Hyderabad: When the Group ‘C’ Ranji Trophy match between Hyderabad and Kerala begins here at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here on Monday, the visitors will be eyeing an outright win, which would give them an outside chance of making it to the top two in the group and consequrntly, a shot at qualifying for the quarterfinals.
The Sachin Baby-led Kerala are currently sitting in the fifth spot, with 19 points from seven matches.
The hosts, sixth on the table (18 points from seven games), will be playing for pride. Akshath Reddy would be keen to lead his team to a win in their last match of the season.
However, an outright win in the match does not guarantee Kerala an stop in the top two.
For Kerala to leapfrog Jammu & Kashmir into second spot, they will need several other Group ‘C’ results in their favour — both J&K and Goa, who are also keen on a victory against Andhra, will need to lose their respective matches and remain stagnant on the points table for Kerala to make top two.
Kerala have two wins, two losses and three draws while Hyderabad have won just one match and drew all their other games in the season so far.
The teams:
Hyderabad: P. Akshath Reddy (captain), T. Suman, D.B. Ravi Teja, G.H. Vihari, Ahmed Quadri, B. Sandeep, Ashish Reddy, Amol Shinde, Habeeb Ahmed (wk), Alfred Absolem, M. Ravi Kiran, Mehdi Hasan, Anwar Ahmed Khan, Danny Derek Prince, Aniket.
Kerala: Sachin Baby (captain), Niklesh Surendran (wk), Jagadheesh V.A., Robert Fernandez, Rohan Prem, Anfal P.M,. Vinoo S. Manoharan, Sandeep Warrier, Prasanth Parameshwaran, P. Prasanth, Shahid C.P., Sreejith K.R., Niyas Nazar, Anthaf P.U.
