Pondicherry had a solitary win in 10 Ranji Trophy matches on the Elite degree forward of the continued season. Now, with two wins in three video games within the present match, it would hope to provide 2021-22 champion Madhya Pradesh a battle when the 2 groups meet in a Group D contest on the CAP Floor 2 right here from Friday.
The house facet is coming off convincing wins in opposition to Delhi and Uttarakhand, with a 98-run loss to Baroda sandwiched in between. That defeat got here whereas chasing 218 and Pondicherry will hope to stave off one other batting collapse.
In six innings within the match thus far, Pondicherry has breached the 200-run mark solely on two events, underlining its overreliance on the bowlers, who’ve restricted the opposition to under 200 5 out of six occasions.
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Pacer Gaurav Yadav and left-arm spinner Sagar Udeshi, with 23 and 18 wickets within the season, respectively, have accounted for 41 out of Pondicherry’s 60 scalps.
Moreover, Gaurav, the main wicket-taker of the match, shall be raring to go in opposition to his former facet Madhya Pradesh, which he served for greater than 10 years earlier than leaving it forward of the season as a consequence of restricted alternatives.
In the meantime, Madhya Pradesh’s sheen of a not too long ago topped champion facet is fading. Although it beat an embattled Delhi crew by 86 runs in a low-scoring contest, it conceded the first-innings result in Odisha after failing to power an outright win in opposition to Uttarakhand, finally settling for a draw.
With Rajat Patidar and Avesh Khan unavailable as a consequence of nationwide obligation, the onus shall be on Venkatesh Iyer to step up. The all-rounder will hope to seek out ready assist from Shubham Sharma, who assumed the captaincy mantle with elan in opposition to Delhi, scoring 59 and 73.
Tweakers Saransh Jain and Kumar Kartikeya will pose a potent risk to Pondicherry’s shaky batting line-up that has struggled in opposition to spin in testing circumstances.