Press Trust of India
Bangalore, Dec 27: Eyeing their second title win in the tournament, a confident Delhi will take on a spirited Gujarat in the day-night ODI cricket final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, here Monday.
If Delhi, who won their only Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2012-13, have banked on their bowlers all this while then bowling all-rounder Axar Patel has given Gujarat the much-needed impetus in crunch times.
For Delhi to succeed, Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir need to be back among runs against Gujarat. In spite of the bowlers delivering, the Delhi batting has been strangely inconsistent. Dhawan particularly will want a big score under his belt before the India team embarks on the tour to Australia. The only good omen for Delhi’s batting has been Unmukt Chand’s return to form when the batsman scored an unbeaten 80 in the semifinals against Himachal Pradesh.
Dhawan, Gambhir, Chand and Ishant Sharma will be the players on whom Delhi will be banking on to see off the Parthiv Patel-led Gujarat.
Gambhir’s side however, will go into the match with an advantage of having played their quarterfinal and semifinal matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, unlike Gujarat who played their previous matches at Alur, better-known as a batting wicket.
Gujarat may find it difficult to adjust to the conditions here because of the two-paced movement of the track as some balls are keeping low and some others scooting off the deck, which makes batting that much difficult. Pawan Negi and Subodh Bhati have been wonderfully efficient on this pitch as bowlers and one can’t ever write Ishant off because of his experience.
Gujarat, on the other hand, have been on a roll despite not boasting of big names, except Axar, who has been their real hero of the season.
Axar has not only been among wickets (19 so far), but has also built a reputation around himself of being a pretty good finisher, bringing his team back on track from crunch situations.
Rujul Bhatt has been Gujarat’s top batsman with 275-odd runs to his credit, while Parthiv also have been in thick of the action, sketching some sparkling innings.
