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Confident Karnataka take on Goa

A demoralised Goa and a confident Karnatka go head to head in a one day limited overs game for the Subbaiah Pillai Trophy to be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Sunday.

Though karnataka is going into the match, like in the last couple of years, without its star players, the return of former international David Johnson has bolstered its medium pace attack. Johnson is returning to the team after nearly two years thanks to an injury, and seems certain to play as the Karnataka pace attack has been depleted with its leading bowlers resting ahead of the Australian tour.

Karnataka will be going into the match without the services of eight leading players-- Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Dodda Ganesh, Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi, Rahul Dravid, Vijay Bharadwaj and J Arun Kumar.

Karnataka coach B Raghunath exuded confidence of doing well. "We will not be taking the opponents lightly and we will play to our potential", he added.

The home team is eager to earn full points to make sure that it gets into the Super League this time also.

Goa, which had failed to win even one match in the previous season, is hoping to improve on that record despite ceding the home advantage.

Karnataka had thrashed Kerala earlier by seven wickets while Goa faced an ignominous nine-wicket defeat at the hands of Hyderabad in its league opener. Goa had suffered an innings defeat in three days in the Ranji match, while Karnataka had scored an emphatic victory over Kerala.

The one-day match on Sunday will be followed by the four-day Ranji match beginning Monday.

The teams:

Karnataka: Sujith Somasundar (captain), Rowland Barrington, A Vijay, V S Thilak Naidu, G K Anil Kumar, Somashekhar Siruguppi, Anand Yalvigi, G N Umesh, Mansoor Ali Khan, K N Ramesh, Vijay Madiyalkar, Mithun Beerala, David Johnson.

Goa: Prashanth Kakode (captain), Shadab Jakati, Nilesh Naik, Sagun Kamat, Sachin Upadhye, Saby Fernandes, Rajesh Naik, Khalid Saiyed, Nneetin Kalekar, Dhiraj Narvekar, Damodar Redkar, Kushesh Desai, Rajesh Ghodge, Vivekanand Kolambkar, Milind Chavan, Peter John Rodrigues, Dhananjay Patil and Mohammed Ali.