JOIN USFor the third time this season, KL Rahul got out in 90s but it was on the back of his unbeaten 92 that Karnataka assumed a position of strength, even if relatively, in their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal tie against Uttar Pradesh.
“The 90s seem like it doesn’t like me too much,” said Rahul after the third day’s play. “Hopefully, we can win this game and I get another opportunity to get a big score. It wasn’t really a satisfying knock. If they were three or four down (at the end of the day), then I would have felt like I’d done something. Hopefully that happens tomorrow,” he remarked.
Uttar Pradesh need 278 more to win with nine wickets in hand but Rahul felt Karnataka would pull it off even as Ali Murtuza, who claimed six wickets in Karnataka’s second innings, maintained that the visitors held an upper hand. “We feel okay with them feeling that they’re on top,” Rahul noted.
Tricky session
“The overconfidence will help us. We know our conditions better and batting fourth is never easy. If we get a couple of wickets, the pressure is back on them. These kinds of wickets are never easy to play. The ball wasn’t doing too much in the evening, but we know that every day two or three wickets have quickly fallen in the morning,” he pointed out.
Commenting on the pitch, Rahul said it was a kind of surface where the batsmen never felt in.
“You are never set on this wicket. One ball is keeping low, another is cutting off the crack and seaming a little too much. It’s not easy to play your shots, you need to wait for the loose balls and have a lot of patience. I didn’t feel set even after playing nearly 200 balls.”
Rahul admitted that Karnataka batsmen needed to apply themselves more. “After batting in the first innings, I thought we would learn and come back stronger. Credit to Ali, he kept it in the right areas. A few bad shots here and there … But hopefully, it won’t cost us the game. 333 in fourth innings is never easy (to chase),” he reasoned.