Tamil Nadu, Gujarat eye quarterfinal berth in crucial encounter

On November 13, 1970 - first-class cricket made its foray into the pleasant climes of Belagavi. The erstwhile state of Mysore, led by Erapalli Prasanna, convincingly defeated Andhra by an innings and 10 runs at the Union Gymkhana Ground. Hours turned into months and months into years, and for the next three decades, not a single Ranji Trophy game was played in the city. Adoring cricket fans of the region had to wait for an eternity before Karnataka clashed with Andhra at the same stadium in November 2000, which the hosts won by five wickets.

Another seven-year long wait endured before the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) began work to construct a new stadium over a 16-acre land in Auto Nagar. For a couple of years, the progress of work was slow. However, a prerequisite to unlock success is self belief and the concerned authorities turned hard work and determination into a winning combination, and the stadium became ready to use by October this year.

Gujurat locked horns against Punjab on November 29, 2016 in the inaugural match played at the ground. Now, two evenly-matched sides - Tamil Nadu and Gujarat - will go head-to-head in what should turn out to be a keen tussle at the newly constructed stadium.

After finishing a lowly sixth in Group B last year, Tamil Nadu are riding on a wave of confidence this season. They are placed third on the table with 23 points, poised to qualify for the quarter-finals. Tamil Nadu have a relatively young side, with an average age of approximately 26 (among the 18 players used by them in the Ranji Trophy so far). However, with renewed youthful exuberance on their side, they have put up consistent performances through the course of the season.

Abhinav Mukund, the Tamil Nadu captain, and Dinesh Karthik have been prolific this year, netting in 574 and 573 runs, respectively. Baba Indrajith and Kaushik Gandhi have provided able support to the veteran duo by aggregating 412 and 507 runs respectively. After composing 713 runs at an impressive average of 44.56 in the 2014-15 season, Indrajith had a patchy time last year. However, Tamil Nadu's think-tank rate him highly, evidenced by the fact that the 22-year-old was appointed the vice-captain during the 2015-16 season.

There is an old maxim in cricket that says, "bowlers win you matches". Undoubtedly, Tamil Nadu's bowlers have been the crucial cogs of their success this season. The trio of Krishnamoorthy Vignesh, Aswin Crist and Aushik Srinivas has bowled incisive spells from time to time.

Vignesh, in particular, has shown himself adept at tailoring his game to team's cause. To encapsulate the point, in the Ranji Trophy game against Punjab in Nagpur, Vignesh led the attack admirably to bag six wickets in the match. He also played the supporting role to Srinivas in Tamil Nadu's innings and 44-run victory over Baroda in Raipur by snaring three scalps in the second essay. With the pitch in Belagavi expected to favour the batsmen, the trio of Vignesh, Crist and Srinivas have a task on their hands.

Tamil Nadu have also been drawn into a qualification dogfight with Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Punjab and Gujarat. Only two of the aforementioned sides will join Mumbai in the quarter-final stage of the competition. On the virtue of their innings lead against Punjab in their previous game, Gujarat held onto their second position on the table. BCCI awarded Gujarat and Bengal a point each for their November fixture, which was abandoned due to smog in the national capital. With that, Gujarat took their tally to 25 before the final group-stage game.