Vijay Hazare Trophy Final 2017/18: Mayank Continues Dominant Run as Karnataka Lift Title

Karnataka lifted the Vijay Hazare Trophy today after winning the final of the tournament against Saurashtra by 41 runs.

Riding on a yet another brilliant knock from Mayank Agarwal, Karnataka posted a decent total on the board. It wasn’t a match-winning score under any stress of imagination, but the bowlers made sure the score looked like a much bigger one.

It was Saurashtra skipper Cheteshwar Pujara who won the toss and put Karnataka in. They started off in a worst possible manners losing two crucial wickets without a substantial score on the board. The wickets to fall was a sure Karun Nair and a Lokesh Rahul who has represented  India quite successfully in the past.

They were the main batters on the team, so it was definitely a precarious situation for Karnataka to lose both of them so early on in the innings. It was Ravikumar Samarth who shared a brilliant stand with Mayank Agarwal who was doing about his job in an unfazed manner. Agarwal looked in tremendous touch and continued his rich vein of form.

He started taking on the bowlers with disdain. On the other hand, Samarth was rotating the strike along pretty well.

However, it was Mayank Agarwal who departed ten runs short of a well deserved century. Pavan Deshpande also chipped in with a useful 49. But Saurashtra lost some crucial wickets towards the end which didn’t allow them to bat their full quota of overs. They were eventually bowled out for 253 in only the 46^th over. Kamlesh Makvana was the pick of the Saurashtra bowlers finishing with 4/35 in his eight overs spell.

While chasing, Karnataka lost the early wicket of Samarth Vyas. Wickets kept falling from there on as none of the batsmen other than Cheteshwar Pujara could contribute in a big way. Avi Barot scored a fluent 30, but it was Cheteshwar Pujara who kept Saurashtra in the game.

He started off pretty slowly but struck some good shots to get them back on track.

However, there was a mini-collapse in the middle order, as far as Saurashtra were concerned. They lost three wickets which included the prized wicket of India international, Ravindra Jadeja.

Krishnappa Gowtham bowled exceptionally and kept chipping away with the wickets. Chirag Jani struck some powerful shots but couldn’t quite carry on and was dismissed on 21.

However, despite the fall of wickets, Pujara kept Saurashtra in the hunt with some exceptional shots. He kept finding the boundaries in the last phase of the match and turned it on for the crowd. However, he was unfortunately run out after making a valiant effort. He eventually fell six runs short of a well deserved century.

Brief Scores

Karnataka 253 all-out in 45.5 overs (Mayank Agarwal 90, Kamlesh Makvana 4/35)

Saurashtra 212 all-out in 46.3 overs ( Cheteshwar Pujara 94, Krishnappa Gowtham 3/27)

Karnataka won by 41 runs

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