After months of uncertainty, the Indian domestic season started with Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and now the T20 tournament is ready for its grand finale, a mouth-watering clash between two former champions -- Tamil Nadu and Baroda. (More Cricket News)
Both Tamil Nadu and Baroda topped their respective Elite groups B and C, winning all five matches. Dinesh Karthik-led Tamil Nadu defeated Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan in the quarters and semis to make their second successive final. They lost to Karnataka in the last year's final. Baroda beat Haryana and Punjab in the knockouts.
The final will feature two of the season's top-three scorers -- N Jagadeesan (Tamil Nadu) and KH Devdhar (Baroda), with 350 and 333 runs respectively in seven innings each. Punjab's Prabhsimran Singh (341) was the other batsman to aggregate more than 300 runs.
In bowling charts, Lukman Meriwala, with 14 wickets in seven matches, needs three scalps in the final to overtake Ashutosh Aman of Bihar. He will have support from Baroda team-mate Atit Sheth (10) and Ninad Rathva (9) as they take on a formidable looking Tamil Nadu batting line-up. Tamil Nadu also have a well-rounded attack with Murugan Ashwin (10) leading the pack. M Mohammed (9), Sonu Yadav (8), Sai Kishore (8) and Sandeep Warrier (7) can be lethal
too.
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Team highs
Tamil Nadu's highest total: 189/5 vs v Jharkhand
Baroda's highest total: 176/4 vs v Gujarat
Tournament record
Tamil Nadu: Winners of the inaugural edition in 2006-07
Baroda: Winners in 2011-12 and 2013-14. They were also the finalists in 2015-16.
Check match and telecast details here
Match: Final match of Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy 2021 between Tamil Nadu and Baroda
Date: January 31 (Sunday), 2021
Time: 7:00 PM IST onwards.
Venue: Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
TV Channels: Star Sports Network
Live Streaming: Disney+ Hotstar
Likely XIs
Tamil Nadu: Hari Nishanth, N Jagadeesan, Baba Aparajith, Arun Karthik, Sonu Yadav, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Shahrukh Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, M Mohammed, Murugan Ashwin, Aswin Crist/Sandeep Warrier.
Baroda: Kedar Devdhar (c), Smit Patel (wk), Vishnu Solanki, Abhimanyu Rajput, Ninad Rathva, Atit Sheth, Bhanu Pania, Babashafi Pathan, Lukman Meriwala, Bhargav Bhatt, Karthik Kakade
Squads
Tamil Nadu: Hari Nishanth, N Jagadeesan, Baba Aparajith, Arun Karthik, Sonu Yadav, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Shahrukh Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Sandeep Warrier, M Mohammed, Murugan Ashwin, Vijay Shankar, Aswin Crist, Baba Indrajith, Laxmesha Suryaprakash, Jagatheesan Kousik, Jaganath Sinivas, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Manimaran Siddharth, G Periyaswamy.
Baroda: Kedar Devdhar (c), Smit Patel (wk), Vishnu Solanki, Abhimanyu Rajput, Ninad Rathva, Atit Sheth, Bhanu Pania, Babashafi Pathan, Lukman Meriwala, Bhargav Bhatt, Karthik Kakade, Pratik Keshavlal Ghodadra, Dhruv Patel, Krunal Pandya (unavailable), Mohit Mongia, Pratyush Kumar, Soyeb Sopariya, Chintal Gandhi.
