A power-packed Punjab will take on Delhi, the only unbeaten team of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in this edition, at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium here on Saturday.
The Yash Dhull-led side is coming into the top four, winning six out of six games, while Mandeep Singh’s tribe never looked back after a loss in the first game against Saurashtra and has since won all seven games.
Dhull has been leading Delhi from the front, contributing 202 runs at a strike rate of 131.36 and an average of 50.5.
But it has been Suyash Sharma’s impressive run this year, that began from IPL 2023, which makes Delhi a team to beat. The leg-spinner is the second-highest wicket-taker with 16 scalps. His miserly bowling and wicket-taking ability has also helped the rest of the bowlers, and the batters, to reap rewards.
And it’ll take someone like Abhishek Sharma to counter-attack Delhi’s bowling. Having scored 408 runs in eight outings, the Punjab opener is striking at 198.05 in this tournament, at an average of 51.
The rest of the batters have also followed the hard-hitting template in this tournament.
The bowlers have done decently as well for Punjab with Harpreet Brar, Sidharth Kaul, and Mayank Markande consistently chipping in with wickets. However, Arshdeep Singh has been a bit underwhelming so far, having taken six wickets in seven games and conceding 7.41 runs an over.
Both teams have a chance to book a place in the final which neither of them has done in the last five years.
On Saturday morning, the contest between how the Delhi bowlers operate against the hard-hitting Punjab batters will decide which team finally manages to get closer to the trophy.
