Ranji Trophy: No over-the-top celebrations for Tamil Nadu

VISAKHAPATNAM: Tamil Nadu may have beaten title favourites Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals on Saturday, but their feet is firmly planted on the ground. The mood in Tamil Nadu camp did give an indication that there still were two more matches to go before they could pop the champagne bottle. Having said that, Tamil Nadu players did get together to applaud the architects of this victory -- Aswin Crist, K Vignesh and Dinesh Karthik, but there were no over-the-top celebrations.While Crist shone with 6 for 31 in the first innings, Vignesh bagged 4 for 53 and Karthik shepherded the chase with an unbeaten 41 in his 100th Ranji outing.
Vignesh felt the 64-run lead in the first innings was less, and the plan was to not give any easy runs for Karnataka in their second outing. "We were trying to bowl our hearts out. Being a knockout game, you cannot relax at any point," said Vignesh, who plays for Jolly Rovers in the TNCA first-division league. Vignesh honed his skills at the MRF Pace Foundation.
According to skipper Abhinav Mukund, it was anybody's game. "When a game finishes in less than 150 overs, you can never say that one team dominated. Both teams were in it till the end. The scorecard may not suggest that, but it was a keenly fought game," Abhinav said. He felt not reading too much into the opposition's strengths have worked wonders for his side. "We have never really focused on who the opponent is, and that's the good thing about this team," he said. The heartening aspect for Abhinav has been the lively performances of his pace battery. "It's really heartening to see two pacers (Aswin Crist and K Vignesh) from my team getting over 30 wickets this season. I have always hoped something like this would happen after L Balaji. Touchwood, it has and I hope this (good form) continues," he said.
Coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar opined that there was a lot of scope for improvement. "Ideally, I would have liked us to chase 87 without losing a wicket," was Hrishikesh's honest assessment. The former India player surely has brought in a sense of professionalism into the unit where the practice sessions are not taken lightly at all. "I have inculcated that every nets session should be like a match. You create that pressure in the practice so that when you go into a match, you would have played under that situation all through. The nets are a competition between bowlers and batsmen. It's no more a session where you bowl a few balls and bat," revealed Hrishikesh.
Unwell Abhinav to undergo tests: Abhinav, who has been under the weather from Day 1, could undergo a blood test. "I could not even stand on the field and was struggling. I was sleeping (when Karnataka was batting on Saturday) and woke up only when Vinay Kumar was batting. I have a temperature and I don't get fever that easily," he said.