Karnataka captain Mayank Agarwal was pleased with the win and acknowledged the efforts put in by his bowlers to restrict Kerala to a sub-par total.
He also praised batters Karun Nair and Devdutt Padikkal for taking responsibility and guiding the team to another comprehensive win.
“I was not happy with our bowling in the match against Jharkhand. The bowlers responded well in this match. Well we fancy chasing but I don’t think the toss made a huge difference. Abhilash Shetty bowled very well to take those early wickets to put Kerala under pressure. Shreesha Achar bowled well for a debutant. Kerala, I think was about 30 to 40 runs short. I thought 320 was the par score on this wicket. If not for Azharuddeen’s late charge, we would have restricted Kerala to 265. Karun and Padikkal batted beautifully again and as experienced players they took the responsibility. I was happy that Karun finished the match, ‘’ said Agarwal.
Kerala captain Rohan Kunnummal said there was help for the bowlers in the opening hour and said losing the toss was crucial. However, he was happy with the way his bowlers made Karnataka batters work hard for runs. Rohan admitted that his team failed to put up a good score to put pressure on Karnataka.
“We take some positives out of this defeat. Happy with the way we fought till the end. I think there was help for bowlers initially. We lost wickets far too regularly. Good to see Azharuddeen back among runs. But we were some 30 runs short of a good score on this flat wicket. There was no help for our bowlers in the second innings and credit to both Padikkal and Karun for scoring centuries and they never gave us a whiff of a chance,’’ said Rohan Kunnummal.
Published – December 26, 2025 11:28 pm IST
