Mayank Agarwal well earned confidence through
his Test exploits did Karnataka a world of good as he smashed an unbeaten
55-ball 69, while KL Rahul too reached a half-century to put Karnataka on
course to their fourth Vijay Hazare Trophy title win in the last seven seasons.
Tamil Nadu would've gone into the innings break
knowing fully well that they finished about 15 runs short of a truly
competitive total, and began their defence of 252 with spin from both ends. The
bowling pair were all over the place in the first couple of overs, until
Washington Sundar got one ball to utterly fox the in-form Devdutt Padikkal and
force him to play the wrong line and get bowled.
But that's how far Tamil Nadu would go with the
ball, as Mayank joined Rahul in Karnataka's quest for a successful run-chase at
large, and a swift partnership to take the VJD par-score out of the way as dark
clouds hovered over. To their advantage, Dinesh Karthik's bowling options
weren't inspiring enough to force the chaser to a corner.
Karthik's expectation of his quicks replicating
what Karnataka's pacers pulled off didn't come to fruition, as Mayank and Rahul
unfurled drives at will. At the 10-over mark, Karnataka had 64 runs on the
board for the loss of one wicket. Such was Karnataka's grip on proceedings that
Karthik summoned his entire side for an impromptu team huddle to figure the
best way ahead.
