Karnataka have won the Vijay Hazare trophy 2019-20 by beating Tamil Nadu in the final. It’s the 4th time that Karnataka have won this tournament.
Having started the season as one of the favourites, Karnataka met the expectations right through. They lost just one game in the group stage and topped their group standings. And then, in the knockouts as well, they won all their games comprehensively.
Today, in the final against Tamil Nadu, Karnataka had a tough challenge at their hands as Tamil Nadu also had quite a few internationals in their ranks, but at the end, it proved to be a one-sided affair with Karnataka absolutely stream-rolling over their opposition.
The Karnataka skipper Manish Pandey won the toss and opted to chase. Tamil Nadu threw a surprise early on as they put the off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin at no. 3. That move, however, didn’t pay dividends as Ashwin could score only 8 runs off 13 balls.
Abhimanyu Mithun made the early inroads for Karnataka and eventually ended with a 5-fer which included a hattrick as well.
Tamil Nadu got to a respectable total of 252 courtesy the half centuries of Abhinav Mukund and Baba Aparajith, but 252 was never going to be enough against the mighty Karnataka batting.
Although Washington Sundar removed Devdutt Padikkal early, KL Rahul took the responsibility upon himself, as he had done in the entire season for Karnataka, and stitched a century partnership with Mayank Agarwal for the second wicket to put the chase on course.
Karnataka were cruising at 1 for 146 in 23 overs when the rain interrupted the play. The Duckworth-Lewis par score at that stage was 86 and Karnataka were way ahead of that.
Here is a summary of the scores –
Tamil Nadu: 252 all out in 49.5 overs (Abhinav Mukund 85, Baba Aparajith 66, Abhimanyu Mithun 34/5)
Karnataka: 146/1 in 23 overs (KL Rahul 52, Mayank Agarwal 69, Washington Sundar 51/1)
