Agarwal pat for gritty pacers

Karnataka skipper Mayank Agarwal, who struck a brilliant 249, hailed his pacers for showing incredible composure and batting sensibly that stalled Saurashtra’s march on the second day of the Ranji Trophy semifinal here.

Karnataka appeared in deep trouble at 255/7 but pacers V Vyshak (6, 19b), Vidwath Kaverappa (15, 42b) and V Koushik (1 n.o., 9b) batted out of their skins in the company of Agarwal to help the hosts reach 407 all out in 133.3 overs. While Agarwal was the main contributor, scoring 125 runs across those three associations, it would not have been possible without the the courage and temperament the Karnataka pacers exhibited with the bat against a quality Saurashtra bowling attack.

Their defiance helped Agarwal play his natural game and the skipper acknowledged it in his post-day press conference.

“A lot of credit should go to the way our bowlers batted,” a delighted but exhausted Agarwal said after batting for 626 minutes across two days. “Saurashtra didn’t know what to do after a point of time and they were getting frustrated. The bowlers batted exceedingly well. They were very sure of their defence. We just spoke about a little plan about how we are going to negotiate them. They exactly did that and that helped us to build partnerships.”

Agarwal said the pacers have been practising batting at the ‘nets’ and it paid off on Thursday. “They have been practicing batting which is good. That’s the environment we have created and the process we’ve set. They were fantastic. We just kept it simple. We do believe in their batting and we trusted them to do exactly that. It gave me the confidence as well to play my attacking shots.”