Stats: Vinay Kumar – The workhorse of Karnataka

Vinay Kumar announced his shift to Puducherry for the upcoming 2019/20 season which ends his 15-year long career for Karnataka. Vinay was clinical in the team’s glory over the last decade as a strike bowler and more importantly as a captain. He led Karnataka to two Ranji Trophy titles, two Irani Cups and three Vijay Hazare Trophy titles.

Karnataka achieved the treble of winning the Ranji Trophy, Irani Cup and the Vijay Hazare Trophy all in the same season under Vinay Kumar’s captaincy only. Karnataka is the only team in the Indian domestic cricket to complete such a treble which they did in back to back seasons (2013/14 and 2014/15).

All the major stats and numbers from Vinay Kumar’s career with his home state Karnataka:

2 – Vinay Kumar is one of the two players to score a century and take a 5-wicket haul in a Ranji Trophy final. He scored an unbeaten 105 and took 5/34 in the first innings of the 2014/15 Ranji final against Tamil Nadu.

He completed this double on 11th March in 2015, which was incidentally the 100th birth anniversary of Vijay Hazare, the first and only other player with the double of a hundred and 5-fer in a Ranji final. Hazare recorded this achievement during the 1946/47 final for Baroda against Holkar.

4 – Vinay is one of the four players with multiple hat-tricks in Ranji Trophy. Joginder Rao (3 for Services), Pritam Gandhe (2 for Vidarbha) and Anil Kumble (2 for Karnataka) are the other three such players.

He took a hat-trick against Maharashtra in 2007/08 season and one against Mumbai in the 2017/18 quarters. The hat-trick against Mumbai was completed by 2.2 overs of the game; the earliest instance of a hat-trick in Ranji Trophy.

19 – Vinay Kumar raised his half-century from only 19 balls during a Vijay Hazare Trophy game against Jammu & Kashmir in the 2015/16 season. Only Abhijit Kale (16-ball fifty for Maharashtra in 1995 vs Baroda) has scored a quicker fifty in an Inter-State One-Day match in Indian domestic cricket.

28 – The 28 wickets by the 35-year-old in the 2013/14 Vijay Hazare Trophy are the most by any bowler in a single edition of Inter-State One-Day Tournament. He claimed 28 wickets in only eight matches with help of three 5-wicket hauls and a 4-fer.

54 – Vinay Kumar, with 54 wickets, stands as the only bowler with 50+ wickets for Karnataka in Twenty20 cricket till date. He featured in 49 T20s for them; the 2nd most after Manish Pandey (52).

106 – Vinay Kumar is one of the three players to feature in 100 Ranji Trophy matches for Karnataka having played 106 till his departure. Brijesh Patel (104) and Sunil Joshi (117) are the other players to represent Karnataka in over 100 Ranji matches.

121 – No player has taken more wickets in List A cricket for Karnataka than Vinay. He represented Karnataka in 68 matches and averages 19.69 with the ball. Only Sunil Joshi (71) represented Karnataka in more List A matches.

225 – Vinay Kumar appeared in 225 matches in professional cricket for Karnataka (108 in FC, 68 in List A and 49 in T20) which are the most by any player. He claimed 585 wickets across these three formats for them; the 2nd most behind Sunil Joshi’s 606 wickets.

397 – Vinay’s 397 wickets in Ranji Trophy are the 2nd most by any player for Karnataka after Sunil Joshi’s 479 scalps. Overall, his 397 wickets are the 11th most by any player in Ranji history.

In fact, Vinay’s 397 wickets are the 2nd most by a fast bowler in Ranji Trophy behind Pankaj Singh’s 409 wickets. These two players will play together for the Puducherry in the upcoming season.

3 – Karnataka defeated the 41-time champions Mumbai team in the Ranji Trophy on three instances under Vinay Kumar’s captaincy. They defeated Mumbai outright in the 2013/14 group stage game, in the 2014/15 semi-final and during the 2017/18 quarter-final match. Vinay is the only captain in the Ranji history to beat Mumbai/Bombay outright on three occasions in Ranji Trophy.