Little trouble in getting to treble

Karnataka were almost home and dry after Railways were all out for a paltry 157 in 47.4 overs on a two-paced Gardens wicket. But the underdogs fought back brilliantly, taking the first five Karnataka wickets for just 47 runs. In-form Robin Uthappa started off well with back-to-back fours off Anureet Singh in the first over of the chase.

Difficult start

His opening partner Mayank Agarwal then clobbered Krishnakant Upadhyay for a couple of boundaries in the very next over and Karnataka raced to 21 for no loss in quick time. But Uthappa’s dismissal to an outswinger from Upadhyay started the slide as Agarwal, Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey and Ganesh Satish departed inside just 29 balls. Railways suddenly sniffed an unlikely victory. They, however, had very little to bowl with. Karnataka basically needed just one decent partnership, and the impressive KL Rahul and Karun Nair provided that with a 66-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Rahul survived a very confident leg before shout from Karn Sharma when he was on 12 but umpire C Shamshuddin turned it down and Railways didn’t have another opportunity till the 21-year-old played a little early and was caught and bowled by Chanderpal Saini for 38. By then, the danger was averted. The youngster was ready to bide his time, playing 72 balls and looked very organised throughout.

Another young batsman, 22-year-old Nair, remained unbeaten on 53 off 86 balls. A fluent stroke-player, he eschewed his attacking intent to play a very mature innings. This was his third half-century in List A games and by far the most important.

Earlier, it was a hugely disappointing batting display from Railways after they were asked to bat first. Amit Paunikar has had been scoring runs in this tournament but today he got out cheaply as he tried to run down a Vinay Kumar delivery that was angled in. A leading edge and Ganesh Satish took a simple catch at mid-on.

wicket not unplayable

Paunikar’s opening partner Shivakant Shukla, however, was the bigger let down. A painstaking 46-ball 21 gave an impression that the pitch was very difficult for batting. The odd ball stopped and a few rose awkwardly off a length but the wicket was not unplayable. Railways lacked batting application. After getting his eye in, Shukla threw it away, pulling a half-tracker from Uthappa straight to Satish at deep backward square leg.

Mahesh Rawat could have upped the ante, but Uthappa dismissed him with a beauty and then Abhimanyu Mithun got into the act. The medium pacer removed Ashish Yadav and Karn Sharma in his second spell to ensure that there was no middle-order resistance from Railways. He returned with four for 19 from 9.4 overs to bag the Man of the Match award.

Railways also suffered by dropping Jonathan Rongsen down the order at No. 7. He had scored 58 under pressure against Tamil Nadu. Today also, he batted with purpose. There were three fours in his 57-ball 46, but he kept the fielders busy with his running between the wickets.

Jonathan’s association with Amit Mishra yielded 38 runs for the eighth wicket and then he added another 34 runs with Anureet Singh for the ninth wicket. Railways’ innings had just 11 fours in 286 balls. They were too defensive and paid for it.

“Yes, I would say the batters froze on the big occasion, but it’s an inexperienced side and the players will learn from their mistakes. We lost the final alright, but we’ve a lot of positives to take from this tournament. In fact, this season has given us prominence,” Railways coach Abhay Sharma said. Starting as rank outsiders, they indeed played some very good cricket here till they were outclassed by the team of the tournament.

Brief scores: Railways 157 all out in 47.4 overs (Rongsen Jonathan 46, Arindam Ghosh 33; Abhimanyu Mithun 4/19, R Uthappa 2/19) lost to Karnataka 158/6 in 43 overs (Karun Nair 53 not out, KL Rahul 38; Krishnakant Upadhyay 3/30, Anureet Singh 2/41) by 4 wickets

We will target quadruple: Vinay Kumar

It is due to Karnataka’s “bigger goal” of having as many representatives as possible in the Indian that the southern side is presently reaping the benefits at the domestic level.

They completed a historic treble today by winning the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Eden Gardens. They had earlier won the Ranji and Irani trophies.

Describing the performance as a great milestone, Karnataka skipper R Vinay Kumar said: “The mantra is nothing different. In our side everyone wants to play for India. Once they have a bigger goal, small things fall in place.”

He rated this Karnataka side as the best ever. “If you see, every day different players are performing for us. We are not banking on any particular individual, we have been combining well as a side. I think this is the best ever side.”

The out-of-favour India medium pacer said they would now look to achieve a qudraple of titles by winning the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 beginning next month. “Yes, that will be in our mind. But we want to go step by step. We take one match at a time and give our best. The rest falls in place.”

The biggest gain for Karnataka has been out-of-favour India batsman Robin Uthappa’s coming to form as the opener has smashed three centuries and one fifty to top the run charts with 536 runs at an average of 76.57.

Among youngsters, Nair, who made his Ranji debut this season, has impressed with his maiden List A century as he totalled 309 from eight innings, while wicketkeeper Lokesh Rahul, too, impressed with his glovework and batting.

Vinay Kumar spearheaded the bowling well, topping the list with 28 scalps, while the final’s Man of the Match Abhimanyu Mithun excelled with 13 wickets from six matches.