Interesting duel on cards as Baroda take on Railways

The five day Ranji Trophy cricket final between Baroda and Railways, beginning at the Gujarat State Fertilizer Corporation grounds in Baroda from Thursday, promises to be an interesting duel for supremacy with the rival skippers oozing confidence.

The team handling the pressure better is expected to do well. The contest is bound to be more of a mental game as both the teams have played seven league and knockout matches before entering the final.

It is also for the first time that the pre-quarterfinal, quarterfinal, semifinal and final matches are being played on the same ground.

Railways coach Vinod Sharma, after seeing the wicket, said the strip would help the seamers initially but the batsmen too could score freely if they showed some patience.

Baroda captain Jacob Martin will take another look at the wicket in the morning before deciding the playing eleven. Railways skipper Abhay Sharma said winning the final was his team's goal. "We are confident of achieving it" he added.

"My boys are firm in their resolve and determined to achieve the goal. They are young and energetic with an average age of 23 years", Abhay Sharma added.

Martin said he was satisfied with the performances of his batsmen, including Indian stumper Nayan Mongia, Satyajit Parab, Connor Williams, Tushar Arothe, Valmik Buch, Himanshu Jadhav and Ajit Bhoite, who have found their touch and helped their team pile up good scores in previous matches.

The selection committee of the Baroda Cricket Association, headed by former India coach Anshuman Gaekwad, nominated Martin as the captain after Arothe stepped down due to personal reasons.

The inclusion of paceman Zaheer Khan, who missed the previous ties as he was on national duty against the Australians, will add more sting to the Baroda attack.

Baroda may play two more medium pacers - Rakesh Patel and Irfan Pathan (sr) or Irfan Pathan(jr) - apart from Khan as the wicket here has always helped the medium pacers.

The final is going to be played on the same wicket on which Baroda had scored outright wins in the pre-quarterfinal against Bengal and quarterfinal against Tamil Nadu while the semifinal against Orissa, played on the adjacent wicket, had ended in a draw.

The toss too will be vital as the team batting first has always managed to win and the wicket takes turn which helps the spinners in the later part of the match.

Baroda coach Vinit Wadker said the team was playing very well and was well balanced and this gave it a slight edge over the opponents.

On the other hand, his Railways counterpart Vinod Sharma said his team had restricted its rivals in previous ties due to some tight bowling and then had piled up huge scores before bundling out the opponents cheaply in their second knocks.

"Our fielding is our plus point and players like vice captain Sanjay Bangar, Amit Pagnis and others are known for their fielding abilities," he added.

"There is the right mix of pace and spin in our bowling and our batting line-up is very strong," Sharma said.

Baroda has won the championship four times and was twice runner-up while Railways would be searching for their first win after being runners-up to Tamil Nadu at Chennai in 1987-88.

The teams: Baroda: Jacob Martin (capt), Connor Williams, Satyajit Parab, Himanshu Jadhav, Ajit Bhoite, Rakesh Patel, Umang Patel, Valmik Buch, Nayan Mongia, Irfan Pathan (sr), Irfan Pathan (jr), Tushar Arothe, Rohit Chandorkar, Milap Mewada and Zaheer Khan.

Railways: Abhay Sharma (capt), Sanjay Bangar, Murali Kartik, Amit Pagnis, Tejinder Palsingh, Yere Goud, Raja Ali, Shreyas Khanolkar, Santosh Sahu, Kulmani Parida, Zakir Hussain, Harvinder Singh, P S Rawat, Sudhir Wankhede and Dhiraj Sharma.