It was after a defeat by a margin of 5 runs that the Vinay Kumar led Karnataka had to bow out from the Ranji Trophy 2017-18. In the post-match press conference, the Karnataka skipper highlighted on the game and said that his team did not deserve to reach the finals. Karnataka lost the nerves at the fag end of the match to finally being knocked out of the championship.
"If you ask me, the season is successful only if you win the Ranji Trophy," Vinay said. "Otherwise, even if you make the final, if you don't win, you should treat that as not qualified. That's how I look at it. We had many advantages while coming into this game. But unfortunately, we didn't capitalise on them” said the Karnataka skipper.
When play began, Karnataka made a point of setting right mistakes from the previous day and avoided going into their shell. Vinay scored a brisk 36 and along with Shreyas Gopal, he turned the strike over regularly, ran hard between the wickets, and found timely boundaries to bring belief back into the Karnataka camp.
"Bad shot from my side," Vinay said. "Maybe I should have let the ball go. And (Abhimanyu) Mithun again, when we required nine runs maybe we could have played a little more sensibly, both of us.
"Credit has to go to their bowlers. They bowled in channels where we are not comfortable. Definitely, this is a let down from our batting group, because 200 runs in the fourth innings was not that difficult on this wicket actually. Most of the batsmen got out to bad shots. And the way we played, I think we deserved not to be in the finals."
"Definitely, the top-order batsmen getting scores it's a very rare sight for me as captain," Vinay said. "Scoring 500-plus runs most of the games, don't think we have done it so consistently. That is a big advantage, and if you see the fighting spirit from the lower-order batsmen, that is a big takeaway from the season.
"These are the guys to take Karnataka forward for long years. They have a very bright future where they can go and play for the country. I think they need to learn to perform in these kind of high-pressure matches. It's not about the league games. If they want to play the next level, they need to show it in these sort of matches. Many positives, but I always look at the big games."
Vidharbha on the back of their victory will now face Delhi in the Ranji Trophy 2017-18 finale.
