Among the clamour surrounding India's tumultuous Australian tour, and under-19 World Cup victory, Karnataka's hat-trick win in the South Zone one-day tournament, perhaps, did not get due attention. That the triumphant march was mainly scripted by a group of youngsters made it all the more remarkable.

With Rahul Dravid not taking part in the championship held in Chennai due to an injury, the responsibility to lead the side fell on the shoulders of C Raghu. From that moment, it was clear that the onus would be on the younger names to carry the State's campaign forward.

They did that job exceptionally well and it was reassuring to see Karnataka winning the tournament in a convincing fashion even without Dravid, Robin Uthappa and VS Thilak Naidu in their ranks. It was a telling statement about the State's bench strength, and will provide the mandarins with a lot of confidence in the coming season.

After a modest Ranji season, coach Vijay Bharadwaj too might have felt a little bit pressure on him, and that he had to guide a group of youngsters only added to the burden. But the former India batsman was happy and relieved that his wards produced a superb show.

Sustained show

"There were seven youngsters in the side, four from under-19 and three from under-22. They maintained their performance throughout the tournament and it was a terrific win for us, especially considering that it was our hat-trick win. Another point that I want to emphasise is that it was a total team effort.
"If you look at the win, there was contribution from all the players — Vinay, Raghu, Akhil, Chipli, Chougule. All of them chipped in when the team wanted them. It was tremendous effort from these boys. It is a good sign for Karnataka for the future," Bharadwaj said.

For the last couple of years, Raghu has been a vital cog in the Karnataka scheme of things. It was in the Subbiah Pillai Trophy held in Hyderabad in 2006 that Raghu provided glimpses of his talent. His ability to score in the lower middle-order and take wickets at crucial junctures with his effective off-spin has come handy for Karnataka in many matches from then on.

However, captaining a side in an important championship was untested waters for him, but Raghu proved his credentials with able leadership throughout the tournament. He also came up with some important contributions lower down the order and with the ball. Understandably, Raghu was elated over team's title win and his performance.

"It was a fine win. The victory was sweeter as the team was mainly consisted of youngsters. We batted and bowled to our full potential and there was contribution from all the players and that was the most heartening feature of this side's win," Raghu said.

"Personally too, the tournament was good one for me. I batted lower down the order this time, so I had to score quickly in most of the matches and I am happy that I was able to respond to that challenge," he said.
Then there were vital contributions from Bharath Chipli, who slammed two consecutive hundreds at the pole position, and all-rounder B Akhil. Deepak Chougule too underlined his value with a gutsy hundred in the final that led Karnataka to their third successive title.

However, even amidst that collective performance one man’s head stood a bit above the rest. R Vinay Kumar has been the State’s pace spearhead for a while now, besides being a handy late order batsman. But the Chennai event saw Vinay emerging as a useful all-rounder as he fully exploited his promotion in the batting order to number four.

‘Taken aback’

“When the coach and captain first told us about the change in the batting order, I was a little taken aback. But then it was an exciting challenge for me to match up. Fortunately, I was able to live to the faith both of them had vested on me. The performance gave me a lot of confidence and I want to capitalise on it in the coming days, especially in the IPL,” Vinay said. 

Bharadwaj explained the move to promote Vinay in the batting order. “We all know Vinay is a hard hitter, and the way he plays his cricket. He is a gutsy character. The move to promote him was intended to exploit the Power Plays. The experiment came off well.”

Perhaps, that mindset to experiment and change is what Karnataka cricket needs at the moment.