Vijay Hazare Trophy: Manish Pandey lauds Karnataka's Devdutt Padikkal

Manish Pandey, who led Karnataka to glory in the recently-concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy, heaped praises on his side's young 19-year-old opener Devdutt Padikkal, who finished the tournament as the highest run-scorer with 609 runs in 11 innings, which consisted of five fifties and two centuries. Karnataka won by 60 runs based on VJD method due to continuous rains in Bengaluru.

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Manish said in the post-match conference that when young guns like Padikkal score so many runs in the tournament it is great to be the captain.

Padikkal scored his first fifty in Karnataka's second match of the tournament against Hyderabad. His knock went in vain as Hyderabad pulled off a stunning victory, successfully defending a modest 198 and catching Karnataka short of the target by 21 runs. Padikkal, who looked set got out in the 41st over with the team on 155, leaving the tail with too big a task.

Hyderabad game changed him: Manish Pandey

Pandey believes it was that game that changed Padikkal's mindset as he tied all loose ends and made no mistake. He said that the Hyderabad game changed him as a batsman, the one they lost because he was batting well till then nut was not able to convert those fifties.

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In the following games, Padikkal scored 79 against Mumbai, consecutive hundreds against Saurashtra and Goa, a half-century against Puducherry and a 92 vs Chhattisgarh which ensured Karnataka got over the line each time.

Pandey also lauded the collective efforts of the entire squad, which made sure their journey in the tournament after a shocking defeat against Hyderabad was smooth. Two out of the top four highest-scoring batsmen in the tournament were from Karnataka: Padikkal (609 runs at an average of 67.66) and KL Rahul (598 runs at an average of 66.44).

Manish recently made his place back into the Indian team after the 2019 World Cup as he finished with 525 runs, which included an unbeaten 142 off 118 balls against Chhattisgarh, scoring at an average of 105, and striking at an impressive 108.02 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

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