Mustaq Ali Trophy Quarters: Holders Karnataka face Punjab

Final chance for domestic players to impress in Syed Mushtaq Ail Trophy

Ahmedabad: It will be the last chance for the domestic players to impress before the all-important IPL auction when the knock-outs of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy begin here from Tuesday.

While Karnataka will go all out looking to retain the title, the seven other teams which have made it to the quarterfinals, will be itching to make an impact and get their names inscribed on the trophy.

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The event marked the resumption of the much-delayed 2020-21 domestic season in the country. A mighty Punjab team stands between Karnataka and their title defence as the two teams will square-off in the first quarterfinal, which is expected to be an even battle.

Punjab made it to the knock-outs from Elite Group A after winning all their five games in the league stage, while Karnataka also scraped to the final eight, despite being second on the points table in Group A, having lost one game.

The match could be touted as battle of openers as Punjab possesses the young Prabhsimran Singh, who is in good form, with 277 runs, while Karnataka will bank on the stylish southpaw Devdutt Padikkal, who has 207 runs from five games. Both the sides have an equally strong middle-order. However, Punjab could have a slight edge in their pace attack with Sidharth Kaul (10 wickets) and Sandeep Sharma in their arsenal.

Sharma in particular is lethal in the shortest format of the game. But Karnataka have the likes of Abhimanyu Mithun and Prasidh Krishan, who can be equally dangerous. Even the contest is somewhat equal among the spinners as Punjab has Mayank Markande while Karnataka will bank on the lead spin duo of experienced J Suchith and Shreyas Gopal.

In the second quarter-final, for Tamil Nadu, who were runners-up last season, attacking opener N Jagadeesan, who is the leading run-getter in the tournament so far with 315 runs and skipper Dinesh Karthik, will again be the key players in their clash against Himachal Pradesh, who came through from Elite Group C.

The TN bowling unit did a superb job for skipper Karthik though it was without ace spinner R Ashwin, yorker specialist T Natarajan and all-rounder Washington Sundar who were away on national duty in Australia. Leg-spinner M Ashwin and left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore were quite a handful but it was Baba Aparajith, who was the surprise packet, taking the new ball and enjoying a great degree of success too.

The trio will have a crucial role to play in the knockouts if TN has to go all the way as would the pacers-Sandeep Warrier, M Mohammed and Aswin Crist.

Quarterfinal line-up

January 26: Punjab vs Karnataka; Tamil Nadu vs Himachal
January 27: Haryana vs Baroda; Rajasthan vs Bihar.

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