Do or die match for Goa against Andhra

It will be a do or die battle for Goa when they take on lowly-placed Andhra Pradesh in their last Ranji Trophy Group C league match from Monday.

Porvorim (Goa): It will be a do or die battle for Goa when they take on lowly-placed Andhra Pradesh in their last Ranji Trophy?Group C league match here from Monday.

Goa, who pulled up a hard fought three-wicket win over Kerala to stay in contention for the knock-out stage, are placed fourth with 22 points from 7 matches. They need not only an outright win against Andhra but also have to hope that Jammu and Kashmir, who are placed second with 25 points, should not take first innings lead or win against Tripura. Goa have deep batting line-up and will once again depend on their top order batsman Amogh Dessai, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sagun Kamat and Rohit Asnodkar to live up to the challenge. All rounder Shadab Jakati, who has shone both with the bat and ball, was instrumental in their win against Kerala and will lead?the attack along with Amit Yadav and Harshad Gadekar, who also can chip in useful runs to live up to Goa`s expectation. Goa`s success will mainly depend on their medium pacers who have not lived up to the expectations and if they can get early wickets, they stand a good chance to win tomorrow. Andhra, who are placed second from the bottom, have 14 points from six matches and are out of contention for the knock-out stage. They are looking to upset the home team apple cart of qualifying for the next stage. So, the pressure is on the home team to perform if they are to make it to the next stage.