With Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in its business end now, only four teams remain standing in the 38-team tournament. Baroda and powerhouses Mumbai are all set to have a crack at each other in the first semifinal of the tournament, while the other semifinal will witness two more strong sides, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, fighting tooth and nail to progress further.
Both teams come into this clash riding high on confidence. Both of them feature some stars who have hogged the limelight in Indian cricket.
All eyes will be pinned on the likes of Venkatesh Iyer, Rajat Patidar, Ayush Badoni and Priyansh Arya among others as the players will try and give it their all in the upcoming clash.
Venkatesh Iyer broke the headlines when he became the fourth most expensive player in the history of the Indian Premier League. The all-rounder was roped in for a hefty amount of Rs 23.75 crore by his original team Kolkata Knight Riders. He has played some crucial knocks already and has helped his team win matches in the premier domestic tournament.
Meanwhile, Priyansh came into the limelight after he struck six sixes in an over in the Delhi Premier League. He has kept his six-hitting touch unscathed in SMAT too. The 23-year-old had hit a century in his first match of the season against UP. He made 102 from 43 deliveries with 10 maximums included. The opening batter recently made 44 from 31 and 54 from 21 deliveries.
Team form
Both the teams have been in good touch throughout the tournament. Delhi topped the Group C with six wins in their seven matches, while MP came second with similar number of wins in same number of matches in Group A. In the quarterfinals, Delhi got the better of Uttar Pradesh while defending 193, while MP chased down a score of 174 against Saurashtra.
Squads:
Madhya Pradesh Squad: Arpit Gaud, Harsh Gawli(w), Subhranshu Senapati, Venkatesh Iyer, Rajat Patidar(c), Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Tripuresh Singh, Rahul Batham, Kumar Kartikeya, Avesh Khan, Shivam Shukla, Kamal Tripathi, Kulwant Khejroliya, Aniket Verma, Vikas Sharma, Pankaj Chothmal Sharma, Arshad Khan, Abhishek Pathak
Delhi Squad: Priyansh Arya, Yash Dhull, Ayush Badoni(c), Anuj Rawat(w), Himmat Singh, Harsh Tyagi, Mayank Rawat, Suyash Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Simarjeet Singh, Prince Yadav, Vansh Bedi, Digvesh Rathi, Aayush Singh, Samarth Seth, Gagan Vats, Vaibhav Kandpal, Sarthak Ranjan, Jonty Sidhu, Prince Choudhary, Akhil Chaudhary, Pranav Rajuvanshi, Dhruv Kaushik, Himanshu Chauhan, Aryan Rana, Mayank Gusain
