Karnataka won Vijay Hazare Trophy

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.

Karnataka won Vijay Hazare Trophy

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.