It’s the business end of the Ranji Trophy season, one where Mumbai would not be featuring. On a high after defeating the 41-time champions, Karnataka will head into the final four as firm favourites for the title and facing them will be dark horses Vidharbha. The other match sees Bengal take on Delhi.

Here’s the preview of the semi-final matches:

Can Karnataka live up to their billing?

On a roll, Karnataka will start favourites against this season’s surprise package Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy semifinal in Kolkata, beginning on Sunday.

The Vinay Kumar-led side, which thrashed Mumbai by an innings and 20 runs enroute to the semis, seems to be peaking at the right time in their quest for a ninth Ranji title and second in five seasons.

The most significant part of their victory was not letting Mumbai off the hook for once as captain Vinay Kumar became the fourth bowler to claim a hat-trick twice in the tournament’s history.

“Definitely beating Mumbai will help us, it will give us the extra cushion. But it’s past, I can’t think much about it. We will take one game at a time. We would like to think this game (semis) rather than thinking about the last game,” Kumar said on eve of the semifinal.

After their historic double-treble over two successive seasons, Karnataka could not qualify for the semifinals in the previous two seasons.

“Last season, we reached quarterfinals but the wicket was much difficult to bat, had we won the toss we would have won the game easily,” he said about their defeat to Tamil Nadu in Vizag. “Before that year, we did not qualify maybe by just one or two points. I am very much happy with our progress. We have played in this situation many times. We won two Ranji titles in four years, we have the experience. It’s all about going there and stick to our strengths.”

Both teams have qualified with four outright wins, remaining unbeaten and going into the semifinal battle on an Eden Gardens green-top, they will be equally matched.

Mayank Agarwal has been the tournament leading run-getter amassing an astounding 1142 runs, but Vidarbha are not far behind in batting ability as left-hander Faiz Fazal (831 runs) will be their answer to the Karnataka opener.

Along with Agarwal, Karnataka have R Samarth who has 643 runs at a healthy 64.30, and Shreyas Gopal who is fresh from a a career-best 150 not out against Mumbai.

In bowling also both the sides are evenly-matched with Krishnappa Gowtham as Karnataka’s regular wicket-taker while Vidarbha’s Akshay Wakhare has 29 in his kitty.

In such a scenario, India pacer Umesh Yadav will provide the edge to Vidarbha, provided he gets a nod from the Board to represent his state ahead of the crucial Test series against South Africa.

Karnataka have beaten Vidarbha twice, while the other three games ended in a draw.

Squads:

Karnataka: R Vinay Kumar (captain), Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Samarth R, Nischal D, Stuart Binny, C M Gautam, Shreyas Gopal, K Gowtham, Abhimanyu Mithun, S Arvind, Pavan Desphande, J Suchith, Mir Kaunain Abbas, Sharath Srinivas, Ronit More.

Vidarbha: Faiz Fazal (captain), Ganesh Satish, R Sanjay, Wasim Jaffar, Karn Sharma, Salabh Shrivastava, Apoorvva Wankhede (wk), Akshay Wakhare, Akshay Karnewar, Siddesh Wath, Aditya Sarvate, Rajneesh Gurbani, Siddesh Neral, Umesh Yadav and Shubham Kapase.

It’s Bengal bowling vs Delhi batting

Mohammed Shami’s guile coupled with Ashok Dinda’s consistency will be countered by Gautam Gambhir’s experience and Rishabh Pant’s exuberance when Bengal square off with Delhi in the other Ranji Trophy semi-final in Pune.

The match can be safely termed a fight between one of the most potent domestic new ball attacks in the country and a batting line-up that has players who can win matches on their own on a given day.

An encouraging piece of statistic for Bengal is that they have never ever conceded a first-innings lead against Delhi since the 2009-10 season. And not to forget the bitter sweet relation between Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary and Gambhir, who have had their share of run-ins in the past.

India’s craftiest red ball bowler Shami will get some serious match time against Gambhir, who has been there and done that for Delhi on numerous occasions.

At 36 and with no realistic chance of playing for India again, Gambhir remains an intense cricketer, who has notched up 505 runs this season so far.

Dinda, a domestic workhorse, can bowl long spells and hit the same length over after over while young Delhi captain Pant (261 in 5 games), who has slightly fallen off the selectors’ radar, will be trying to prove a point with his cavalier batting approach.

Young guns Nitish Rana (515 runs), Dhruv Shorey (374 in 7 games), Himmat Singh (215 in 3 games) and Kunal Chandela (202 in 2 games) – a University cricket product – have all shown promise.

In the bowling, left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra (31 wickets) has made a good comeback in first-class while Navdeep Saini’s (22 wickets) exploits with new and old ball is now well-known in domestic circuit.

For Bengal, the presence of another Test regular Wriddhiman Saha, who is a domestic giant, makes it an exciting contest despite the absence of regular skipper cum pace spearhead Ishant Sharma from the opposition line-up.

On a Maharashtra CA Stadium track, which has traditionally been a batting belter, both teams would like to pile on the runs and put the pressure on the opposition.

While Bengal won their quarter-final by batting Gujarat out of the contest, Delhi rode on a fine batting performance from Gambhir as they chased down a 200-plus target with ease.

Bengal skipper Tiwary will have plenty of problems while selecting his batting line-up.

Abhimanyu Easwaran (547 runs) and Avishek Raman (587 runs) are set openers while the experienced Sudeep Chatterjee, who is fit to play the semi-final, is expected to be back at No 3.

His replacement Writtick Chatterjee has done his case no harm with a century and a double hundred in the last two games, but it will be surprising if Tiwary keeps Writtick in the playing XI.

Similarly, Wriddhiman’s presence means that Shreevats Goswami may have to make way unless Anushtup Majumdar (526 runs), who has made a fabulous comeback, is benched.

“Experience is never up for sale. We are happy that players of Shami and Wriddhi’s calibre are available for such a crucial match,” the skipper said.

Tiwary, who has been a part of two losing finals (2005- 06, 06-07) is keen to set the record straight this time.

“What I loved this year about our team is the growth of our players. They have gone that extra yard, made those sacrifices required and here we are. Each and everyone has strived hard for us to reach this stage,” said the skipper.

Squads:

Bengal: Manoj Tiwary (captain), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Avishek Raman, Sudeep Chatterjee, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Anushtup Majumdar, Shreevats Goswami, B Amit, Ashok Dinda, Mohammed Shami, Aamir Gani, Writtick Chatterjee, Pradipta Pramanik, Mukesh Kumar and Kanishk Seth.

Delhi: Rishabh Pant (captain), Kunal Chandela, Gautam Gambhir, Dhruv Shorey, Himmat Singh, Nitish Rana, Vikas Tokas, Kulwant Khejroliya, Navdeep Saini, Vikas Mishra, Aakash Sudan, Unmukt Chand, Manan Sharma, Shivam Sharma, Milind Kumar.

With PTI inputs