Agarawal's hot streak continues; Haryana, Punjab, Bengal and TN in knockouts

Mayank Agarawal slammed his fourth List A hundred in five innings as Karnataka entered the knockouts of the 2024-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy along with defending champions Haryana, Punjab, Bengal and Tamil Nadu among others.

Mumbai, the winners of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, haven't made the knockouts after finishing third in Group C with five wins in seven games. Both their losses, to Karnataka and Punjab, deflated their campaign which they ended on a winning note on Sunday with teenaged opener Aayush Mhatre hitting an unbeaten 148 to seal victory over Saurashtra in a 290-run chase.

Mhatre, who made his List A debut for Mumbai during the competition, finished as the side's leading run-getter with 458 runs in seven innings, including two centuries and a half-century. The only other centurion for Mumbai was Shreyas Iyer, the captain, who also hit two centuries: an unbeaten 55-ball 114 in a losing cause against Karnataka and a match-winning 133-ball 137 not out against Puducherry.

Meanwhile, Punjab's road to the knockouts was dotted with impressive batting performances that helped them rack up scores of 424 and 426 against Saurashtra and Hyderabad respectively. On Sunday, they scored 338 to win by 167 runs against Puducherry and finish the group stage with six wins in seven games. However, Karnataka by virtue of their one-wicket win over Punjab topped the group.

That loss notwithstanding, Punjab finished as the best second-ranked team (in terms of points) from all five groups to earn a direct quarter-final berth. Their campaign has been spearheaded by wicketkeeper-batter Prabhsimran Singh, who has so far slammed three centuries: 150* vs Mumbai, 125 vs Saurashtra and 137 vs Hyderabad.

Prabhsimran's opening partnership with Abhishek Sharma has been particularly formidable. Against Saurashtra, they put on 298, the joint second-highest opening stand in the tournament history, equalling the record set by Bengal's Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sudip Gharami in 2022. Abhishek, Punjab's captain, hit a career-best 170, off just 96 balls, while Prabhsimran hit 125.

Punjab's scintillating run has also seen wholesome contributions from pace spearhead Arshdeep Singh, who sits atop the wicket-takers' charts. Arshdeep's 17 wickets in six games have come at an economy of 5.53, with a best of 5 for 38 against Mumbai.

Elsewhere, Gujarat and Vidarbha were the only two teams to finish the group stage with an all-win record, while Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan Bengal are the only three teams (out of ten) to make the knockouts having lost two games.

Gujarat's campaign has been spearheaded by their fast-bowling pair of Chintan Gaja and Arzan Nagwaswalla, who are second and third on the wicket-taker's charts while Vidarbha's run comes on the back of Karun Nair's record-breaking run of form: he has hit four hundreds in five innings.

Nair holds the record for most List A runs without being dismissed. He's currently second on the run charts with 542 runs, behind Agarawal's tally of 613 in seven innings, which includes four hundreds and a half-century.

Pre-quarterfinals: Haryana vs Bengal, Rajasthan vs Tamil Nadu (both on January 9)

Quarter-finals: Vidarbha vs Punjab, Karnataka vs Baroda (both on January 11); Gujarat vs winner of Haryana-Bengal, Maharashtra vs winner of Rajasthan-Tamil Nadu (both on January 12)

Semifinals: January 15 and 16.

Final: January 18