young T20 specialists like Mahipal Lomror (170 runs at strike rate of 165 plus) in batting and Chahar along with Ravi Bishnoi and left-armers Khaleel Ahmed and Aniket Chaudhary in bowling department.

Similarly for Tamil Nadu, their premier run-scorer N

Jagadeesan (322 runs) would feel that he might have done enough to ensure that Mahendra Singh Dhoni gives him regular chances for CSK in the upcoming IPL.

Punjab's battle hardened veterans like Siddarth Kaul and Sandeep Sharma will pose a few questions in the semi-final for Baroda's Vishnu Solanki, who has won many fans with a perfect last ball execution of 'Helicopter Shot' during his team thrilling quarter-final win against Haryana.

Kaul, Sandeep and Arshdeep Singh, along with legspinner Mayank Markande have been outstanding throughout the tournament with economy rate of less than seven runs per over.