BENGALURU: The race for quarterfinal slots in Ranji Trophy for teams in Group A and B has come down to the wire, with the last round of games scheduled to start on Wednesday in various parts of the country. Three teams — Gujarat (29 points), Saurashtra (28) and Andhra (27) — are assured of places in the knockouts.
Karnataka is a strong contender for one of the remaining two berths.
Karun Nair & Co, who is currently fifth on 25 points, need to collect first-innings lead or beat Baroda in their last game at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. One point might also do, but with that, they have to see how things pan out in several other matches.
“We’ll look to get an outright victory. If it is not possible, then we will go for the first-innings lead. But at the start of the game, we can’t go in thinking of first-innings lead. We have to play well on all four days,” Nair said.
Compared to the last few years, Karnataka has been somewhat inconsistent this season. They have conceded first-innings lead against relatively weaker opponents like Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Considering those blips, collecting three points against Baroda will not be a walk in the park.
Karnataka has to deliver in all departments. Their bowlers, primarily pacers, have done well so far and the attack has been strengthened further with the return of a fully fit Prasidh Krishna. But the batting unit has failed to impress.
In seven matches so far, only Ravikumar Samarth has hit a century. Devdutt Padikkal has been among the runs too. But KV Siddharth (85 runs in three matches) and Dega Nischal (65 in three) have been below-par. They even tried Rohan Kadam, but 150 runs in four games led to his omission, opening the door for Nischal in this game.
However, the biggest concern is Nair’s form. The captain has been dismissed for less than 25 in eight of his 10 innings. Like him, many Karnataka batsmen have started off well, but failed to convert those efforts into meaningful scores, which has become a subject of discussion.
“Everyone’s batting well. It’s just about converting those 20s into bigger scores so that the team benefits. A lot of us are getting 20s or 30s, but we are not converting those. It’s really important. We’ve spoken about it. Everyone’s trying to score those runs,” said Nair.
“I haven’t converted as much I could have or would want to. Now, it’s the business end of the tournament. It’s a good time to start doing that.”
Baroda, on the other hand, might have already been knocked out of the competition with just 14 points from seven games, but they will be looking to end their season on a high.
They have proven players, including skipper Krunal Pandya, Kedar Devdhar, Lukman Meriwala and Anureet Singh, who can break Karnataka’s heart in the four-day encounter.