After helping Haryana post a challenging target against hosts Karnataka with a patient half-century here on Saturday, Nitin Saini felt his side was in a good position to pull off their first victory of the season.
“The wicket has some cracks on it and the odd ball is keeping low. Our bowlers have shown that they can trouble the strong batting line-up of Karnataka in the first innings. With Manish Pandey ruled out, we certainly believe we can win this contest,” said a confident Saini.
On the change in batting order in their second innings — with Sehwag coming lower down — Saini said they were looking to lay a solid platform for their captain. “I have a good record against Karnataka and the team management didn’t want early hiccups. Hence I was asked to open. He (Sehwag) wanted the top order to score as much as they could and decided to come and play an attacking innings to take our total past the 250-mark.”
Poor batting
Karnataka all-rounder Shreyas Gopal admitted that poor batting in the first innings had landed the hosts in a situation where they now have to fight hard to save the match.
“I think we could have done a lot better in the first innings with our batting. It was a wicket where we could have definitely got past 300 runs. But we need to give credit to the Haryana bowlers for doing a good job,” said a disappointed Shreyas.
Though they have a daunting target in front, Shreyas said the team had not given up hopes of an outright win. “We want to take things as it comes. We are aiming to play well and save the match.
“But if we manage to score more runs in the first two sessions then who knows an outright win is also a possibility,” he signed off.
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