MAR Last Five Matches: W W W W W (Avg Score For 107, Avg Score Against 79)
AUK Last Five Matches: L W W L W (Avg Score For 96, Avg Score Against 99)
Captain: Haroon Mughal
Wicketkeeper: John Grima
Projected Top Four: Nowell Khosla, Zeeshan Khan, Fanyan Mughal, Haroon Mughal
Projected Opening Bowlers: Noshair Akhter, Waseem Abbas
Spin Options: Sidharth Anand
MARSA Key Players:
Nowell Khosla, right handed opening batsman, natural strokemaker, second highest run scorer in the previous edition amassing 235 runs including 21 maximos. Has had an ordinary tournament with the bat so far scoring just 63 runs in five innings, but is in good form with the ball scalping seven victims at a miserly economy rate of six.
Zeeshan Khan, one of the top players for Marsa, is fearless and loves to take on the new ball bowlers, Top run scorer for Marsa with 172 runs from six matches with 14 LONG maximos.
Niraj Khanna, right-handed middle-order batsman has racked up 119 runs from five innings including a crafty half century and was named man of the match for this effort.
Fanyan Mughal, right-handed batsman, left arm fast bowler, death over specialist, scored 164 runs at a SR of 208 and picked up seven wickets in the previous edition. Has picked up five wickets from six matches this time around.
Waseem Abbas, national team opening bowler, gets good movement off the seam, his height helps extract good bounce off the pitch that troubles batsmen. He was the hero for his side in the opening game of the season hitting 13 runs from three balls to take Marsa over the line. He is also the top wicket taker for Marsa with eight scalps from six matches.
Captain: Sujesh Appu
Wicketkeeper: Eldhose Mathew
Projected Top Four: Samuel Stanislaus, Ciril Mathew, Basil George, Al Ameen Abdul
Projected Opening Bowlers: Sujesh Appu, Justin Shaju
Spin Options: Samuel Stanislaus
ATLAS UTC KNIGHTS Key Players:
Basil George, powerhouse of AUK, has the ability to smash all around the park, hammered 196 runs at a strike rate of 192 in December 2020. Started off well, scoring 30 off 15 balls in the only game he played on Wednesday.
Samuel Stanislaus, Knights Mr Dependable, leading run-scorer in the previous edition with 339 runs to his name, hammered 26 HUGE maximos, considered the best Knights fielder, top scored for AUK on Monday racking up 57 runs from two games.
Justin Shaju, one to watch with the ball, can swing the ball around at a decent pace, picked up seven wickets in the previous edition with best figures of 3-24. Looked sharp with the ball picking up two wickets and conceding under six runs an over, has also mustered 45 runs with the bat.
Ciril Mathew, right-handed top order batsman who looked at ease with the bat on Monday scoring 38 runs from two games. Currently top scorer for AUK with 59 runs from four innings.
Bose Paul, big hitting all-rounder, didn't get to bat much previously but finished as leading wicket taker for AUK with nine scalps from 10 matches, top wicket taker for AUK picking up four scalps in four games.
Reigning champs Marsa showed their class in two processions against a shell-shocked AUM on Monday. Atlas UTC Knights are a step up in class and went unbeaten in the group stages last season before losing the final to Marsa. MAR bowlers in particular were right on the money bowling as many as 54 dot balls in the two matches yesterday and they were equally good with the bat scoring over 60% of their runs in boundaries.
Last time they met: MAR 119 def AUK 84 (4 Dec 2020)
Match Prediction: AUK beat Marsa twice last season in the group stages, but came unstuck in the all-important final. MAR are in commanding form and could remain unbeaten in the group stages with six straight wins.