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North Zone takes on South Zone

Special Correspondent

Ahmedabad: Left-arm seamer Ashok Thakur and right-arm seamer Vikramjit Singh Malik will spearhead the North Zone attack against South Zone, in the inter-zonal Duleep Trophy competition at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium from Saturday.

North Zone will also have a smart seamer in Rajat Bhatia, who took 26 wickets in the Ranji Trophy in addition to his valuable contribution with the bat scoring 525 runs for Delhi.

Best attack

“This is the best attack North has for the competition. It has thrown an opportunity for Thakur and Vikramjit. England Lions will give a chance for the teams in that group to test their potential, and the foreign team will get a taste of Indian cricket at the highest level,” said North Zone coach Vijay Dahiya.

Seam bowlers exploited the surface prepared for the Ranji semifinal and the final and Thakur and Vikramjit will be delighted to bowl on a wicket, prepared by Dhiraj Parsana for the four-day match, that has a tinge of grass.

Similarly, South’s N.C. Aiyappa, R. Vinaykumar and Kalyan Krishna should benefit and pose questions for the batsmen.

“A smart curator and a smart ground staff can get the desired results. The local soil is conditioned by the environment and I have always believed that the ball should travel fast off the pitch and gain height,” said Parsana, a member of the BCCI’s Pitch and Grounds Committee.

South Zone skipper S. Badrinath (659 runs in Ranji Trophy this season) said: “This would be a contest among equals. All the players are here because they have done well for their States. Every side looks to be balanced. We are a young side, and hence the fielding is bound to be good.”

The teams:

South Zone (from) S. Badrinath (capt.), Ravi Teja, M. Vijay, S. Asnodkar, Thilak Naidu (wk), Arjun Yadav, L.N. Prasad Reddy, R. Gomez, P. Ojha, R. Ashwin, P. Vijaykumar, N.C. Aiyappa, R. Vinay Kumar, Kalyan Krishna, S. Anish.

North Zone (from): M. Manhas (capt.), A. Chopra, S. Dhawan, R. Bhatia, Yashpal Singh, P. Dogra, K. Goel, Ravi Inder Singh, Vikramjeet Singh Malik, Ashok Thakur, Uday Kaul (wk), Amit Mishra, C. Nanda, Sachin Rana, Charanjeet Singh.

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