PUNE, Nov 11: Host's Maharashtra hold the aces, at least the ones that hold good psychologically, a two point lead and playing in home conditions, when they square-off with Saurashtra in the Cooch Behar Under-19 cricket tourney at the Nehru Stadium on Friday.Maharashtra until now have stood by their consistency. In the two matches they played against Mumbai and Gujarat, so far they have managed to gain the maximum out of the drawn ties - cashing in on the advantage of the first innings which leads to five points.However, for Saurashtra such was not the case. Beaten all ends up in their opener against Gujarat, they did well to reverse the debacle against Baroda leaving them with eight points to the ten the host's boast of.Saurashtra skipper Uday Karavadra will rely on the baby of the team, Nikhil Rathod who so far has been their run-getter with two 50's in their previous matches. Nikhil incidentally was an under-14 drafted into a higher grade and has proved his selection right with his bat.Jolly Jobanpudra and Sandeep Patel will share the new ball for the visitors, while Rakesh Dhruv will spearhead the spin department.The Maharashtra skipper Kapil Laghate who is in good nick with the bat will be looking forward for the similar show at home as well.The new-look state squad which started the season with 13 new names have done a good job so far and are all gear up for their first challenge at home.The TeamsMaharashtra: Kapil Laghate (capt), Virag Awate, Amit Kumbhare , Chetan Bhuimbhar, Sayed Khot, Nitin Dhatrak, Amit Misal, Aniruddha Harish Chandra, Kashinath Khadakikan, Agrani Bhosale, Nachiket Pingle, Haiish Ladkat, Amjad Sayed, Ajit Chavan, Rohan Dharwat, Ganesh Suryawanshi.Saurashtra: Uday Karavadra (cap), Prasad Joshi, Anand Davda, Nikhil Rathod, Rakesh Dhruv, Vijendra Gogda, Nilesh Rathod, Jolly Jobanpudra, Sandeep Patel, Bharath Parikh, Vijay Chauhan, Ashwin Choudhary, Sandeep Wadher, Mitul Mehta, Sandeep Dharajia.Manager: Mahesh Chauhan.Coach: Rajendrasingh.Umpires: Chandrakanth Mhase (Mumbai), J C Umrigar (Baroda).
