MYSURU: Rohan Patil, Karun Nair and KV Aneesh struck timely but contrasting half-centuries on Day Two of Karnataka's Ranji Trophy encounter against Tripura on Tuesday. For a period of time across the first two sessions, the hosts' batting mirrored life at the University of Mysore campus, the venue: slow, unhurried and genteel.
The ball was seldom treated with disdain, and the batters eschewed multiple opportunities to take the aerial route. After picking up only two points in as many matches — coach R Vinay Kumar had called this a 'must-win game' at the end of Day One — there was renewed focus on giving themselves the best chance of an outright win to get their campaign back on track.
That's why their approach resembled 'bat once, bat big'. Even though they lost more wickets than they would have wanted at close of play — they were 297/7 when stumps were drawn on a day filled with azure skies — they have put themselves in position to walk away with full points.
Patil epitomised this approach as he mixed caution with some proactive decision-making before he was dismissed for a 130-ball 72 (9x4). While he was watchful in the first hour — he showed a good understanding of where his off-stump was -- he opened up the off-side with some punchy cuts when the bowlers erred in length.
It was just the start they had needed after losing Mayank Agarwal late on Monday as well as V Vyshak, the nightwatchman, early on Tuesday. At a time when the state team had lost three run-machines — KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal and R Smaran — to India A duties for the majority of this campaign, they needed somebody else to step up, and the 25-year-old admirably did what was required of him.
For a man playing in only his second red-ball game and third overall for Karnataka, he showed some gumption and application. What's more impressive is that he's generally considered as a white-ball specialist — his Karnataka debut had come during the 2022 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy — but the team management and the selectors had no choice but to parachute him into the XI for his debut against Saurashtra last week when Smaran was called up to the India 'A' team.
"There's additional responsibility when the seniors are not in the squad," Patil said post the day's play. "I'm very happy with the knock. I wanted to score because I didn't score a lot during my debut game against Saurashtra last week." The left-hander was 'blank' on the morning of the Saurashtra game, but a little pep talk from the coach helped him. "I was blank because it was going to be my debut, but the coach came and asked me to play my natural game and that helped me."
On his knock, he said that as the opposition didn't bowl anything full to him, he had to improvise (that's why there were runs through square on the off-side). Even though he's more of a household name in white-ball cricket — he was the second-leading run-scorer in this year's edition of Maharaja Trophy — Patil himself doesn't wish to be boxed like that. "Nothing like that, I have played red-ball cricket at all age-group levels." After losing a few years, Patil is determined to make up for lost time.
Brief scores: Tripura 194 in 82 ovs vs Karnataka 297/7 in 95 ovs (Patil 72, Aneesh 68, Gautam 33, Nair 63, Abhijit 3/59, Sandip 2/83, Parvez 2/74).
