It will be a battle between the middle-order heavy lifters when Gujarat takes on Kerala in the first semifinal of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday.
Both teams have banked on contributions from the mid-pack to bail them out of trouble through the premier domestic red-ball competition – their quarterfinal wins being an illustration.
While Gujarat’s batters locked themselves on the crease to bat Saurashtra out of reckoning in Rajkot, Kerala needed a stubborn 256-ball association for the seventh wicket on the fifth day in Pune to earn a draw. A first-innings lead by the slenderest of margins – a solitary run – thanks again to the lower order meant Kerala pipped Jammu and Kashmir to a semifinal berth.
Salman Nizar and Mohammed Azharuddeen, the orchestrators of that match-winning partnership, are also the leading run-scorers for the side this season, with 555 and 424 runs respectively. In the semis, the team will hope for considerable contributions from skipper Sachin Baby and experienced opener Rohan Kunnummal to ease the pressure on Nizar and Co.
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Baba Aparajith, who was brought in ahead of the season from neighbour Tamil Nadu, will continue to miss out following a calf injury sustained during the group stage encounter against Madhya Pradesh.
For the host, Jaymeet Patel has had a ground-breaking maiden season in First Class cricket, tallying 582 runs in eight matches, with two centuries and four half-centuries. Manan Hingrajia and Umang Kumar, too, have flourished with the bat to counter the lean season encountered by veteran Priyank Panchal.
Spinners have called the shots for both the teams in the bowling department. Siddharth Desai has scalped 35 wickets at an average of 23.40 for Gujarat, while Kerala’s professional stars – Jalaj Saxena and Aditya Sarwate – have picked 60 wickets between them to spin the team to victory on more than one occasion.
The new-ball arsenal of both teams cannot be discounted, though. If conditions on the first morning come to their aid, both sets of pacers possess the ability to make early inroads, as displayed during previous encounters in the competition.
The Chintan Gaja-led side will hope to make the most of the home conditions to make its first final since 2016-17 when Parthiv Patel led the team to its only Ranji title so far.
As for Kerala, it has already equalled its best-ever performance in the tournament, six years after beating Gujarat to make its first Ranji semifinal. But, the focus will be on qualifying for the final and authoring a fresh page in its cricketing history.