Karnataka in semis after beating Baroda in a thriller

Karnataka overcame a scare against Baroda to clinch a thriller by five runs and secure a place in the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Devdutt Padikkal's 102 off 99 balls not long after he got off a flight from Australia won him the Player-of-the-Match award, but it was Karnataka's catching that made a massive difference to the result

Baroda were cruising in their chase of 282, with their captain Krunal Pandya and centurion Shashwat Rawat bringing the runs required under 100. But from 185 for 2 in the 34th over, Baroda lost 3 for 16 to give Karnataka an opening.

Wicketkeeper Krishnan Shrijith dismissed Krunal by flinging himself full stretch to his left to pull off a one-hand catch off V Koushik. In the next over, Shreyas Gopal had Vishnu Solanki lbw. Mayank Agarawal, the Karnataka captain, then ran back 30 yards from mid-off with the ball swirling away to catch Shivalik Sharma.

Even as Baroda lost wickets, they had hope as Rawat approached a century. He eventually got to the mark in the 44th over and Baroda went into the last six needing 59 with four wickets remaining. Bhanu Pania, who had smashed an unbeaten 51-ball 134 when Baroda broke the record for the highest T20 score last month, went after Prasidh Krishna in a 15-run over.

The wickets of Pania and Rawat in the space of three balls turned the game again. Having gone for 58 in nine wicketless overs, Prasidh bowled a slower bouncer that got Rawat's leading edge to wicketkeeper Shrijith.

Still, Bhargav Bhatt and Raj Limbani kept hitting the vital boundaries to bring the equation down to 13 off the last six balls. But rookie left-arm seamer Abhilash Shetty was not fazed by the pressure. With Baroda needing 8 off the last two, they attempted to steal a second to get Bhatt on strike with six to get off the last ball, but an accurate throw by R Smaran at deep midwicket to the wicketkeeper had Bhatt run out to end the game.

That Karnataka had a sizeable total to defend was down to Padikkal, who helped his team overcome the early loss of Agarawal on a pitch that had plenty of assistance for the quicks early on. Padikkal and KV Aneesh put on 133 for the second wicket to lay the foundation of the innings.

Padikkal was severe on Baroda off spinner Mahesh Pithiya, using his feet regularly to score boundaries as Karnataka looked to accelerate. He fell soon after getting to a century off 94 deliveries, top-edging a pull to the wicketkeeper off Limbani. From 172 for 2, Karnataka lost a clutch of wickets, but cameos from Shrijith and Abhinav Manohar took them to a match-winning score of 281.