Vijay Hazare Trophy: Padikkal stars once again in Karnataka win
CHENNAI: DEVDUTT Padikkal continued his golden run with the bat as his unbeaten 81 helped the hosts to a comfortable win over Mumbai in one of the two quarterfinals of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence facility in the city on Monday. Chasing 255, the southpaw, who began this game on the back of a sequence of 147, 124, 22, 113, 108, 91 and 35, added another effort to further brighten his case of selection for the country's white-ball sides going forward.
On a day filled with some rain the air, the visitors may have thought they had a sniff after posting 254, thanks mainly to Shams Mulani's 91-ball 86. But Karnataka, despite losing captain Mayank Agarwal early, doubled down thanks to Padikkal and Karun Nair. The duo didn't put a foot wrong and their unbroken second wicket stand was poised to take them home when bad light and some rain disrupted proceedings. No further play was possible and the hosts, on 187/1 after 33 overs, were declared winners by 55 runs on the VJD method.
The holders have a clean bill of health and will fancy their chances of retaining the title. What has worked for them has been Padikkal's incredible consistency at the top. When the men's selection committee named the squad for the New Zealand series, the left-hander's name was absent even though he has been in scorching form.
While the form he has shown in the ongoing event is nothing surprising — his career List A average is a barely believable 84.6 after 40 innings — what he has added to his bow is that hunger for runs. Never being satisfied is a good trait to have and if he continues this form going forward, expect him to knocking on the India door before too long.
In the other last eight clash on Monday in the adjacent ground, Saurashtra prevailed over Uttar Pradesh by 17 runs via the VJD method. The match was poised with Saurashtra requiring 73 runs off 59 balls with seven wickets when the elements intervened. But Saurashtra were just about ahead of the rate and when it became clear that no more play would be possible, they won. They had opener Harvik Deai to thank as his unbeaten 100 off 116 balls formed the rock in their chase of 311. While he was the anchor, Prerak Mankad's all-round show (67 and 2/47) also helped them.
Brief scores: Mumbai 254/8 in 50 ovs (Raghuvanshi 27, Siddhesh 38, Mulani 86, Sairaj 33 n.o, Kaverappa 2/43, Shetty 2/59, Vidyadhar 3/42) lost to Karnataka 187/1 in 33 ovs (Padikkal 81 n.o, Karun 74 n.o) Win by VDJ method
Tuesday's matches: Punjab vs MP, Delhi vs Vidarbha