By IANS,
Bangalore : Karnataka will be strong favourites against Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy semifinal beginning at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here Sunday.
Karnataka have been in top form this season, steamrolling opponents on their way to the last four.
The team, a healthy mix of talented youngsters and experienced campaigners, has been led well by Rahul Dravid.
They won four league matches and reached the semifinals after managing the first-innings lead against Punjab in the quarterfinals at Mysore.
Seamers Abhimanyu Mithun, R. Vinay Kumar and Sreeshanth Aravind have been the backbone of Karnataka’s performance throughout the season. Debutant Abhimanyu has been impressive, taking 34 wickets in seven matches, four less than Vinay Kumar.
Manish Pandey, the first Indian to score a century in the Indian Premier League, has been a revelation with the bat, scoring 668 runs in seven matches. The rest of the batsmen — K.B. Pawan, Ganesh Satish, Amit Verma, Robin Uthappa and Rahul Dravid have also been in good form.
Karnataka, in fact, began their season with an emphatic victory against Uttar Pradesh at Merrut. Mithun rocked the home team with his lethal bowling, taking 11 wickets, including a hat-trick, in his debut match.
Uttar Pradesh, led by Mohammad Kaif, would be eager to avenge the loss. The batting has let them down on ocassion though the bowling attack comprising Praveen Kumar, R.P Singh, Piyush Chawla and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been their strength.