Based on the quality of the sides and the form, if Mumbai had to make it past Karnataka and into the semifinals, it would have had to play out of its skins and hope that its opponent had a forgettable outing.
But the miracle wasn’t to happen . Ever since winning the toss, Karnataka put its stranglehold on the match. Captain R. Vinay Kumar's hat-trick in the first three overs put Mumbai right on the back foot and Karnataka didn't lose its grip even for a session. Its dominance was complete with a memorable innings-and-20-run victory at the stroke of tea on Day 4 at the VCA Stadium.
‘Very good side’
Besides making it to the semifinal, Vinay Kumar was pleased about doing a Mumbai on Mumbai over the course of the match.
“They are a very good side. Knowing them, once we are on top of them we need to make sure that we stay there. We shouldn’t allow them to come back in the game,” he said. “We batted like that and didn’t give any chance for them to come back in the game. In the second innings, we thought they might come hard at us. But when we saw their approach we thought we shouldn’t give too many runs and we need to just concentrate on bowling in the right areas.”
‘Defeat hurts’
Mumbai captain Aditya Tare was disappointed that Mumbai's topsy-turvy season culminated in an annihilating loss.
“Every defeat for me hurts. It is something that stays with you forever. We lost to them the last time we played against them. And it was quite similar. We had a bad first innings then and we have had a bad first innings this game as well,” he said.
“[It] wasn’t a convincing Mumbai performance throughout the season, barring the Tripura game. Barring that we were hot and cold.”
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