If R Vinay Kumar's heap of wickets in the Ranji Trophy have helped Karnataka reach the final, his inputs on and off the field have played an equal part in the team's success.
If R Vinay Kumar's heap of wickets in the Ranji Trophy have helped Karnataka reach the final, his inputs on and off the field have played an equal part in the team's success.
The 25-year-old, who rocked Mumbai's top order with a spell of 7-2-17-3 in the opening session of the final and finished with 4-61, is the team's bowling captain and mentor to Abhimanyu Mithun and Sreenath Arvind, the two young pacers who have been highly impressive this season.
After being reduced to 106 for six, Mumbai rallied thanks to Vinayak Samant's 67 to score 233. Karnataka were 15 for 1 at stumps.
Vinay was the tournament's highest wicket-taker going into the final with 39 wickets to his name and thanks to his help, Mithun was the second-highest with 38 scalps and Arvind also picked up 27.
"At the start of the season, we had appointed Vinay as the bowling coach because he has the experience and reads the game very well. He is also a good judge of the pitch and understands how to make plans for different batsmen," Karnataka coach Sanath Kumar said.
"We have two inexperienced bowlers in Mithun and Arvind so it's important that they get the right kind of advice. I can only tell them things off the field but with Vinay around, they get regular instructions on how to go about things. And that has been one of the main reasons for our success this season," Kumar added.
With regular inputs from the support staff and Vinay Kumar, both Mithun, playing his first season and Arvind, who is playing his first full season after playing just one game last season, have improved leaps and bound.
"Both Mithun and Arvind are very raw and struggled to pick wickets at the start of the season. But they have improved a lot and have been performing consistently for us. A lot of credit for that goes to Vinay because he has the ability to explain things in a simple way so it's easy for them to understand. He is straight and direct and tells them exactly what they need to do on a particular wicket or batsman," Kumar said.
Vinay has played his part to a tee and the hosts have the upperhand. Now, it's up to the batsmen to make sure they don't allow Mumbai to claw back.
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