Mayank Agarwal slashed and charged with such rasping effect on Thursday that it wound the clock back to a merrier season when he was buzzing in the India shirt on home pitches.
Those were typical Indian turners, in late 2019, that demanded nimble feet and malleable wrists in tandem. A slow deck in the Ranji Trophy final did not. But the horrors that Jammu and Kashmir talisman Auqib Nabi unleashed on his opening partner KL Rahul prompted the out-of-favour India opener to deploy his typical fallback options.
Agarwal’s form was wavering – averaging below 35 in nine games this season – and it has been only weeks since the 35-year-old lost the captaincy to young Devdutt Padikkal. Agarwal went busy, making runs the way he used to for India seven years ago, as his 21st First-Class hundred was vital for Karnataka, who finished Day 3 on 220/5, still trailing J&K by 364.
The unbeaten 130 was a knock expected from a senior statesman when the chips were down. Agarwal’s top-order mates — who have frequented the India dressing room more often in recent years – had withered within 18 overs. He poked and prodded to neutralise the Nabi effect in their first exchange, a brief but probing four deliveries.
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After Rahul bore the brunt of a dozen balls from Nabi on the bounce, Agarwal advanced down the pitch on the first ball to the metronomic seamer, but the away-moving delivery nearly took the outside edge. The following delivery challenged the other half, but Agarwal was well down the pitch to dig the ball out of harm’s way.
He waded through the brief sparring and cashed in on width from the other seamers who didn’t have Nabi’s restraint. A feast arrived with the spinners. The impoverished returns of Rahul, Padikkal, Karun Nair and R Smaran – collectively tallying 22 – who froze before Nabi and left-arm seamer Sunil Kumar did not deter Agarwal’s appetite one bit. Runs came square on either side as he cut into anything wide and adeptly skipped out to flick left-arm tweaker Abid Mushtaq to the mid-wicket fence four times.
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Lone ranger
Even after he had motored to a century in 153 balls amid the ruins, the tension was palpable among the expectant crowd during the home side’s first batting day. A 105-run stand for the fifth wicket with Shreyas Gopal, controlled by Agarwal’s 70-run contribution, denied J&K complete satisfaction.
The burly Yudhvir Singh then crashed a heavy ball onto the pads, trapping Gopal, before Agarwal and the grafting Kruthik Krishna saw Karnataka home during an extended playing day that accounted for the overs lost to bad light on the previous evening.
But the afternoon was dominated by Nabi’s superlative endeavour with the new ball, sifting between ruthless precision and a string of magic balls in two spells, castling Rahul (13), Nair (0) and Smaran (0). Agarwal was the slippery one who got through with his dancing feet, and Nabi would rue not having a bigger crack up front.
“It would have been good [if I got more balls at him in the spell]. But he was moving forward to negate the swing,” Nabi said, acknowledging the only batter who stood up to his wizardry.
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His first spell, comprising four overs with two maidens and only two scoring shots, had built up the pressure. Every delivery had the guise of a set-up. With Rahul on a leash, Nabi swapped ends for added help from the pitch.
Karnataka’s bowling efforts were pedestrian in comparison, even if it took under 90 minutes to wipe out the J&K lower order on a third bowling day. India pacer Prasidh Krishna had a rewarding five-for (34.1-7-98-5) to improve his red-ball credentials, but the seam-bowling boomerang that was Nabi (14-3-32-3) showed the hosts the mirror.
“There was a little help from the pitch on the first day, but they were a bit wayward with the ball. But in our camp, it was decided to put the ball on a particular line and length and let the batsman try. We would not leave our channel,” Nabi remarked.
Nabi has spotted a pattern in Agarwal’s knock, sensing that one wicket separates J&K from a giant leap into history.
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Brief scores: Jammu and Kashmir 584 (Shubham Pundir 121, Sahil Lotra 72; Prasidh Krishna 5/98) lead Karnataka 220/5 (Mayank Agarwal 130 batting; Auqib Nabi 3/32) by 364 runs
