Ranji Trophy final: KL Rahul will play tomorrow, says Vinay Kumar

Mumbai: Karnataka captain R Vinay Kumar on Sunday said that opener K L Rahul, who retired hurt on day one of the Ranji Trophy final cricket match against Tamil Nadu, will be fit to play tomorrow.

Rahul retired hurt in the fourth ball of the fourth over after the opener had pulled his hamstring while fielding.

"He will play tomorrow. He went over the rope (while fielding) and the hamstring got pulled. He will be fine for tomorrow," Vinay Kumar told reporters at the end of day's play today.

Vinay Kumar, who scalped five wickets on the opening day to help Karnataka bundle out Tamil Nadu for a paltry 134, said he was pleased with the bowling effort but felt the his team's batsmen had slackened a bit, finishing the day on 45 for four.

"Initially we got help from the wicket. We were bowling to the right areas. In batting, we could have left a few balls. Manish Pandey got out to a bad shot. After getting a team for a low score, sometimes the batsmen tend to get a little relaxed, maybe that is why we lost one or two (more) wickets," said Vinay.

"Unfortunately, Rahul also came out. If he had been there, he would have taken care of the new ball. There is no need to think whatever happened today. We need to think fresh tomorrow and try to first pass that score and then think about winning the game," the 31-year-old said.

Vinay Kumar admitted that the opponents came back hard to pick wickets.

"It (day) was pretty good. If we had lost just one or two wickets then it would have been great. But (in) these kind of low scoring games, the opposition will come hard at you. The same thing happened with us against Mumbai. We were all out for 202 and we came back very hard. If you get one or two wickets you will get the momentum and hopefully we will break the momentum tomorrow and try to start fresh," he said.

The Karnataka captain, who picked up 300 wickets in Ranji Trophy, said he was happy with his achievement but wanted to focus on winning the game.