Karnataka beat Tamil Nadu to bag fourth Vijay Hazare Trophy; Mithun shines with hat-trick

Bengaluru, October 25: Karnataka bagged their fourth Vijay Hazare Trophy pipping Tamil Nadu by 60 runs (VJD method) in a rain-marred final clash here at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday (October 25).

Asked to bat first, Tamil Nadu made 252 all out in 49.5 overs and Karnataka replied with 146 for 1 in 23 overs when the skies opened up to halt the proceedings. The match did not resume from that point, but the home side was well ahead of the VJD par score of 88, ensuring a title win for them.

There were multiple stars for Karnataka on the day. First it was the turn of pacer Abhimanyu Mithun to rock Tamil Nadu with a five-wicket haul that contained a hat-trick and the he became the first Karnataka bowler to take a hat-trick in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Mithun picked up his hat-trick in the final over of TN innings and his victims were Shahrukh Khan, M Mohammad and Murugan Ashwin. Earlier, Mithun had also consumed opener Murali Vijay and middle-order batsman Vijay Shankar as Tamil Nadu found it tough to get runs on a steady clip.

This despite fifties by Baba Aparajith (66) and opener Abhinav Mukund (85). Shankar got a start with a 35-ball 38 but could not last long to build on it.

The target of 252 was not a difficult one for this Karnataka team that was on a roll in this tournament. But it was tricky because of the weather conditions and a couple of early wickets might have put pressure on Karnataka to maintain the run-rate under VJD method.

Their worst fears seemed to be coming true when Devdutt Padikkal was cleaned up by Washington Sundar when Karnataka were on 34 in 4.3 overs. But that was the lone blip in their chase as KL Rahul (52 off 72 balls) and Mayank Agarwal (69, 55 balls, 7x4, 3x6) scorched the TN bowling for the second wicket stand that yielded 112 runs in just over 18 overs.

The alliance kept Karnataka well above the run calculations and in the end it proved decisive.

Karnataka skipper Manish Pandey was elated. "We are Very happy with the result. The mindset of the boys is they want to win every match they play. Hopefully, we will continue doing well in the season," said Pandey.

Meanwhile TN captain Dinesh Karthik said: "I think we played terrific cricket, one bad day doesn't make a bad team. This should give confidence to us going into the T20s and the Ranji Trophy."