CHENNAI: Riding on Karun Nair's brilliant unbeaten century (100 batting), Vidarbha posted 264 for 6 in 89 overs against Tamil Nadu on the first day of the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy played at Nagpur on Saturday.
Karun once again proved why he is regarded as the 'best professional' player in the country with a creditable performance.
The former Karnataka batter was ably supported by Danish Maklewar, who made a useful contribution of 75 runs.
Karun, 33, notched up his 22nd first-class century. He had hit a century against Hyderabad in the previous round and it adds to his four consecutive hundreds in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Towards the end of the day, Karun teamed up with Harsh Dubey (19 batting), who batted fluently and a lot will depend upon this pair's ability to compliment each other for Vidarbha to post a challenging score on Sunday.
Opting to bat, Vidarbha's Atharva Taide and Aditya Thakare got out cheaply. Both fell to the visitors' new-ball pair of Mohammed and Sonu Yadav.
Then when the dangerous Dhruv Shorey was looking set to play a big innings, Vijay Shankar dismissed the Delhi-born player with a catch off his own bowling. "It was a fairly good day for us, keeping in mind the wicket and conditions. In the morning, there was some good purchase for our medium pacers and we got a couple of wickets. Then the wicket slowed down a bit and there was something for the batters and bowlers. One could call the surface a sporting one,'' Ajith Ram, TN spinner, told this daily.
But the day belonged to Karun, who was spot on in every department of batting. He showed how he could effortlessly adapt to different formats. "Pleased to get the hundred. Just played my natural game, applied and played according to the situation. Very happy to contribute for the team," Karun told this reporter.
Tamil Nadu captain R Sai Kishore employed six bowlers, the medium pacers and three spinners. M Mohammed, Sonu and Vijay were seamers, while the skipper himself, Ajith and Mohamed Ali were the spinners. Karun said he had to dig deep to score a hundred.
"It was challenging to play all the Tamil Nadu bowlers, they were disciplined. They bowled tight lines and there was not that much turn in the wicket, but one needed to concentrate as they bowled in the right areas,'' said Karun.
Karun's clear mindset is one of the reasons why he's tasting success. "No pressure absolutely. I am enjoying my game. As I said earlier, I am aware of my role and always try to play as per the situation. The clarity and the thought process in order to achieve what the team wants has helped me spend time in the middle," he explained.
Sai Kishore shuffled his bowlers in order to break the concentration of Karun, but failed to do so. "We tried our best to break Karun's concentration, but he was stubborn. Towards afternoon, the wicket had become slightly easy to play. Our spinners tried their best, but there was no turn. I had to just rely on the lengths and angles. Tomorrow (Sunday) morning it will be crucial as there will be something for the fast bowlers and we hope to make inroads," said Ajith.