Batsmen give Mumbai edge against TN

AFTER TWO of the fancied teams in the Vijay Hazare Trophy all-India knock-out tournament were eliminated in the initial rounds, another such outfit is slated to take the early flight back home on Friday.

Holders Mumbai and title contenders Tamil Nadu will fight it out in a quarterfinal in the top half to earn the right to meet Bengal in the semifinal scheduled for April 7. Bengal had eliminated Delhi on Wednesday, the same day when Saurashtra got the better of South Zone champions Karnataka by seven wickets.

The lop-sided nature of the draw has pitted relatively less fancied sides, Vidarbha, Himachal Pradesh and Saurashtra fighting among themselves to reach the final. Vidarbha face Himachal in Saturday's last quarterfinal, the winner securing the right to meet West Zone runners-up Saurashtra on April 8.

Mumbai coach Praveen Amre has a bunch of fresh legs at his disposal with only captain Amol Muzumdar, deputy Ajit Agarkar and off-spinner Ramesh Powar being the experienced ones in the side. It was nearly the same group that failed to make it to the knock-out stage of the Ranji Trophy this season.

"You cannot be complacent at any stage with this kind of a draw. Being in this tough half is good as you are on your toes all the time," said Amre. While Mumbai are aiming to maintain the momentum that took them to the title in the Ramakant Desai Trophy, TN are desirous of not going the Delhi and Karnataka way.

Mumbai, though without Wasim Jaffer but with Australia-return Rohit Sharma in their ranks, have the weapons to create maximum damage. They set the record of scoring the highest innings total in India in limited-overs - 398 for three against Maharashtra in Pune in their last outing. They also showed that they can chase big as they reached 358 set by Baroda.

But Mumbai are guarded against Tamil Nadu's knowledge of the conditions as they have already played here on the opening day. Tamil Nadu had it easy against Madhya Pradesh in the pre-quarters.

Their captain S. Badrinath hit top form with an unbeaten half-century two days ago, and medium-pacer Lakshmipathi Balaji is pulling the right strings in his comeback from unjury. "Mumbai, obviously, offer a different kind of challenge than MP, they have more experience than MP players. But we also have the players to match them," said WV Raman, the TN coach.

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