Tamil Nadu will take on Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019 final at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday. The battle between the Southern heavyweights was decided after they won their semi-final outings on Wednesday.
Karnataka, who finished on top of Elite Group A and B table with 7 wins in 9 matches, thrashed Chhattisgarh by 9 wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu clinched a thriller against Gujarat in a rain-affected low-scoring game at the Just Cricket Academy Ground in Bengaluru.
Chasing 224 against Chhattisgarh, Karnataka got off to a solid start with India star KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal taking the attack to the new-ball bowlers. While Padikkal made 92 from 98 balls, India opener Rahul continued his fine run with an unbeaten 111-ball 88.
Mayank Agarwal, who was part of the Indian Test team that wrapped up a 3-0 series win over South Africa on Tuesday, had flown from Ranchi to Bengaluru to play the Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final. The India Test opener made sure he made the most of the opportunity by slamming a 33-ball 47 during which he smashed 3 boundaries and 4 sixes.
Earlier in the day, V Koushik dented the Chhattisgarh batting unit with 4 wickets. The likes of Abhimanyu Mithun, Krishnappa Gowtham and Praveen Dubey chipped in with 2 wickets each. Chhattisgarh’s Amandeep Khare shone with a 102-ball 78 but his efforts went in vain.
Parthiv Patel’s Gujarat were knocked in the semi-final after an ordinary show with the bat against Tamil Nadu.
In the rain-reduced 40-overs-a-side contest, Gujarat managed only 177 in 40 overs with the likes of captain Patel, Axar Patel and Priyank Panchal failed to impress. For Tamil Nadu, M Mohammad shone with 3 wickets as they came up with a combined bowling effort.
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