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Upbeat Bengal ready to take on Karnataka in high-voltage semifinal game
28th February 2020
Buoyant Bengal will take on hotshot Karnataka in a high-voltage Ranji Trophy semifinal match at Eden Gardens tomorrow.
Abhimanyu Easwaran and men came into the semifinal by outplaying Odisha in the last match while Karnataka got the better of Jammu & Kashmir.
Bengal skipper Easwaran said: "Our strength is fast bowling and we are backing it. Our pacers have been the wicket takers and we are here in the semis. We are trying to stay in the present. We are playing good cricket. It's about repeating them. We dont think about the records."
Bengal team will highly depend on their team game and killer instinct that they have been showcasing for a considerable amount of time as they've found many match winners in these period.
In form India batsman K L Rahul will be making his return to the domestic circuit for Karnataka and will join the likes of Manish Pandey, Karun Nair and Devdutt Padikkal to strengthen the Karnataka batting lineup.
Karnataka captain Karun Nair said: "If a team have reached the semfinals which means that they have done things right in a lot of matches. credit should go to them. They have been playing very good cricket that's the reason they are here. we have to play to our potential to beat them."
Experienced warhorse Manoj Tiwary has done justice to his name with 651 runs from 9 games which includes unbeaten triple century against Hyderabad while the likes of Anustup Majumder, Abhishek Raman, Sreevats Goswami and Koushik Ghosh played crucial knocks to carry Bengal on their shoulders when needed.
Youngster Shahbaz Ahamad will be the one to watch out for as the Bengal all-rounder made his mark in the debut season with 30 wickets and 427 runs so far and helped his team pull off some miraculous victories.
Bengal coach Arun Lal said: "I think we are the favourites. We have momentum behind us, we played some fabulous cricket too and, we have got unquantifiable heroes. We have 3-4 players who could go on to play for India within a year or so. We are a team on the zoom. The curve is going up."
When asked about the opponents and the big names he said: "It will be good for both sides. They are a champion side, there's no denying it. It could be anybody there, could be Virat Kohli batting there tomorrow. Cricket is played on the field but not with big names. It will be a good contest. We are looking forward to it."
In the bowling department Akash Deep's return to the team will boost Bengal pace attack while Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar have been prolific throughout the season.
"We are here. It does not matter whether 1, 3, 5 or 10 is playing. The fact is we are here. It's not about an Abhimanyu, Tiwary or Shahbaz. It's about the team," Lal talked about the team game that Bengal has been playing.
On the other hand Karnataka's K Gowtham has been in good form too with the ball while the pace attack, with Abhimanyu Mithun and Prasidh Krishna has been playing well.
CAB MEDIA DESK
Rio dutta
