Col CK Nayudu trophy: UP to face Saurashtra in quarter finals

Kanpur: An interesting tie is on the cards when host UP will lock horns with Saurashtra in the quarter finals of U-23 cricket tournament for Col CK Nayudu Trophy match to be played at the Green Park stadium here from (Sunday) February 25.The host had attained the top place in group A and were eager to book their semifinal berth at their home ground. On the other hand, Saurashtra, the second number team of Pool C, is confident to perform their best and earn a ticket for the last four stages. They are here without their star batsmen Parthraj Rawal who had scored two double centuries in the ongoing tournament. Since he got injured, he has been left to take rest and recoveR.Talking to TOI, Dhruv said all team members were fit and eager to climb the next step in Kanpur. Nihar Vaghela, Raxit Mehta, Sammar Gajjar, captain Jay Gohel were in good form. His batsmen were scoring runs in every tie and the bowlers were taking wickets. This was evident that the team had won 4 out of 7 ties in pool.Sameer had not only scored centuries but also emerged as the highest wicket taker so far with 30 wickets. His best was 5 for 48. Another all-rounder Arth Yadav too was in form as he had scored a century and grabbed wickets at crucial times. Dhruv said he, along with his team, had come to the city a couple of days ago and acclimatized his team from Kanpur’s weather. “UP team is a strong contender and he had the benefit of his home ground therefore I hope a good match is on the card”, Dhruv added.Host UP coach Mohd Amir stated that all the team members were fit and in good mental state.” We are not taking Saurashtra lightly because all the eight teams of the quarter finals are good ones". He hoped that batsmen would click in time and score runs while bowlers would do their job perfectly. “Swastik Chikara, Prashant Veer, Aaditya Kritagya KK Singh and Aaradhya and Siddarth, Vipraj Nigam, Sameer Rizvi were among runs in league phases.Green Park wicket has some grass which is good for batting. Both teams claimed that the toss would be vital for the tie.UPCA has announced its 18-member team for this tie. The members are: Sameer Rizvi, Rituraj Sharma, Siddharth Yadav, Aaditya Sharma, Aradhya Yadav, Swastik Chikara, Kritagya KK Singh, Kunal Tyagi, Vaibhav Chaudhary, Parth Jain, Rohit Dwivedi, Vijay Kumar, Vipraj Nigam, Osho Mohan, Shiven Malhotra, Prateek Pandey, Shubham Mishra, Aqib Khan.