From the moment he smashed an
exquisite cover drive off the very first delivery of the match bowled by
Saurashtra Jaydev Unadkat, it was more or less clear that Karnataka opener
Mayank Agarwal was ready for big one.
It
was the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy but Mayank showed no
nerves and with the Karnataka players being used to playing such games, they
had the last laugh at the end of the day. Saurashtra, who had hoped to pull off
an upset win, lost the match by 41 runs at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. This
is Karnataka's first domestic trophy of the season after having lost out on the
Ranji Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
Asked to bat first, Karnataka
failed to last their full quota of overs as they were bowled out for 253 in
45.5 overs. However, the total proved quite a handful for Saurashtra, who in
reply, folded up for 212 in 46.3 overs. Saurashtra had a bright start to
the day as they were able to send back two of Karnataka's accomplished batsmen
with just five on the board. Skipper Karun Nair and KL Rahul fell without
troubling the scorers in the third over of the game. However, Mayank, who has
been in sublime form this season, never let those setbacks affect his game. He
and Ravi Kumar Samarth (48) got the innings back on track with a 136-run stand
for the third wicket before he fell.
Mayank dominating innings of 90 off
just 79 balls was studded with 11 fours and three sixes. He was in such good
knick that even a mistimed shot went over the boundary. It was unfortunate that
he fell 10 short of what would have been another well-deserved century. After
Mayank departure, the Karnataka batsmen failed to build on the foundation.
Pavan Deshpande (49) and Shreyas Gopal (31) took the score beyond the 250 mark.
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