Karnataka, TN upbeat ahead of Ranji final

The ground staff at the Wankhede stadium were hoping to get at least half a day off on Holi, but the Tamil Nadu players kept them busy, extending their training session ahead of the Ranji Trophy final against Karnataka.

Karnataka cruising to the Ranji final for a second successive season was expected but the same can't be said of Tamil Nadu, who had thrived on turning tracks in the league stages. However, they stepped up in the knockouts, which paved their way for their first final after two seasons.

Karnataka may be the favourites, but Tamil Nadu coach WV Raman played down the situation.

"No such thing as underdog or a favourite. You would rather put it as a battle of confidence against a side which is willing to fight," Raman told reporters on the sidelines of Tamil Nadu's training session.

However, he remained wary of the threat offered by Karnataka.

"Karnataka is a good side. They have been playing well as a side, and the thing is that if you look at it, it's good in a way. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose. This is a Tamil Nadu side that has come through a lot of difficult phases, and it's a team which has evolved as the tournament went on. As far as we are concerned, we have everything to gain and nothing to lose."

Karnataka batting coach, J Arunkumar, had no qualms in admitting his team would enter the final as 'favourites'. "We deserve it [the tag], don't we? We have won most of our games this season. We are perhaps the most balanced side in the Ranji Trophy. We know that we are the best side and we will enter the game as favourites," Arunkumar told ESPNcricinfo.

Drawing confidence from last year's final, Arunkumar backed Karnataka to stay calm in the face of pressure. "Obviously there is a bit of pressure of the big final. But most of these boys soaked it in well in the last year's final and we are ready to repeat the success over the coming week."

Tamil Nadu have lost only one game in this season, which came at the hands of Karnataka in the season opener. The defending champions, on the other hand, have extended their unbeaten streak from November 2012.

Arunkumar believed that the thumping victory over Tamil Nadu would keep Karnataka in good stead. "It gives us a lot of confidence, knowing that we have beaten them at the start of the season. The pressure of the final is of course different but the win gives us the edge," he said.

Raman, though, did not read too much into that game and chose to focus on the positives . "Let's also not forget that we were ahead for the first couple of days. We had a last-day collapse. A session can go wrong in a long season. But the point is that was three months ago and since then a lot of things have happened in terms of both sides progressing the way they did. We are not going to sit back and look at that particular game."