Board President's XI are favourites

With the all round strength at their command, Board President's XI start favourites in their Wills Trophy semifinal against Bengal to be played at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Friday.

In the quarterfinals, Board President's XI beat back a spirited challenge from Mumbai before winning by 28 runs at Bangalore while Bengal scored a surprisingly comfortable five wicket victory over Punjab at Chennai.

There is little doubt that the Board President's XI is stronger in both batting and bowling. Against Mumbai, the Orissa opener SS Das carried his bat for 133. He and Jyoti Yadav (45) shared a century stand for the first wicket. The batsmen to follow include the two left handers from Tamil Nadu Sharath and Sriram, skipper Md Azharuddin, the in form Sanjay Bangar and Vijay Dahiya and all rounder Aashish Kapoor. If the batting is formidable, the bowling, in the hands of T Kumaran, Ashish Nehra, Bangar, Sriram, Aashish Kapoor and Karthik Murali also has a lot of variety. Kumaran's five wicket haul in the quarterfinal should do a lot for his confidence.

Bengal will be looking to Nikhil Haldipur, Rohan Gavaskar, Srikant Kalyani, Saba Karim and skipper Utpal Chatterjee to be among the runs. Bengal's bowling however is not as strong and varied as the President's XI attack.

The other semifinal at Bangalore between Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh promises to be a keen contest. Karnataka scored a creditable two wicket victory over Wills XI in the quarterfinal while MP received a bye into the semifinals.

Karnataka are a balanced side. The medium paced trio of Johnson, Ganesh and Mansur Ali Khan did all the damage against Wills XI and they have B Akhil and Anand Katti in support. Karnataka are also a good batting side, with Arun Kumar, skipper Somasundara, the in form VST Naidu and Shiraguppi in the ranks.

But MP will be worthy opponents. They displayed awesome form while winning all their four matches in the Central Zone Ranji Trophy one day league. The batsmen in particular ran up sizable knocks. JP Yadav had scores of 83 and 74, Abbas Ali notched up scores of 55, 58 not out and 106 while D Bundela came up with 72 and 125 not out. Amay Khurasia and R Ali were also among the runs. MP will no doubt be hoping that the batsmen are able to maintain this form on Friday. The bowling is less strong but with skipper Rajesh Chauhan, vice captain HS Sodhi and the niggardly Majithia around, the attack cannot be taken lightly.

The game at Chennai is a benefit for former Tamil Nadu and South Zone medium pacer Bharath Kumar.