Badri, Vinay all praise for Aparajith

Subramaniam Badrinath lauded Baba Aparajith’s well-composed innings saying that it was one that showed the young man’s steel.

The 18-year-old struck a patient, unbeaten 85 from 174 balls with ten fours and one six, while Badrinath (61 runs, 148 balls, 4x4, 1x6) stood solid at the other end with a half-century in their Group ‘B’ Ranji trophy encounter on Friday.

“He showed a lot of composure,” said Badrinath after the close of play. “It was important for us to stick around and build partnerships. With him playing such a well-composed innings, it was not too hard to do that.”

Karnataka skipper R Vinay Kumar too praised the young right-hander’s performance with the bat which resulted in his maiden half-century in the Ranji Trophy. “He played very well. He showed a lot of temperament and also showed that he could stick around a long time without playing any loose shots,” said the paceman.

With 260 runs on board at the end of day’s play, Karnataka will need to come up with a better display with the ball. “The wicket is very flat and it is not doing much. The toss was very crucial. Unfortunately, that (toss) is not in our hands. As far as our bowling is concerned, I think we did really well. We gave away less than three runs an over. We could’ve picked up two or three more wickets. But that’s how it goes in cricket. Tomorrow we will look at it come out hard and try to pick up all the wickets,” the 28-year-old explained.

Given the lack of purchase from the pitch, Vinay was forced to bring on the spinners as early as the sixth over of the match. With the pitch sure to deteriorate more on day two, they could end up playing a bigger role.

“Yeah… on one end it is turning a bit and on the other end it is totally flat. Definitely not good for seamers, ball is not carrying to the ’keeper,” remarked Vinay. “Most of the job was done by our spinners. With the kind of spinners we have, we can expect to bowl well tomorrow and make some breakthroughs.