When Dinesh Karthik walked out to bat in the eighth over of Gujarat Lions’ run-chase, the score read 67/2 with 92 runs still required from the last twelve overs. Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith had scored breezy twenties to get the team off to a flier but after their departure, sensible cricket was the need of the hour and Dinesh Karthik provided just that. There was finesse, class, some delicate nudges to boundaries and those timely shots of aggression that paved the way for a perfect run-chase yielding a comprehensive 5-wicket victory for the Lions. For Karthik it was about putting a lot of mind into his innings and his game in general coming into the IPL. “My form has been good so far and I am someone who always tries to be very process oriented. I am working towards figuring out how to play in the middle of the innings and it is a very key thing to get risk free boundaries at that time. I am focussing a lot on that. I am trying, it is still a work in progress and I am happy with the way things are going at the moment.


“It is about getting your eye in and then going for your shots. You want to keep pushing for those singles and doubles in such a way that you don’t get into too much pressure and the run-rate doesn’t keep going up. Then you try and play some shots and take it home towards the end.”

There were two instances in Karthik’s innings that signified class, one to Umesh Yadav and one to Morne Morkel, both dabbed gently right under his watchful eyes to thirdman for a boundary. “It is pretty much instinct,” Karthik says explaining those two shots. “When somebody is bowling quick, you don’t want to be playing a dot ball. So you just dab it down to third man. Sometimes it takes the edge and goes for a boundary and sometimes you get out as well. These things are part and parcel of the game.”

Karthik is the more sublime, quiet but aggressive-when-required kind of a batsman. In a batting line up that boasts of McCullum, Smith and Aaron Finch who are known to be lethal white ball marauders, Karthik blends into the batting line-up perfectly. He credited the explosiveness of McCullum, Smith and Finch when it came to him playing his natural game. “It does help to have players of that calibre in the batting line-up because at a lot of stages in these games you need power to go with boundaries,” he said. “The way those guys bat makes it easier for batsmen like me to play my natural game. There is so much to learn from these guys. They are all legends in the T20 format. The shots they play and the way they play, I am always trying to learn looking at them.”

With this win the Lions are back at the top of the table. It was a dominating performance overall and to defeat the Kolkata Knight Riders in their own den was no mean feat. It was a much needed win for the Lions who had lost three in a row. Karthik quite naturally was happy with the win. “They are one of the top bowling attacks and you’ve got to be careful against them. Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni bowled beautifully. That set up the match for us. Their spell was very important upfront. Getting four wickets in the powerplay puts the opponent under pressure and it was great from there on. We needed to win like this and I am happy with the way we went about in this game.”