Goa to take on Haryana in Ranji Plate 'B' tie tomorrow

Margao, Nov 2 (UNI) Hosts Goa will begin their campaign in the four-day Ranji Plate 'B' cricket tie against Haryana without the service of main opening batsman Swapnil Asnodkar and medium pacer Saurab Bandekar at the MCC ground in south Goa tomorrow.

The duo, who played for the India Blue team in the N K P Salve Challenge Cricket Tournament at Ahmedabad recently, are nursing injuries. Rupesh Sarvankar and Shailesh Misquin have been included in their places.

Goa captain Jagdish Arun Kumar said his team was a well-balanced one and the players are good in their deparments.

''The absence of Asnodkar and Bandekar will be felt, but we have a well-balanced squad and there will be no effect on the team.'' He said the 18-day conditional coaching camp in Bangalore had helped the Goa team a lot, and had especially improved the fitness of the players. ''My first aim is to win the opening match and gain confidence, and then help the state team to be promoted to the Elite group from the present Plate group,'' Jagdish added.

The Goa team boasts of a strong batting line up in Jagdish, former Test wicket-keeper Ajay Ratra, Manoj Joglekar, all-rounder Shadab Jakati, Shailesh Misquin and Rohit Asnodkar. The bowling department too is good with medium pacer and all-rounder Robin D'souza, left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati, and off-spinner Aditya Angle.

Meanwhile, Haryana coach Ashwini Kumar said his team will go full throttle to win the match against Goa as it is a challenge before him to return back to the Elite group.

''Last year, we had not performed well and were relegated from the Elite group to the Plate group, having lost five matches out of seven. This season, we have come well prepared, and hope to perform well,'' he said.

The team is well-balanced with experienced all-rounder captain Joginder Sharma who played for India in the Twenty-20 world Cup, and the team's morale is high. ''We expect more from Joginder, Amit Mishra and other two expereinced new players -- Mithun Birala from Karnataka and Sunil Vishwanathan from Tamil Nadu,'' the coach said.

Sanjay Bhudwar, Jitender Billha and all-rounder Sachin Rana will take care of the pace attack, while the spin department will be overseen by Amit Mishra, Gaurav Vashitha and Priyank Hudda.

The Haryana coach said Goa is a good team. ''Every team in the tournament is strong,'' he said, adding that the wicket is little wet and will favour the team fielding first for the first one hour.

Earlier in the morning, both the teams had net practice at the stadium.

Teams from: Goa: Jagdish Arun Kumar( Captain), Rohit Asnodkar, Sagun Kamat, Manoj Joglekar, Ajay Ratra, Robin D'Suza, Shadab Jakati, Aditya Angle, Harshad Gadekar, Ryan D'Souza, Aniket Desai, Sahil Dhuri, Shailesh Misquin and Rupesh Sawaikar.

Haryana: Joginder Sharma (Captain), Priyank Hudda, Vishal Sahani, Jitendra Billha, Amardeep Sonkar, Abir Lavasa, Sanjay Bhuwar, Dhruva Singh, Amit Mishra, Sachin Rana, Ankit Rawat, Sandeep Singh, Sumit Sharma, Sunny Singh, Gaurav Vashitha, Mithur Birala and Sunil Vishwanathan.

UNI