Vijay Hazare Trophy: Padikkal, Shetty step up as Karnataka storm into final

Devdutt Padikkal put on a batting exhibition on an up-and-down surface at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara as he helped Karnataka to their fifth Vijay Hazare Trophy final. He continued his stellar run in the competition, hitting his seventh successive fifty-plus score in India's premier 50-over domestic competition and in the process, knocked defending champions Haryana out.

Padikkal made 86 off 113 balls - following his 102 off 99 against Baroda in the last outing, his first this season - and added 128 for the third wicket with Ravichandran Smaran as Karnataka chased down the 238-run target with relative ease. The win was set up by their bowlers led by left-arm quick Abhilash Shetty, who returned 4 for 34. His wickets included both Nishant Sindhu and Parth Vats, the two half-centurions from Haryana's preliminary quarter-final win that knocked out Bengal.

Legspinner Shreyas Gopal was instrumental in turning the tide Karnataka's way with the ball when he broke a fluent second-wicket partnership worth 70 between Himanshu Rana and Ankit Kumar by trapping the latter lbw on 48. Thereon, Haryana lost 8 for 96 to collapse to 198 for 9. But a stroke-filled last-wicket stand between Anuj Thakral and Amit Rana, which included scoring 17 off the last over of the first innings, helped Haryana get to a total much more than Karnataka would have liked.

Four-time champions Karnataka were jolted early in the chase when their top-scorer of the competition, the captain Mayank Agarawal, fell in the opening over. Anshul Kamboj got a fullish ball to jag in and hit Agarawal on the knee-roll, the Hawk-Eye showing it to clip the stumps. Padikkal, his opening partner since returning from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, managed to ride the uneven bounce and collect a few fours, even as KV Aneesh struggled at the other end. The No. 3 bat played 14 straight dots before heaving Sumit Kumar over deep midwicket for a meaty six to get going.

If Padikkal brought Karnataka's chase on track with his 62-run partnership with Aneesh, he dashed Haryana's hopes with his alliance with Smaran. The pair took their time to settle, especially when Haryana pressed their spinners, Amit and Sindhu, into service. They were getting some balls to turn, some jumped from the rough but Padikkal broke the deadlock by stepping out to Sindhu and smoking him over long-on. He looked untroubled for most of his stay until he played a cross-batted heave, intending to finish the chase in a hurry, and top-edged Sindhu to mid-off with Karnataka 44 away.

Smaran too scored a classy fifty, hitting three fours and three sixes and fell on 76 off 94 with Karnataka 13 away.

Earlier in the day, Haryana were inserted and got a steady start through openers Arsh Ranga and Himanshu. Their partnership should have been nipped in the fifth over when Ranga edged Koushik behind, but Krishnan Shrijith failed to hang on. That did not cost Karnataka as Shetty struck with his second ball to have Ranga edge one to Padikkal at slip.

That was Karnataka's only success for some time as Himanshu and Amit scored fluently. They were helped by some wayward bowling, too, with Prasidh bowling a few wides down leg. Shrijith's shoddy glovework also resulted in a few byes. The second-wicket pair for Haryana was doing well to set a base. Which is when Agarawal brought spin on to apply the brakes.

Shreyas and left-arm spinner Hardik Raj tested both the edges of the batters, with the former using the googly to excellent effect. After he denied Haryana's captain, Ankit, a fifty, Himanshu had an ill-timed dash down the surface against Raj and was stumped by Shrijith. Those twin wickets gave Karnataka enough of an opening. Dinesh Bana, Rahul Tewatia and Sumit Kumar all got starts but none lasted more than 36 balls.

But that did not bother Karnataka, who made regular inroads to trigger a collapse. One that was enough to propel Karnataka to their first Vijay Hazare Trophy final since 2019-20 after three semi-finals and a quarter-final appearance in the last four editions. They will meet the winner of Vidarbha vs Maharashtra in Saturday's final.