Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 27
Midway during the Saurashtra chase, a simple tweet from the Karnataka camp left everyone amused and a bit baffled. Through its Twitter handle @RanjiKarnataka, Karnataka Ranji Team congratulated Cheteshwar Pujara: “Good half century from Che Pujara 53*(101b, 5x4s). Saurashtra need 114 from 72 with 2W. #KARvSAU #VHTrophy.”
Now, a 50 off over 100 balls can rarely be termed “good”, especially if the team needs 114 runs off 72 balls at that stage. Was the Karnataka Ranji team trolling the India No. 3? It’s impossible to say, but minutes later Pujara decided to drop his Test match batting cape and started to hit on the up.
Need for caution
As Saurashtra chased Karnataka’s 253 in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Pujara had to be cautious for most of his innings as his team had lost wickets regularly.
Pujara brought up his 50 with a late cut in the 38th over, but the team had been reduced to 135/8 by the end of 37th over. The innings was sauntering towards a slow end. In fact it was a procession of sorts. Samarth Vyas, Dharmendra Jadeja, Prerak Mankad and semifinal heroes Ravindra Jadeja and Arpit Vasavada all feel cheaply.
Then Pujara decided to attack. A late cut off Shreyas Gopal was followed by a cut off Prasidh Krishna. Suddenly the momentum began to shift. Karnataka, who had the match in the bag, began to flounder under this unexpected attack. For the first time in the match, Pujara had someone at the other end, Kamlesh Makvana, who was ready to stay on the wicket. A couple of edged boundaries from Makvana off consecutive deliveries raised cheers from the sparse crowd that had gathered to see current India stars, including Pujara, KL Rahul and Karun Nair, perform at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium.
Pujara decided to go for the broke and Karnataka seamer S Aravind bore the brunt of his assault. A back-of-length delivery was dispatched to the long-off fence for a six. The very next ball was squeezed to the square-leg boundary. Three balls later, Pujara pulled a slower delivery to the square-leg boundary. In all, he took 15 runs off this single over.
But the asking run rate continued to hover over 10 runs an over and the pressure finally caught up with the Saurashtra captain. Pujara was run-out by a direct hit from Karun Nair, the Karnataka captain. Karnataka then removed Shaurya Sanandia to win the Vijay Hazare Trophy by 41 runs.
Too many wickets
“I thought we had a fair chance with the way we started here today but middle-order was the phase where we didn’t bat well and we lost too many wickets in two-three overs,” Pujara later said. “So that was the reason I think we lost this game, otherwise 253 was really gettable on this wicket.” Nair said he was surprised to see Pujara’s acceleration late in the chase. “That guy surprised us suddenly. He just went after us and put us on the back-foot a little bit,” Nair said. “He played really well but we kept getting wickets at regular intervals so we were always in the game.”
Mayank shines
Mayank Agarwal constructed another significant innings to boost the Karnataka innings. Coming a day after he was snubbed by the national selectors for the tri-nation Twenty20 series in Sri Lanka, the Karnataka opener scored a stroke-filled 79-ball 90.
He struck up a crucial partnership of 131 runs for the third wicket with good friend R Samarth to prop up the innings after they were reduced to 5/2. Karnataka’s two superstars, Nair and Rahul, went back to the pavilion without scoring.
Steely knocks from Pavan Deshpande and Shreyas Gopal propelled the team’s total to 253.
Brief scores: Karnataka 252 all out in 45.3 overs (M Agarwal 90, P Deshpande 49; K Makvana 4/34); Saurashtra 212 all out in 46.3 overs (C Pujara 94; K Gowtham 3/27, Prasidh Krishna 3/37).
Aravind calls time on career
Karnataka’s left-arm seamer S Aravind has retired from cricket. The 33-year-old broke the news to his teammates last night. Aravind, who represented India in one T20I against South Africa in Dharamsala in 2015, said he did not want to block the path of a younger player. “I could have given another two-three years because of my fitness level. But I just wanted to give the youngsters a chance to prove themselves,” he said. Karnataka skipper Karun Nair said the team wanted to win the trophy for Aravind. “We wanted him to play, but you know it is his decision and we have to respect that and we all wish him the best,” he said. “When we got to know (about his retirement) we wanted to win it more for him and we are happy that we could do that.”
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