Coach Sanath credits his bowlers for Karnataka's progress

Their outings against Baroda in Mysore and Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur have left coach K Sanath Kumar a vastly pleased man. “The performance of our top order has been a worry since the beginning of the season. So, we needed to give them some time in the middle to bat and it’s quite nice to see them exploiting the chances,” Sanath said.

Karnataka will face Madhya Pradesh in the round of eight at Indore from December 24. Sanath knew the importance of his batsmen carrying on the form they displayed in the last two matches.

“If you look at it, we were winning matches because of the exceptional efforts by our pace bowlers. This season our batting has not clicked consistently, but the last two matches offered an exception and hopefully we can do an encore against MP, though they can’t be taken lightly just because they are from Plate Group. You have to remember that the knock-out phase does not give a second shot at redemption as even a slight error can cost us dearly,” the former pacer said.

The mention of Karnataka pace bowlers brought a warm smile on Sanath’s face. The Karnataka pace trio – A Mithun, R Vinay Kumar and S Arvind -- has not picked up wickets in cluster like they did the last season, but the significance of their performance goes beyond mere numbers. They have grabbed 55 wickets from five of the six league games, but those strikes gave a lifeline to Karnataka as their batsmen often failed to put up a huge score on the board.

Sanath was a happy man seeing them delivering under pressure. “See, every situation has its own pressure. Our bowlers have delivered in each situation and that will help us in the knock-out stage,” Sanath said.

So, what makes the Karnataka pace bowling tick? “Our bowling is much different from others. They have the skill, control and heart to bowl on any kind of wickets. More importantly, these pace bowlers are different from each other. Vinay relies on movement, Arvind is a left-arm pacer who can move the ball both ways and Mithun has that extra pace, so that variety factor is helping us a lot. The SG ball also helps the fast bowlers because shine can be maintained for an entire day,” Sanath pointed out.