RANJI TROPHY 2017-18

Improved Delhi stand between Vidarbha and history

by Ganesh Chandrasekaran • Last updated on

"If it happens (Vidarbha wins the Ranji Trophy, it will be the biggest moment of my career." - Faiz Fazal © BCCL

In Indian domestic cricket, the Ranji Trophy continues to hold a prestigious position. The IPL might have caught the fancy of a much larger audience but for the players and selectors, a good performance in a game like the Ranji Trophy final is second to none. And the reason for that is quite simple.

"Indian cricket owes a lot to the structure of the Ranji Trophy," tells India's chief selector MSK Prasad, to Cricbuzz. "Australia and other countries will be proud of the Sheffield Shield and India can feel the same about Ranji Trophy. Going through those tough initial rounds, and getting to a final takes a LOT of effort," he stresses.

And so the final of this tournament becomes all the more important. "Any Indian cricketer will tell you that he will love to win the Ranji Trophy. It still holds good in India. A performance in the Ranji final comes first for the pride of an Indian cricketer," says Prasad.

The players know it well. Delhi's skipper Rishabh Pant, popular through the IPL but yet to make that higher jump, might have had a disappointing season with the bat so far (262 runs at 37.43) but he'll know that the final is an opportunity to get all of it forgiven. Reaching the final has been a considerable improvement for Delhi, who had failed to get past the group stages in the recent seasons.

"Our first goal was to qualify," says KP Bhaskar, Delhi's coach. "What we have been telling these boys is that unless we qualify you can't showcase your talent in front of the selectors, the officials, captains and the seniors. That sort of spurred them up and won the last two knockout games. That's why we are in the final and we hope to do well here as well."

In stark contrast to Pant is his counterpart, Faiz Fazal, a veteran of 97 first-class games over 14 seasons. Not as popularly known as Pant, Fazal craves to hold the Ranji Trophy as the winning captain. "[If it happens] it will be the biggest moment of my career," he says dreamily.

Fazal's team has had an unprecedented run to the final and he desperately wants his team to cross the final line. "Guys are not used to being live on TV but we are treating it as just another game," says Fazal on the pressure. The duo share a hearty laugh and pose for photos together a day before the final and paint a picture of happy optimism, each hoping that they will continue to have it after the next five days.

The second Ranji Trophy final in a row at the Holkar Stadium in Indore is setting up to be a good contest. First-time finalists, Vidarbha might not have the weight of history behind them but are the form team this season, winning six out of their eight games. But Delhi have won only one less in the season and are coming into the game on the back of a big victory against Bengal in the semi-final.

Both teams will be missing their lead pacers - Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav - because of national duty but the backup options have been no less impressive. Navdeep Saini and Rajneesh Gurbani are two of the most promising pacers coming through in Indian domestic cricket and will be the strike-force around which the attacks of both teams are composed. The spinners for both sides have complemented their pacers very well. Delhi's left arm spin duo of Vikas Mishra and Manan Sharma and Vidarbha's Akshay Wakhare with Aditya Sarwate are amongst the top wicket-takers for their sides this season.

The similarities between the two sides extend to the batting as well with strong top-orders leading the way to a talented middle-order. If Delhi have the experience of Gautam Gambhir then Vidarbha have Wasim Jaffer, along with Fazal. Young openers Kunal Chandela and Sanjay Ramaswamy have complemented and even challenged, the seniors with strong performances of their own.

In many ways, this then is a battle of evenly matched sides going right down to the combinations that have clicked well.

When: 09:00 AM, Local time on 29th December, 2017

Where: Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore

What to expect: The weather promises to hold good over the next five days while the pitch is expected to play in the age-old Indian tradition - good for batting initially and breaking down over the game.

Team News

Delhi: Delhi will be sweating over the fitness of pacer Vikas Tokas but are unlikely to make any big changes from the side that won them the semi-final. Gautam Gambhir did not attend the practice sessions ahead of the game but word from the camp is that all is well with their most experienced campaigner.

Probable XI: Gautam Gambhir, Kunal Chandela, Dhruv Shorey, Nitish Rana, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (c/wk), Vikas Mishra, Manan Sharma, Vikas Tokas/Akash Sudan, Navdeep Saini, Khulwant Khejroliya

Vidarbha: A couple of tricky decisions to be made for Vidarbha with one forced change in order. Umesh Yadav's absence could present an opportunity for another young pacer. An uncapped Aditya Thackeray who was amongst the India U19 probables could well have an outside chance of making a debut in the Ranji Final with Lalit Yadav being the other option. That is unless Vidarbha feel the need to include a third spinner in leggie Karn Sharma for the big game.

Probable XI: Faiz Fazal (c), Sanjay Ramaswamy, Wasim Jaffer, Ganesh Satish, Apoorv Wankhade, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Aditya Sarwate, Akshay Wakhare, Rajneesh Gurbani, Aditya Thackeray, Siddesh Neral

What they said

"Everyone is excited about reaching the finals. In fact, to be honest, we were the underdogs to begin with. Nobody expected us to reach the final, so I think that way the boys have done exceedingly well." - KP Bhaskar, Delhi coach

"One thing is that we are a really happy unit. We are enjoying our cricket very much. We always used to enjoy but I don't know why...we all believe that this season the trophy is ours. I want to have the feel of the trophy in my hands. I want to have that bite of success." - Faiz Fazal, Vidarbha captain

© Cricbuzz

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