J&K braced for uphill task against Karnataka

Karnataka's batsmen have only managed one century all season. In their three first innings so far, their fifth wicket fell with the score at 97, 69 and 153. Jammu & Kashmir, meanwhile, have crossed 300 only once in four matches.

And yet, the two teams occupy first and third places in the Group A points table. Karnataka have won all three of their matches. J&K beat Mumbai and took first-innings points against Baroda. The bowlers and the lower-middle-order batsmen have generally come good for both teams, and the returns of the top-order batsmen, to some extent, have been a reflection of the conditions they have played their matches in.

"We've been playing on seaming wickets," Karnataka coach J Arunkumar said, on the eve of his team's game against J&K in Hubli. "I feel bad for the batsmen - only one hundred in three games.

"In the end, it's helping the team because we've been bowling the teams out twice. It's not about getting big hundreds - it's also about batting in challenging conditions. It's just a matter of time. We're bound to get good batting wickets and then the batsmen will feast on it."

Going purely by its appearance a day before the match, the pitch at the KSCA Stadium might not offer his batsmen - or those from J&K - any solace. But Vinay Kumar, Karnataka's captain, didn't expect it to favour the seamers unduly.

"It's a good wicket," he said. "There is grass cover but they are saying that they will remove it tomorrow morning."

If that pans out, the pitch should play much like it did when it last hosted a last Ranji Trophy fixture, back in December 2013. There was bounce and just a bit of seam movement in the first two sessions, when Karnataka bowled Punjab out for 174, but it eased out thereafter, and the next two innings brought totals of 505 and 361, and three centuries.

Regardless of conditions, J&K's batting wears a fragile look going into the match, with Shubham Khajuria, their top run-getter this season, ruled out with a shoulder injury that he picked up during the game against Uttar Pradesh. With that in mind, it becomes critical that they get runs from Adil Reshi, Bandeep Singh and Hardeep Singh, who average 12.85, 20.57 and 24.00 this season. The three of them have featured in all four of J&K's matches this season, but haven't yet managed a single 50-plus score among them.

The bowlers have done better by and large, but there are concerns about their two biggest names - fast bowler Samiullah Beigh averages 57.57 this season, and offspinner Parvez Rasool 58.66.

Given those numbers, given the fact that J&K have only just come up from Group C, and given Karnataka's Ranji Trophy record since the start of last season - 10 wins, four draws, and no defeats - J&K will do well to get anything out of this game. But their coach Sunil Joshi, who spent his formative cricketing years in Hubli and played 18 seasons for Karnataka, didn't sound too fazed by the challenge, certainly not after his side's opening-round win over Mumbai.

"We are in a group where all the champions are there," Joshi said. "It is a great opportunity for the [Jammu & Kashmir] players to showcase their talent against the champion sides.

"[At the start of the season], I gave the players the example of Bangladesh having beaten Australia. Cricket is a funny game, we all know that. You play good cricket, good results will follow."