Sarfaraz Khan and Devdutt Padikkal will be expected to continue their impressive form when domestic giants Mumbai and Karnataka lock horns in the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-final here on Monday.
Sarfaraz Khan and Devdutt Padikkal will face each-other in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Final
The second quarter final will be played between Uttar Pradesh and Saurashtra at the Centre of Excellence on Monday itself.Karnataka suffered just one defeat in their final league match of the group stage. Despite this, the team will be confident of putting up their best performance against Mumbai.
Devdutt Padikkal is the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 640 runs in seven innings, including four centuries and a half-century. If he maintains his form, it will be difficult for the selectors preparing their squad for the 2027 ODI World Cup to ignore him.
Sarfaraz Khan is also attracting the attention of selectors by translating his explosive T20 form into ODI cricket. In the team’s surprise defeat against Punjab in the final league match, Sarfaraz scored the fastest half-century by an Indian in men’s List A cricket. Mumbai lost that match, but Sarfaraz succeeded in conveying his message to the selectors in the limited-overs format.
Uttar Pradesh and Saurashtra will face each other in the second quarterfinal. Uttar Pradesh will have the upper hand in this match. Uttar Pradesh is the only team in all four groups to remain undefeated in the league stage. Uttar Pradesh will not be getting the services of Dhruv Jurel, who has joined the Indian ODI team after Rishabh Pant got injured. Jurel had scored 558 runs in seven innings in the league stage and looked completely unstoppable.
Saurashtra made a strong comeback after losing two of their opening three matches and won four consecutive matches to make it to the last eight. Their batsmen seem to be getting back into form at the right time, while fast bowler Chetan Sakariya also looks in good touch.