Karun Nair was very generous with his time on Thursday. Usually one to shy away from interactions, Nair didn’t show signs of nervousness and haste. Instead, he slowed the clock, trying best to describe what his mates had miraculously achieved at the Karnail Singh stadium.
Karnataka had posted a ten-wicket win over Railways to come away with seven points. This, in a contest which only saw only 190 overs bowled in four days, and also witnessed the eight-time champions grappling to save face.
“First of all, I am just happy that we were able to scrape through and get the lead,” said Nair. “We put ourselves in a very bad position and then Sharath Srinivas came to our rescue. It was tough for him because he waited for five games and immediately came up with this effort here. That was brilliant. He is the reason we were able to take the lead. But (K) Gowtham was special too. That 40 (41) was crucial.”
Karnataka, in pursuit of overhauling Railways’ first-innings tally of 182, were far left-field at one stage. The narrative took a favourable turn only after Srinivas and Gowtham added 64 runs. Even then they were nine runs short. Srinivas and Prateek Jain subsequently carried them over. Three points was a luxury at that stage.
“Honestly, there is not much to take away from this game,” said Nair when asked about the batting unit’s troubles. “We chased down the target with no loss so that’s one (positive) I suppose. It shows that we can get a good start. In the next game too we would like to get a good start. If we can manage that in the first innings, it’ll be great. We need to get big scores on board. It’s time we execute this. It’s high time we delivered. It's time for the batsmen to do more. The bowlers have bailed us out on far too many occasions,” he added.
Speaking of bowlers, Jain picked up six wickets in the game and Mithun finished with seven, but it was Ronit More’s six-wicket haul in the second innings which made the win a reality. “Ronit was brilliant today. He didn’t let the batsmen settle down for once, and the energy was great. Our bowlers were exceptional. We know their batting line-up isn’t great but we still needed to get them out,” said Nair.
Meanwhile, More said he was delighted with his match-winning effort. "The wicket was keeping low for the fast bowlers if you hit the right areas. Given the fact that we had lost so much time due to bad weather, we decided to go all out on the last day. We knew we would have about 36 overs to get them out. Yere (Goud) sir was very helpful. He had told us that the wicket will help fast bowlers, so we had to stick to our basic plan and keep it tight. We didn't have to try anything different. Throughout the season I have been bowling well, but I was short of wickets. This is a crucial match and I think I got the right momentum to carry forward."