A crucial drop catch and poor bowling in the first essay cost his team the match against Saurashtra, Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar at the conclusion of the Ranji Trophy contest.
In Saurashtra’s first innings, captain Jaydev Shah was dropped on 25 by Karun Nair, and he went on to make 97. Saurashtra recorded 316, which proved to be a match-winning total on a tough Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium pitch.
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“If we had taken those half-chances in the first innings, we could have won. We also didn’t bowl well in the first innings. We conceded 100 runs too many, which proved to be very costly,” Vinay said here on Saturday.
Difficult pitch
Asked if the pitch was less than ideal for first-class cricket, Vinay replied, “I don’t want to comment on the pitch. The game was televised live, so everyone would have watched how the pitch behaved. I was very happy that we scored 91 batting fourth on this difficult pitch.”
Arpit Vasavada, who led the Saurashtra side on the field in the absence of the injured Jaydev Shah, explained that the win against a strong side like Karnataka gave his side a mighty fillip. “This is a big boost for us. Outright wins like this will help us finish in the top-five and qualify for the knockout rounds,” Vasavada said.
On the 179-run target set for Karnataka, Vasavada said, “We knew it would be very difficult for Karnataka. The aim was to take one-two early wickets to really pile on the pressure, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Both Vinay and Vasavada sought to play down the verbal spat between Karnataka wicketkeeper-batsman B. R. Sharath and Saurashtra’s Sheldon Jackson, saying that “it’s all part of the game.”
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