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Bhubaneswar, Dec 9: After a not-so impressive Ranji Trophy campaign where they finished eighth in the nine-team group, Orissa will start their 50 overs Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign Thursday against perennial rivals Vidarbha at the Model School Ground in New Delhi. It will be chance for the Orissa cricketers to redeem themselves. Last season, Orissa had made it to the last four stage before losing to Punjab by seven wickets.
The tournament will, however, be played in a new format with 27 teams divided into four groups this season. Orissa are in Group C along with Vidarbha, Delhi, Baroda, Andhra, Tripura and Maharashtra. So it will not be very easy for Orissa to do an encore of last season.
The return of India bowler Umesh Yadav to the Vidarbha squad will certainly be a huge boost to them. He will definitely lend more balance to the attack which also has emerging offie Akshay Wakhare who has had a tremendous Ranji Trophy season with the ball. In batting, pros S Badrinath and Ganesh Satish will definitely be the men to watch out for.
Orissa will have former skipper Biplab Samantray returning to the fold. This will be a make or break tournament for Biplab who had a very poor Ranji Trophy season before being axed from the squad. But then, he is more suited to the shorter versions of the game and the event will certainly give him a chance to redeem himself.
Bowling has always been Orissa’s forte and this year also the troika of Basant Mohanty, Suryakant Pradhan and Alok Sahoo has done a very good job. If the batters can provide the runs on the board, then the bowlers definitely have the ability to restrict and dismiss the opposition. In batting, the likes of skipper Natraj Behera, Govind Poddar and ODI specialist Aravind Singh will have to take responsibility to deliver the goods for Orissa.
The Model School Ground has a reputation for helping fast bowlers early on and the so the toss will play an important role. So whoever wins the toss, will definitely opt for the option of putting the opposition in and restricting them. This is one area where Orissa have to tread carefully as they cannot lose early wickets and expose the middle-order which hasn’t put up a very convincing this season.