JOIN USKarnataka bowling coach Mansur Ali Khan revealed that the entire team is shattered by the early exit from Ranji Trophy. Talking to reporters after their 53-run defeat to Maharashtra, MAK, as he is known, spoke on the areas of concern. Excerpts:
On the overall season: I believe we should have got more outright wins. Despite doing well in every game we weren’t able to get the outright wins and that pushed us into a must-win situation in this match. Somewhere I feel the scheduling of the season, which was one and a half month earlier than the usual one, had an impact on our show. We couldn’t get the required conditions needed for our fast bowlers due to the early scheduling. It is one of the reasons but cannot be given as an excuse.
On the defeat: I think our bowlers were little inconsistent and impatient in this match. Instead of going for a wicket in every over we should have tried building pressure. We had quality seamers. But somewhere I felt they should have been consistent. And to our misfortune, our batsmen, who had a good run in the season so far, failed in this important game. Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair were ideal batsmen on this wicket but they got out cheaply. And full credit to Ankit Bawne for his vital first innings knock (87), that changed the course of the game.
Team’s reaction: We are shattered and are hurt. After a long time we haven’t qualified for the knockouts. Especially, with this kind of team, it wasn’t expected. Lot of players have played for India and India ‘A’ sides and lot was expected from them. It is true that we hadn’t expected the early exit but we have to now accept the result.