Ranji Final: Karun Nair makes history as Karnataka extend lead

www.mangaloretoday.com

Mumbai, March 10, 2015: Karun Nair hit two consecutive fours off short deliveries to the square leg area to go from 244 to 252, and with it he registered the highest individual score by a Karnataka player in Ranji Trophy finals, surpassing Gundappa Viswanath’s 247 against Uttar Pradesh in the victorious 1977-78 campaign.

At the end of third day of the 2014-15 final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday (March 10), Nair was unbeaten on 310 – also the highest score by a Karnataka batsman against Tamil Nadu, surpassing K Jeshwant’s 259 not out in Coimbatore in December 1990. His knock had guided Karnataka to 618 for 7 in their first innings for a potentially match-wining lead of 484.

 

That two wickets fell after Tamil Nadu had gone barren for three sessions since reducing Karnataka to 84 for 5 on Monday morning had more to do with the tiredness of KL Rahul and a lazy shot from Shreyas Gopal than something spectacular from the bowlers.

The morning session followed the pattern established on Day 2. The Tamil Nadu bowlers trundled in, Nair and Rahul were untroubled, and the only difference was that the scoring rate had picked up noticeably.

Rahul was still not entirely comfortable while running, but even while he jogged or walked, Karnataka were running away with the match. About the only time Tamil Nadu made an impact was in the eighth over of the day, when Aswin Crist pinged Nair on the fingers with a shorter one. There followed a brief stoppage while Nair got his finger looked at, but once play resumed, it was business as usual. As if to emphasise that, Rahul hit Crist over wide long-on and then over square leg for two sixes in his next over, the second one taking him past 150.

Rahul made 188 and was caught at long-on off Malolan Rangarajan in the sixth over after lunch. He spent 527 minutes at the crease, adding 386 runs with Nair in 111.5 overs. It was Karnataka’s best for the sixth wicket in the championship, going past the 328 runs Manish Pandey and CM Gautam put up against Odisha in 2010-11.

The partnership was also the highest for the season, ahead of the 379 put up by Mandeep Singh and Yuvraj Singh for Punjab against Saurashtra in Rajkot in the league stages. It took Karnataka a step closer towards defending the Ranji Trophy.

Soon after Rahul’s departure, Shreyas, trying to flick Aswin Crist, was caught behind on the leg side. R Vinay Kumar, the captain, however recognised that he needed to stay put at the crease to give Nair a fair chance to become the third batsman this season after Rahul and Andhra’s KS Bharat to make a triple-century, and he went about his job quite confidently.

Highest individual scores in Ranji finals before this clash
319: Gul Mohammad for Baroda v Holkar at Vadodara in 1946-47
288: Vijay Hazare for Baroda v Holkar at Vadodara in 1946-47
278: Vijay Merchant for Bombay v Holkar at Bombay in 1944-45
265: Ashok Mankad for Bombay v Delhi at Bombay in 1980-81

 

Courtesy: Wisden India