Gopal's support eases Bhavane's pain

If you look at the scorecard, you will see it has been a painful game for the Bengal bowlers. Three centuries and a half-century from Karnataka, and they declared with a first-innings lead of 225 runs, at the stroke of tea on the third day.

What you cannot see in the scorecard is Karnataka No. 3 Shishir Bhavane's injury and the pain he had to endure during his 119, his maiden first-class hundred. Bhavane's right wrist was injured while batting in the first session on the second day. He was later cleared of any injury after scans, and was declared fit to bat again today after a night's rest. To bat on the third day, especially for a long period, he had to take two painkillers and some encouraging words from his partner Shreyas Gopal, who scored his second hundred against Bengal.

"It was paining a bit but Shreyas helped me out there a lot," Bhavane said after stumps on the third day. "He kept pushing me and made sure I never gave up the fight."

Bhavane took one painkiller in the morning and the other after lunch, when he was on 69. The two batsmen came together at the score of 342 for 5, when Karnataka led by only 30 runs, and one more wicket would have opened up the tail. With an injury that made him curb his shots and instincts, Bhavane mainly nudged the ball around for singles and couples, unlike Gopal who struck 20 fours during his hundred.

"What it [the injury] does is it cuts down your strokes, I was just waiting to drive and just to tap singles. That made me concentrate more," Bhavane said.

"I found it difficult to play square of the wicket and flick [the ball]. I had to roll with my top hand and playing on the on side I was finding it difficult. On the impact I was feeling the shock through my arm so it was little difficult. Actually I have to give credit to Shreyas also, he pushed me and backed me a lot."

Gopal also found it difficult to flick the ball, but his reason was completely different. He said the nature of the wicket and the field placements were such that he could not go for whatever shots he felt like.

"[When the ball is] on the stumps it's difficult because you can't flick in the air, so I had to check my flicks, I couldn't play them very easily," Gopal said. "There were a lot of balls I could have flicked on another wicket but I didn't want to because they had a short midwicket and a square leg and it's not easy hitting through covers and mid-off. That's why I was waiting and playing to my strengths."

The two batsmen slogged it out and added 142 runs in over 50.5 overs to put Karnataka in a commanding position. The hosts now lead Bengal by 167 runs and they need another eight wickets to seal their first win of the season. Gopal stated that with a potent bowling attack on a fourth-day pitch, Karnataka would make the Bengal batsmen "earn every run".

"It's obviously the perfect KSCA wicket," Gopal said. "If we can create a few more marks by the fast bowlers, the spinners can come into the game at some point and definitely it's not easy playing our fast bowlers. We are the best fast-bowling unit in the country. It's going to be pretty hard for them and we'll try and make it as difficult as possible.

"It's turning but it's turning from the fourth stump, there isn't much help from the wicket as yet. But considering that tomorrow is the fourth day, the cracks may open up a bit more. There could be some uneven bounce as well. I think that's when we will be more effective but until then we have to bowl stump to stump."