Before the start of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, Karnataka’s middle-order batsman Karun Nair has endured a long lean patch with the bat. Runs were scarce and his place in the playing XI was under scrutiny.
If anyone could have helped, it was only him. Over the past few weeks, the 29-year-old has not only helped his cause but has proved to be a vital cog in Karnataka’s march into the semifinals, where they play Vidarbha on Saturday.
In seven matches thus far, he has scored 218 runs, including two half- centuries to emerge the highest run-getter for the former champions. Two of his best innings of the tournament 44 and 55 not out respectively have come against Bengal and in both innings, he displayed ample composure under pressure.
But his innings in the quarterfinals against Bengal has been his standout performance of the season thus far.
Speaking about his 29-ball-55 which included three maximums and four hits to the fence, Karun said, “It always feels good to be batting well. When I walked in, the team needed someone to accelerate and I was glad to provide that impetus. The form is coming along well and I’m determined to help Karnataka win more games. The onus is on seniors like me to take the team forward and I’m ready to do that. Now focused on the semifinal.”
Dwelling on the thrilling Super Over win, he pointed out, “It’s an amazing win. It looked like we would lose the game but we held our nerve brilliantly to push the game into a Super Over and then emerge triumphant. Such kind of things happen in T20 and today was one of those days.”
Backing the young and inexperienced pace attack, among whom Vidhyadhar Patil and Vyshak Vijaykumar were expensive on the day, Karun said, “Most of our fast bowlers are in their early days of senior national domestic cricket. It’s understandable if they feel the nerves. But credit to them, they bowled well today. Even Vidhyadhar, despite going for 19 runs in 5 balls, held his nerve well in the final ball. He bowled to his field.”
The match went into the Super Over courtesy a run-out of Akash Deep by Manish Pandey off the last ball of the match. Both Karun, who took the catch of Kaif Ahmed at long-off in the Super Over did a commendable job on the field.
Heaping praise on the skipper, Karun explained, “With the match in the balance, you want the ball to go to the best fielder in the side and that’s what happened. Manish has been doing such brilliant things on the field for many years and he pulled it off again under pressure. He had to hit the stumps and he did it. It was simply an exceptional piece of fielding. Manish has been working hard consistently on his batting and fielding and both came off well today.”
If anyone could have helped, it was only him. Over the past few weeks, the 29-year-old has not only helped his cause but has proved to be a vital cog in Karnataka’s march into the semifinals, where they play Vidarbha on Saturday.
In seven matches thus far, he has scored 218 runs, including two half- centuries to emerge the highest run-getter for the former champions. Two of his best innings of the tournament 44 and 55 not out respectively have come against Bengal and in both innings, he displayed ample composure under pressure.
But his innings in the quarterfinals against Bengal has been his standout performance of the season thus far.
Speaking about his 29-ball-55 which included three maximums and four hits to the fence, Karun said, “It always feels good to be batting well. When I walked in, the team needed someone to accelerate and I was glad to provide that impetus. The form is coming along well and I’m determined to help Karnataka win more games. The onus is on seniors like me to take the team forward and I’m ready to do that. Now focused on the semifinal.”
Dwelling on the thrilling Super Over win, he pointed out, “It’s an amazing win. It looked like we would lose the game but we held our nerve brilliantly to push the game into a Super Over and then emerge triumphant. Such kind of things happen in T20 and today was one of those days.”
Backing the young and inexperienced pace attack, among whom Vidhyadhar Patil and Vyshak Vijaykumar were expensive on the day, Karun said, “Most of our fast bowlers are in their early days of senior national domestic cricket. It’s understandable if they feel the nerves. But credit to them, they bowled well today. Even Vidhyadhar, despite going for 19 runs in 5 balls, held his nerve well in the final ball. He bowled to his field.”
The match went into the Super Over courtesy a run-out of Akash Deep by Manish Pandey off the last ball of the match. Both Karun, who took the catch of Kaif Ahmed at long-off in the Super Over did a commendable job on the field.
Heaping praise on the skipper, Karun explained, “With the match in the balance, you want the ball to go to the best fielder in the side and that’s what happened. Manish has been doing such brilliant things on the field for many years and he pulled it off again under pressure. He had to hit the stumps and he did it. It was simply an exceptional piece of fielding. Manish has been working hard consistently on his batting and fielding and both came off well today.”
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