Karun Nair, who made an unbeaten 119, said that he benefited from Manish Pandey’s positive approach
Vishal Dikshit in Bangalore09-Oct-2015Karun Nair has already been a part of the India Test squad. He has had a taste of the international circuit by spending time in the Indian dressing room after being picked for the third Test in Sri Lanka as M Vijay’s replacement, less than two months ago.Nair had been picked on the back of an unbeaten first-class century against South Africa A and a stellar 2014-15 season. Nair didn’t get an international debut and he is back to where he belonged – the Karnataka dressing room – to score more runs, more centuries, and register more wins for his side. His sixth first-class hundred and his third fifty-plus score in four first-class matches, including a 71 against Bangladesh A recently, placed Karnataka on top after two well-fought days against Bengal.”I wanted to start the season well and once you get starts…I got a start in the first game, I scored 30-odd and then couldn’t convert well. So it’s a relief of starting the season well and making it big,” Nair said.Bhavane fit to bat on third day
Karnataka manager B Siddaramu said at the end of the second day’s play that No. 3 Shishir Bhavane, who had retired hurt on 32, was fit to bat on the third day as scans revealed there was no injury.
“He’s ok, he went to the hospital and he took an X-ray and CT scan. It’s only the impact when he got hit, no swelling, no fracture, he’s fit and ready to bat,” Siddaramu said. “He would have batted today but it’s good these two [Karun Nair and Shreyas Gopal] batted well and he’ll get one more day extra [to rest] and it will be slightly easier to bat.”
Bhavane was facing Ashok Dinda in the 27th over when a short ball climbed and hit him on the right wrist in the last over before lunch before Bhavane could drop his hands. Karnataka physio Sharavan came out and assessed Bhavane’s wrist before they walked off and the umpires ended the session there with only four balls left in the over.
Nair’s century today can be split into two parts – the supporing role and the lead role. The risk-free nature of his strokes did not change through the day but his partner and approach did. His first rescuing act was with Manish Pandey in a brisk partnership of 98 runs in 21 overs after the score was effectively 76 for 3, since Shishir Bhavane retired hurt, and Pandey dominated the stand with as many as nine fours. Nair said it was Pandey’s attacking approach that helped him bat without pressure.”Manish batted really well, he came out and batted very positively and that helped me also,” Nair said. “I got a lot of loose balls because of him playing positively. It was disappointing that he got out on 50-odd, still we are in a good position right now and we’d like to capitalise tomorrow.”There was no plan as to how to go about our partnership. Manish played his natural game, he scored off good balls and in between he received loose balls as well. The only plan was to bat throughout the day… Bat tight and straight.”Nair hopped into the driver’s seat once he saw Pandey and CM Gautam fall within half an hour. Karnataka were now 209 for 4 and unaware if Bhavane was going to bat again or not since he was sent to a hospital for scans after being hit on the wrist by a Ashok Dinda short ball. That did not perturb Nair and he marshaled Shreyas Gopal in the third session that went wicketless. In those two hours, Nair faced plenty of deliveries from spinners Pragyan Ojha and Manoj Tiwary, who pitched several ones outside the leg stump, only to see Nair play the ball late, use his feet to go back and forth, and find boundaries regularly.”I think I’ve been naturally like that [against the spinners],” Nair said. “I play spin naturally and haven’t done any special preparation as such, just the normal net sessions. It is one of my strengths but I think all-round I play quite well.”I was patient throughout, I didn’t play any rash shots, I was waiting for the loose balls and it all worked out well.”What also worked out well was that Karnataka got a lead by the end of the day with six wickets in hand as Bhavane was declared fit. Nair said they would look to bat the whole day on Saturday and the pitch had developed some cracks which could get worse by the end of the third day.”We should bat the whole day [tomorrow], we shouldn’t think about the runs, bat out the day and take whatever comes.”Pitch is right now good only. Outside the leg stump obviously the footmarks will be there but generally the pitch is good, the cracks are coming a little bit. Maybe tomorrow end of day it might become difficult to bat on, maybe till lunch or till tea it will still remain the same.”