India's veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik lashed out out at Tamil Nadu coach Sulakshan Kulkarni for blaming team's captain R Sai Kishore for their Ranji Trophy 2023-2024's semifinal defeat against Mumbai.
Tamil Nadu failed to advance to the Ranji Trophy final after facing an innings and 70-run loss against Mumbai in Mumbai on Monday, March 4. Karthik stated that Kishore got Tamil Nadu to the semi-finals after seven years in the Ranji Trophy and cracked whip at the coach for blaming him.
Dinesh Karthik cracks whip at TN coach
“This is soo WRONG. This is so disappointing from the coach ..instead of backing the captain who has brought the team to the semis after 7 yrs and thinking it’s a start for good things to happen, the coach has absolutely thrown his captain and team under the bus” tweeted Karthik.
Speaking after the match, coach Sulakshan Kulkarni expressed regret over electing to bat first and stated they lost the match after the toss.
Tamil Nadu coach blamed Sai Kishore for semifinal defeat
“I always speak straightforward — we lost the match at 9 o’clock on day one. The moment I saw the wicket I exactly knew what we were going to get. Everything was set, we won the toss, as a coach, as a Mumbaikar, I know the conditions well. We should have bowled but the captain had some different instinct,” said Kulkarni, as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo.
“We were mentally prepared that whoever wins the toss would bowl first. We knew that we would bowl first. The moment they (TV broadcast) said we would bat first, whatever you say, it goes in the batsmen’s minds. That first half an hour (before play) got in the batsmen’s minds,” he added.
Tamil Nadu won the toss and chose to bat first. They were bundled out for just 146 runs with three wickets taken by Tushar Deshpande and two each by Shardul Thakur, Musheer Khan, and Tanush Kotian. However, the side came back well, restricting Mumbai to 106/7 before Shardul Thakur played a brilliant knock of 109, and Tanush Kotian scored 89 as Mumbai ended up with 378 runs. The 41-time champions absolutely dominated the second innings, bundling Tamil Nadu on just 162 runs with Shams Mulani taking four wickets, giving Mumbai an innings and 70 runs victory and taking them to their 48th final. The winner of the Vidarbha vs. Madhya Pradesh (MP) match will face Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy 2024 final on March 10.
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