Mumbai will face Gujarat in the final of the 2020/21 Vijay Hazare Trophy, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi. Both teams had convincing wins in their respective semi-finals. While Uttar Pradesh beat Gujarat – unbeaten in the tournament until then – by 5 wickets, Mumbai defeated defending champions Karnataka by a 72-run margin. The stage is set for a close contest.
Not only have Mumbai won all seven of their matches, they have won every match convincingly. Neighbours Maharashtra have been only team to put up a semblance of a fight against them, and even against them Mumbai won by 4 wickets, reaching the target in the 48th over. Two of their wins have been by margins of 200 and 233 runs.
Mumbai captain Prithvi Shaw has played key role in their success. Dropped after an ordinary tour of Australia, he has taken nearly every bowling attack to the cleaners. His 754 runs in the tournament (at a strike rate of 135) are the most by anyone in a single edition of the tournament. Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, and Shardul Thakur will be serving national duty, but Mumbai do have the firepower to take on any side.
The bowling, if inexperienced, has been efficient for Mumbai throughout the tournament. Dhawal Kulkarni will be leading the attack, while the spin twins, Shams Mulani and Prashant Solanki, will have a key role to play. Mumbai will be favourites going into the final.
Uttar Pradesh began their tournament with a shock win against Karnataka. Left-arm spinner Shivam Sharma, who took 3-40 in that match, is the leading wicket-taker of the tournament. His 7-31 against Bihar and 6-22 against Odisha are among the three best bowling figures of this edition.
But while Shivam has led the rout for Uttar Pradesh, none of his teammates have quite risen to the challenge. They have been economical (most of them have gone for under 5), but have seldom managed to break through. None of them have taken more than seven wickets in the tournament: for perspective, Shivam has 20. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s absence has also stripped them of a senior player.
Karan Sharma, however, has been a revelation. He made his debut in the tournament, and was asked to lead midway when Bhuvneshwar had a call-up from the national side. He has done reasonably well, both with bat and as captain. With former captain Akshdeep Nath, wicketkeeper Upendra Yadav, and young Priyam Garg all in the side, the batting order has a solid look to it.
Predicted XIs
Mumbai: Prithvi Shaw (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aditya Tare (wk), Shams Mulani, Shivam Dube, Aman Hakim Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Tanush Kotian, Tushar Deshpande, Dhawal Kulkarni, Prashant Solanki.
Uttar Pradesh: Madhav Kaushik, Samarth Singh, Karan Sharma (c), Priyam Garg, Akshdeep Nath, Upendra Yadav (wk), Sameer Chaudhary, Shivam Sharma, Shivam Mavi, Yash Dayal, Aaqib Khan.