After losing his captaincy in the aftermath of Karnataka’s crushing 217-run loss to Madhya Pradesh in January, Mayank Agarwal would have been a dispirited man.

But the selectors’ ploy of liberating him from the burden of captaincy and allowing him to focus on his batting seems to have worked.

From the season’s first nine innings, the 35-year-old made just 298 runs. But in the seven since then, he has totalled 380, including scores of 46, 53, 92 and Friday’s 160.

“To get a hundred in the final is satisfying,” Mayank told reporters.

“I have been working hard on my game and I’ve got a few starts in the season but haven’t had as many runs as I would have liked. So just the way I batted felt good.”

A century in a Ranji Trophy final is indeed a special achievement, but for Mayank, it is likely to be bittersweet. Jammu & Kashmir — having already secured the first-innings advantage — leads by 477 runs with a day’s play remaining.

The visitors still have six wickets left, which means a Karnataka victory is nigh impossible. “We know we are behind. But we are going to come out in the morning, give our best and see what happens.”

A big reason why the hosts are on the back foot is pacer Auqib Nabi, whose five-wicket haul included the wickets of K.L. Rahul, Karun Nair, R. Smaran and Mayank.

All praise for Nabi

“He deserves all the credit and the wickets column shows that,” Mayank said of Nabi. “The good thing he’s done is to challenge both edges of the bat, and bowled very, very tight lines. That keeps you under pressure”.