Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019-20 semi-final 1, Tamil Nadu vs Rajasthan: Preview, predictions, likely XIs

Tamil Nadu will play Rajasthan in the first semi-final of the 2019-20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, at Surat. Despite losing to Karnataka in the Super League match, Tamil Nadu finished at the top of Group B with a net run rate (+0.869) marginally better than Karnataka’s (+0.762). Mumbai, too, finished with 12 points, but they were too behind on net run rate (-0.194) to catch up.

Since the match against Karnataka, the Tamil Nadu bowlers have been superb as the tournament reached its final stages. Mumbai managed only 121/9 against them, Punjab 94/8, and Jharkhand 85. In their last three league matches, they bowled out both Manipur and Vidarbha for 55 each and restricted Tripura to 79/8.

M Siddharth, Sai Kishore, and Washington Sundar have all gone for under 5 an over, while Vijay Shankar and T Natarajan have gone for under 6. Between them they have formed an attack almost impossible to score off.

The teams have met in the group stage, when Dinesh Karthik (48 in 30 balls) had helped Tamil Nadu reach 155/5 before Sai Kishore (4-1-19-3) helped restrict Rajasthan to 116/8.

Speaking of Rajasthan, they had to wait till the last day to qualify, when they beat Delhi by 2 runs. Even that would not have been enough: they had to wait for Maharashtra to beat table toppers Haryana.

Rajasthan have not been as consistent as Tamil Nadu. Their bowlers – the Chahars and Khaleel Ahmed, in particular – have done well in bursts, accompanied by Tanveer Ul-Haq and Aniket Choudhary. However, their batsmen have not impressed, and will have their work cut out against the Tamil Nadu bowlers.

All in all, Tamil Nadu are clear favourites here.

Key players

M Siddharth (Tamil Nadu): Left-arm spinner Siddharth has played only the last 3 matches, but he has more than grabbed his opportunity. Figures of 4-0-16-4, 4-0-9-3, and 4-1-18-4 tell the story. He may emerge as a key player in the knockouts.

Deepak Chahar (Rajasthan): There is little Chahar can do wrong this month. He has taken a hat-trick for India and three in an over twice in this tournament; as if that was not enough, he smashed a career-best 42-ball 55 against Delhi.

Likely XIs

Tamil Nadu: C Hari Nishanth, Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Baba Aparajith, Vijay Shankar, M Siddharth, J Kousik, M Ashwin, R Sai Kishore, T Natarajan.

Rajasthan: Manender Singh (wk), Ankit Lamba, Rajesh Bishnoi, Mahipal Lomror, Arjit Gupta, Salman Khan, Deepak Chahar (c), Chandrapal Singh, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Aniket Choudhary.

Prediction

Tamil Nadu to win comfortably.