Vinay does it in Delhi again

NEW DELHI: There must be something in the Delhi air that brings the best out of R Vinay Kumar. A couple of seasons back, on a chilly winter morning, the Karnataka seamer had sliced through the Delhi batting to claim 8/32 on the Roshanara Club track – which remains his best first-class figures.
On Monday, the venue was Ferozeshah Kotla but Vinay was no less effective as he caught the visiting English batsmen on the hop.On a surface that offered precious little to pacemen, Vinay stuck to the virtues of hitting the seam consistently and moved the ball just enough to get the edges. He emerged as the pick of the Indian bowlers to scalp 4/30, his best ODI figures.
His first two wickets came of deliveries which moved only a couple of centimeters away as Craig Kieswetter and Jonathan Trott were lured into ungainly drives. The seamer then came back for his second spell and immediately landed on the same off-stump line to send back Graeme Swann.
"One of Vinay's great strengths is the ability to swing the ball away from the bat. He is not a prodigious mover of the ball like a Praveen Kumar but you don't need the ball to do a lot to claim the edge. To top it off he has a deceptively quick bouncer which keeps the batsman from committing on the front foot too early," Vinay's Ranji coach Sanath Kumar told TOI on Monday.
The Roshanara track in 2009 was far more greener and conducive for seamers but the Kotla effort needs to be applauded well too. The surface for the ODI was slow and Vinay's effort went a long way in restricting the visitors to a below-par 237.
The 27-year-old Karnataka seamer was the one of the highest wicket-takers in Ranji Trophy in 2009 with 46 wickets at an average of 19 and instrumental in his side reaching the final that year.
"Vinay bowls tirelessly throughout the season on wickets which hardly have any help for him. His fitness regime is an example for all the youngsters in the team. In addition to that, Vinay also mentors younger fast bowlers like S Aravind and Abhimanyu Mithun," Sanath added.
Finally, the coach recounted an incident before the Vinay's Roshanara haul. He said: "Vinay was really down before that Ranji match because in the previous match Mithun, a debutant, had claimed 11 wickets while he went wicketless. I told him to keep his spirits up as he was bowling well and the pressure he was creating at one end was helping Mithun get the wickets. He didn't change anything but came back spectacularly to claim eight wickets to help us claim first-innings points against Delhi, who were a very strong side."