MYSURU: Karnataka picked up their first win of the Ranji Trophy season as they beat Tripura just after lunch on the fourth and final day at the SDNRW ground inside the University of Mysore campus. Coming into the match with just two points in as many games, they were under pressure not just to win, but to win big to kickstart their campaign. In the end, they achieved that objective as they picked up even the bonus point by enjoying an innings victory in unusually hot conditions for this time of year.
The win lifted them to fourth place, but they continue to trail Hyderabad, Saurashtra and Punjab in Group B. With just one game remaining before the break for the white-ball formats in the winter, Vinay Kumar and his charges know they have to use this as a platform to go on a winning run.
On a still largely good wicket for defensive batting on Thursday, the overnight Tripura batters had safely negotiated the first 30 minutes to raise visions of a famous draw against a fancied opponent. That's when V Vyshak, who was warming up with a medicine ball next to the dugout after play had commenced, produced the breakthrough.
It prompted an outpouring of relief through the home team. Manvanth Kumar got in on the act as well to nip the fightback. The pacers drew first blood for them before Shreyas Gopal picked up another fifer at this level to signal the end of the game. In the record books, it will say that Karnataka beat their opponents by an innings and 116 runs, dominating by any metric. But Kumar saw plenty of scope for improvement.
While the coach was happy with the win — "my first win also as a coach" — he was cognizant of the fact that they did struggle at times. "We could have done much better as a team," he said after the match. " The kind of standard we have as a Karnataka team, I think much better performance is expected from the players."
He was also slightly critical of the batting unit. "Felt like the batting was a bit defensive. We could have been a bit more attacking and put more pressure. They could have definitely played a bit more freely." However, he did qualify those comments by citing that the surface was hard for stroke-making. “But when I spoke to the batters, they said the pitch was not that easy. It was keeping low. With smaller teams like this (Tripura), they know their business and stick to the basics. That is why the batters felt it was not that easy to score runs,” Vinay said. “However, we can’t give that kind of excuse. We could have been a bit more aggressive, especially because we hadn’t won our previous two games."
The one big positive, according to the coach, was the way the youngsters stepped up when the occasion demanded them to. Manvanth Kumar (third match), Rohan Patil (second) and Aneeshwar Gautam (second) have all contributed with bat, ball or both over the last three matches. The former India cricketer said: "I'm really happy the way especially youngsters are performing for the team. And if this kind of culture, if we can bring it back, then I think there won't be any stop for Karnataka."
These youngsters will have to continue to keep performing this season if they are to at least emulate last season's red ball achievements when they reached the final.
Vihari out for the season
Hanuma Vihari, who joined Tripura last year, will continue to remain unavailable for them for the remainder of the season. Vihari has informed us that he will not play this season because of personal reasons," coach Satrajit Lahiri told reports after the game. "I don't know what the personal reasons are. It's a big blow because last season also he scored a lot of runs." Still only 33, Vihari, capped 16 times by India, featured in their first match of the season but had missed the last two games.
