karnataka 238 for 5 (Padikkal 86, Smaran 76, Sindhu 2-47) won Haryana 237 for 9 (Ankit 48, Himanshu 44, Shetty 4-34, Shreyas 2-36, Prasidh 2-40) for five wickets
Four-time champions Karnataka were shaken early in the chase when their competition’s leading scorer, captain Mayank Agarawal, went down in the opener. Anshul Kamboj got a full ball to come in and hit Agarawal at the knee, showing Hawkeye to clip the stumps. Padikkal, his opening partner since returning from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, managed to hold off the uneven bounce and hit some fours even as KV Aneesh struggled at the other end. The number 3 bat played 14 straight before bowling Sumit Kumar over deep midwicket for a meaty six.
If Padikkal put Karnataka’s chase on track with his 62-run partnership with Aneesh, he destroyed Haryana’s hopes with his alliance with Smaran. The pair took their time to calm down, especially when Haryana called in their spinners, Amit and Sindhu. They were getting some balls to spin, some jumped off the heavy, but Padikkal broke the deadlock by coming close to Sindhu and smoking her for a long time. She looked calm for most of her stay until she played a cross-court shot, intending to end the chase quickly, and edged past Sindhu at mid-wicket with Karnataka 44 behind.
Smaran also scored a classy fifty, hitting three fours and three sixes and fell 76 off 94 with Karnataka 13 behind.
Earlier in the day, Haryana was inserted and got off to a steady start through openers Arsh Ranga and Himanshu. Their partnership should have been snapped in the fifth over when Ranga edged Koushik, but Krishnan Shrijith couldn’t hold on. That didn’t cost Karnataka as Shetty struck with his second ball for Ranga to put one ahead for Padikkal.
That was Karnataka’s only success in some time as Himanshu and Amit scored fluently. They were also helped by some wayward bowling, with Prasidh bowling some wide downs. Shrijith’s mishandling of the gloves also resulted in a few breaks. Haryana’s second-wicket pair were doing well to establish a foundation. That’s when Agarawal turned to apply the brakes.
Shreyas and left-arm spinner Hardik Raj tested both edges of the batsmen, with the former using the googly to excellent effect. After denying Haryana captain Ankit a fifty, Himanshu had an ill-timed run down the surface against Raj and was stumped by Shrijith. Those twin wickets gave Karnataka enough of a chance. Dinesh Bana, Rahul Tewatia and Sumit Kumar started but none lasted more than 36 balls.
But that didn’t bother Karnataka, which made regular inroads to trigger a collapse. One that was enough to propel Karnataka to their first Vijay Hazare Trophy final since 2019-20 after three semi-finals and a quarter-final appearance in the last four editions. They will face the winner of Vidarbha vs Maharashtra in the final on Saturday.
