We need to maintain our intensity, says skipper Vinay

While none of the Maharashtra players has the taste of a Ranji Trophy final, eight players from Karnataka have experienced that cauldron, which according to R Vinay Kumar is an advantage for his team.

“Eight players, who were part of the 2009-10 final in Mysore, are there in this squad as well,” he pointed on the eve of the Ranji final. “We narrowly missed on winning the Ranji Trophy that time and the players are more eager this time to win the title.

That’s been our aim and from game one we have been doing well. We just need to maintain the same intensity and if we play to our potential, we are going to win this trophy. Also, Maharashtra haven’t entered the final in a long time while we know how it’s to be in the final. That’s going to be a plus point for us,” remarked the Karnataka skipper.

The six outright wins, Vinay felt, was a big confidence-booster for the team. “It’s a great achievement (to score six outright wins on the trot) and we have won from many different and difficult situations. We never thought about wins every time we went in, all we did was play session by session. The thing is, if we take care of small things then big things will be taken care of automatically.”

Maharashtra’s group match against Hyderabad at Uppal ended in a draw without the completion of first innings. While Maharashtra scored 619/9 declared, the hosts finished at 528/7.

Vinay, however, felt the pitch for the final appears ‘sporting.’

“This is a different wicket and though toss will not make much of a difference, it will definitely give you an upper hand. It’s a dry wicket so compared to pacers, spinners will have more advantage as the game progresses. We are looking at making a couple of changes because it looks like it’s going to be a batting track and it may assist spinners. We haven’t decided on the 11, maybe after seeing the wicket in the morning we will take a call on the composition,” he explained.