Nair benefits from Dravid's advice

Karun Nair was batting fluently in the first innings and was closing in on his half-century when he was castled by one that turned away from the rough off Bhargav Bhatt. Nair's mistake was he had exposed his stumps too much in an attempt to negate the left-arm spinner's negative line (wide of leg-stump) and he had little time to adjust when Bhatt slipped in a quicker delivery.

Former India captain and NCA chairman Rahul Dravid had noticed this small technical glitch and suggested Nair to cover the stumps on the third morning. The advice was taken and the lesson was learnt. On the third day, the right-hander had to confront similar tactics by the Baroda bowler, and he was up for the challenge this time. With LBW ruled out from that angle, Nair kept padding away anything that was bowled outside leg and won the battle of attrition en route his match-winning 71 not out.

"The first innings, I showed my stumps too much and that is a mistake I made," said Nair in his post-match comments. "Whenever bowlers have been bowling that way (negative line), I have been playing that way, so in the second innings I changed a bit. I spoke to Rahul (Dravid) sir in the morning when he had come by the pitch and he said 'it is better to cover the stumps than to open them'. I thought I had made a mistake by showing up the stumps and opening up the rough more to him. Second innings I just said, 'let him bowl there, if he misses, let him bowl more on this side and I will capitalise'.

"In my mind, I knew they did not have all their bowlers (with Babasafikhan Pathan injured), so I need to play them out. I wanted to tire them out and wait for them to make mistakes. I did not mind where they were bowling. I just wanted to be there till the end and see them through," he explained.

Having brought up his third half-century of the season, Nair said all he did was keep things simple.

"I had to stay till the end, played straight," he noted. "I did not want to play any rash shots. I was not worried about how quickly we have to get these runs. I have been batting well. In the first innings, I got a good start, but I was not able to carry on. I know, I am batting well, it is about building on that and scoring big and contributing to the team."