Karnataka Shocked Out!

(Copied from my other blog where it was posted on 04-01-2011)

The brittle batting that was worrying Karnataka Coach Sanath Kumar all this season, finally reached its nadir at Vadodara against Baroda. Karnataka were shocking in their batting and were bundled out for 107 and 88 and lost to Baroda in the Semifinals of 2010-11 Ranji Trophy.

Baroda Cricket Association shifted the match to a new ground from the regular ground as they were wary of Karnataka's seam attack, against which they probably would have had no chance. They played it smart as the host organisation and made full use of the privilege. By holding the match at a venue that was nothing but a dust bowl, they gave themselves 50% chances of winning which was much better than no chance at all.

Karnataka team arrived at Baroda 2 days prior to the match and found out to their surprise that the match is not being played at the regular venue! Karnataka Coach said their board did not inform them at all about this venue change. Certianly, not an auspicious beginning for Kumble and Co. at the helm of KSCA.

None of the Karnataka batsmen managed to put up a fight. They did not apply themselves at all and some even got out to loose shots. Baroda did not perform any better in their first innings either. It was the captain's knock from Pinal Shah which gave them the lead of 46 runs.

But Karnataka's total capitulation in the second innings surprised me. By now they knew the pitch. A better performance was expected. But they just disintegrated like a torpedoed ship and were all out for 88. That left Baroda a target of 43 which they achieved but not before losing 3 wickets.

All this season Karnataka's batsmen were inconsistent. Some of them boosted their averages by scoring tons in the second innings when the opposition team was just going through the motion.

Stuart Binny played one vital knock against Himachal Pradesh and after that all he did was pile up runs when the fate of the match was already decided. Ganesh Satish scored a decent fifty in the first match of the season against Punjab and was a total flop thereafter. He was the star last season. He even bagged a pair in the QF.

Manish Pandey shone brightly in the first half of the tournament with 2 qualty centuries but he faded away as the knockout matches started. He too was guilty of throwing away good starts. KB Pawan was a total flop as opener.

Then there is our great opener Robin Uthappa! He smashed 149 in the first match against Punjab. And after that ran out of steam. he failed to provide the team good starts. Couple of times failed to build on good starts and overall he was disappointing. He even blamed the pitch for the semifinal match. How is that he did not perform when the pitch was good in other matches? Uthappa has lost the batting touch. Hope he gets it back and entertains us in the next season. Also hoping that he controls his obesity problems.

Only Amith Verma and wicket keeper batsman CM Gautham performed creditably. Both played under tight situations and came out trumps. Though Amit is guilty of throwing away starts on a regular basis, Gautam though not his fault often ran out of partners as he comes to bat at no.6. Only these two were good as far as the batting was concerned.

Bowlers were top class. One can say that only because of its bowlers Karnataka reached thus far. Even if they had 120-130 to defend in the Semifinal, I am sure they would have made a match of it. But 43 was too small a target. Vinay Kumar lead the side with purpose but his batsmen let him down. He missed 2 matches because of national duty and picked up 19 wickets. Abhimanyu Mithun scalped 24 and Sreentah Aravind took 26 wickets. But the leading wicket taker was the old warhorse Sunil Joshi. He ended the season with a commendable tally of 32 wickets.

Baroda have shocked the last years runners up and have made it to the finals of 2010-11 Ranji Trophy. Congratulations to them and special congratulations to: Murtuza Vohora (5 wickets in Karnataka's first innings), Pinal Shah (scored 83 in Baroda's first innings, the next highest score of the match was35), Bhargav Bhat (5 wickets in Karnataka's second Innings and 8 wickets in the match) and Swapnil Singh (5 wickets in Karnataka's second Innings.