Against a bowling attack so pedestrian, and on a pitch which stayed true for the most part, four of Karnataka’s top five batters, especially openers Mayank Agarwal and R Samarth, had a chance to score a century but none did.
Despite this poor conversation rate on the day, Karnataka established a lead of 358 runs after racing to 474 for 5 from 116 overs on the second day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal encounter against Uttarakhand at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Wednesday.
Evidence would suggest that Shreyas Gopal, coming at No.6, was the only one who took the pursuit of a century seriously for he didn’t stray from his patterns. And in doing so, he got to an unbeaten 103 off the last ball of the day.
As for the others, they berated themselves - some cases even loudly so - as they walked off knowing well that they missed out on a chance to capitalise.
In essence, this was a team looking for batting practice ahead of their semifinal encounter, not so much a side fighting for their spot in the last-four stage.
Coming out of a relatively easy group, Karnataka had little trouble topping the table with 35 points. There were some areas of concern along the way, but Mayank Agarwal’s men managed to iron them out.
Looking at the turn of events over the past two days, Karnataka didn’t need to be at their best in the opening tie of the knockouts. But they were. After bowling Uttarakhand out for a meek 116, it was clear that Karnataka had far too much ammunition for their opponents, a fact which was reiterated on the second day of the game.
Agarwal’s needless poke to nick the ball to Jiwanjot off Abhay Negi after getting to 83 was an anticlimactic end to an innings which promised aplenty.
R Samarth stuck around a bit longer and looked every bit the player that had 577 runs from seven games coming into the game. This is why when he guided the ball to Akhil Rawat at gully, it made little sense.
Padikkal’s meek edge to first slip was inexcusable, as was Nikin Jose’s lob to Mayank at mid-off.
Manish Pandey, oddly enough, was the only one who didn’t look comfortable against this attack, and it showed when lazily nicked Mayank Mishra to Aditya Tare behind the stumps.
None of Uttarakhand’s bowlers possessed accuracy, and none of spinners could bowl four balls on the same spot in an over. Perhaps why Karnataka’s batters ended up making mistakes because they were lulled into complacency.
Shreyas, however, was not willing to let this opportunity slide.
Having bowled a mere 131 overs in all these games despite being in the side as a front-line spinner, Shreyas hasn't been able to justify his spot in the team as a bowler. But with the bat, he has shown that he can hold his own when he gets the chance.
An example of his evolved batting acumen is the 95 he scored against Rajasthan last month. Here again, he was spotless with his execution: delectable drives, textbook cuts, brilliant use of the feet against spinners and he knew how to tackle the good balls.
There weren’t too many good balls or bowlers coming at him, but he still had to make it count. He did.