Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20, Quarter-final 1: Karnataka v Puducherry – Preview, Prediction

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019 has moved from its group stage to knock out stage with four quarter-finals lined up for Sunday and Monday. 38 teams were competing for these eight spots from three groups and finally, top teams made the cut from Group A and B, Group C and Plate group.

One of the domestic giants of India, Karnataka will play the relatively new boys Puducherry in the first quarter-final of the 2019 Vijay Hazare trophy.

Karnataka who topped the combined Group A and B are in great form and boasted of international players like KL Rahul and Manish Pandey. They also have domestic stars like Shreyas Gopal and Krishnappa Gowtham. No wonder they are clearly the favorites after winning seven out of their eight matches in the Group stage.

Puducherry are a new team in the circuit and playing from only 2018. They qualified by topping the Plate group despite good competition from Assam and Uttarakhand. Even hey have some of the domestic top players like Arun Kartik, Paras Dogra, and Vinay Kumar who would look to give a good fight to Karnataka.

Karnataka’s only defeat came in their second game against Hyderabad and since then they have never made any mistake. On the other hand, Puducherry were fortunate at least two times when their fixtures ended with No Result. So this match is going to be a tough one for Puducherry while they have a good chance to prove their mettle.

Key players

Manish Pandey (Karnataka)– The captain and one of the mainstays for Karnataka in the middle order, Manish Pandey has been a great contributor so far. He has scored 505 runs at an average of 101 and Karnataka’s death over batting or chase will depend a lot on him.

Vinay Kumar (Puducherry)– For Puducherry, the key player would be Vinay Kumar. After playing 15 years for Karnataka he moved to Puducherry at the beginning of the season. The experienced player will be keen to show his skill against his old team.

Likely XIs

Karnataka – Manish Pandey (c), Abhimanyu Mithun, Karun Nair, Lokesh Rahul, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jagadeesha Suchith, Rohan Kadam, Praveen Dubey, V Koushik, Sharath BR (wk), and Devdutt Padikkal

Puducherry – Vinay Kumar, Arun Karthik, Paras Dogra, Suresh Kumar, Sagar Trivedi, Fabid Ahmed, S Karthik (wk), Vikneshwaran Marimuthu, Ashith Sanganakal, Damodaren Rohit (c), and Sagar Udeshi

Prediction

Karnataka to win the match.