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Tamil Nadu will fancy itself against Himachal Pradesh

Sports Reporter

Chennai: Tamil Nadu will take on Himachal Pradesh in its fifth Ranji Trophy Super-League cricket match which will commence at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.

The host, with seven points from four matches, will fancy its chances against Himachal. The visiting team has managed just four points in its four matches.

Tamil Nadu’s coach W.V. Raman said that his side wouldn’t take the visitors lightly.

“We’ll look to gain maximum points, but they’re no pushovers. We do respect the side. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t beat Saurashtra; but the performance sets us up nicely for this one, to try and get to the top of the table.”

Exceptional batting

Tamil Nadu’s batting was exceptional against Saurashtra, with M. Vijay registering an unbeaten double hundred.

“The batting has been very good. We need some discipline in our bowling and better effort in the fielding,” said Tamil Nadu captain S. Badrinath.

No major changes are expected from the previous match’s eleven.

Himachal’s bowling has been its standout feature despite the results. The side was impressive against Delhi, after some poor performances against Maharashtra and Karnataka. M.S. Bisla and Barun Sharma hung on for 18.1 overs to draw the match against Delhi, but it was medium pacer V.S. Malik who impressed with his six wickets in Delhi’s first innings.

“The bowlers have done a fine job, but the batsmen need to come up with some big knocks. They’ve been getting to 30s and 40s and giving it all away. We need to put up a big total,” said Himachal coach Rajdeep Kalsi.

Batsman Mukesh Sharma will sit out because of a knee injury, with medium pacer Jitender Mehta likely to replace him.

No big surprises are expected from the pitch, which has been kept mostly covered. Batsmen and spinners will benefit.

The teams (from):

Tamil Nadu: S. Badrinath (capt.), M. Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, R. Srinivasan, K. Shri Vasudeva Das, K.H. Gopinath (wk), R. Ramkumar, V. Yomahesh, P. Amarnath, C. Suresh, S. Suresh Kumar, E. Suresh, C. Ganapathy, R. Prasanna and R. Naresh.

Himachal Pradesh: Sandeep Sharma (capt), Manish Gupta, Sangram Singh, Maninder Vishla (wk), Paras Dogra, Ajay Mannu, Vishal Bhatia, Sarandeep Singh, Vikramjit Singh, Ashok Thakur, Varun Mishra, Barun Sharma, Jitender Mehta and Mohinder Rai Sharma.

Umpires: A.M. Saheba & M.G. Mandale. Match Referee: Sunil Chaturvedi. Match timings: 9.30 a.m. to noon, 12.40 p.m. to 2.40 p.m., 3 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.