Railways vs Bengal. A little bad blood from their previous encounter exists, because of the Mankading incident. Bengal are boosted by the coming of Wriddhiman Saha, but once again, miss batting stalwart Manoj Tiwary. He seems injured a lot more than some fast bowlers near India selections.
Mumbai vs Pune (Maharashtra)- a Maharashtra derby, as Gautam Bhimani pointed out in his show Cricket India, on one of the Star channels. Pity this derby spans a massive state, or at least half- the state has three teams across its width- Mumbai, Maharashtra and Vidarbha! Maharashtra have a very strong batting lineup, but Mumbai's bowling, now bolstered by the return of Iqbal Abdulla (who won a game against Gujarat and took the team to the knockouts), may be tough for them. If Mumbai can fix their lately-misfiring batting, they're in with a chance to get ahead.
Karnataka vs Uttar Pradesh has plenty of India prospects in action- although Karnataka will miss Stuart Binny. That new bowler Sharath is doing well this season, and Mithun seems to have improved a lot too- but Vinay Kumar is struggling to take wickets. Their spinner, who will it be? KPA has been poor throughout all the chances he got for Karnataka, while Ronit More is shaping up nicely, although too green. UP's batting is vulnerable this season, so Karnataka need to lay out a greentop for their bowlers to run through the visiting side, while ensuring they don't lose too many wickets. Manish Pandey needs to have a good game,
North Zone derby at Vadodara, as J&K play Punjab. I wonder what the Moti Bagh stadium will have in store for the game, as they're reputed for rank turners for Baroda's home games- the kind where Yusuf Pathan, Bharghav Bhatt and the Singhs get plenty of wickets. Parvez Rassool, struggling to get wickets this season, will want that kind of pitch, but neither batting side would want it- less so J&K. Punjab's JJ has pulled ahead from an early slump to race ahead in the runs tally, but Mandeep Singh, their best batsman, has been off colour this season. They'll need their strong seam attack of Sid Kaul, Sandeep Sharma and VRV Singh to work for them. Besides, Harbhajan Singh is back, and he too will want the stereotypical Moti Bagh pitch to work for his team.