Karnataka too strong for depleted Mumbai, make Vijay Hazare Trophy semis

It was left to Shams Mulani (86 off 91 balls), the all-rounder who has performed rescue acts consistently across formats over the last few seasons, but it wasn’t enough.

Asked to bat first, Mumbai openers Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Ishan Mulchandani started on a cautious note as the Karnataka seamers were on the money with the new ball and saw off the first 10 overs without any damage.

But the slow start put them at a disadvantage when they lost quick wickets as Vidyadhar Patil, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Vidwath Kaverappa landed crucial blows. In between the 12th and 18th overs, Mumbai lost Raghuvanshi, Mulchandani, Musheer Khan and Hardik Tamore.

From there on, Karnataka hardly loosened their grip. While Siddhesh Lad (38 off 58), captaining in Thakur’s absence, arrested the slide in the company of Mulani, runs were hard to come by. With the likes of Suyansh Shedge and Tanush Kotian to come, had Lad stayed till the 40th over, Mumbai may have targeted a score around 280. But with Lad departing in the 34th over, it proved too big an ask for Mulani. Mumbai ended up with 254/8 with Sairaj Patil playing a cameo of 33.

Karnataka didn’t need to do anything extraordinary in the chase. Devdutt Padikkal, who has been in rich form throughout the tournament, continued from where he left off in Ahmedabad. Though he lost captain Mayank Agarwal early, Karun Nair gave him perfect support. The left-right duo effortlessly jogged to the target, milking 11 boundaries each before bad light and later steady drizzle stopped play with Padikkal on 81 and Nair on 74.

Karnataka were 187/1 after 33 overs at that stage and had already done enough to get into the semifinals.

Brief scores: Mumbai 254/8 in 50 ovs (Shams Mulani 86; Vidyadhar Patil 3/42) lost to Karnataka 187/1 in 33 ovs (Devdutt Padikkal 81 n.o, Karun Nair 74 n.o) by 55 runs (VJD Method).

Saurashtra beat UP

At the adjacent Ground 2, the Uttar Pradesh vs Saurashtra game was heading for a close finish until the drizzle arrived with the latter needing 72 off 59 deliveries with seven wickets in hand, prevailing on the VJD system.

Put into bat, Uttar Pradesh were pegged back with timely strikes. Opener Abhishek Goswami kept losing partners but kept the scoreboard moving. He contributed 88 off 82 deliveries with 12 boundaries before departing in the 34th over.

By then, the talented Sameer Rizvi had got his eye in. It has been a mixed season for the 22-year-old, but he maintained the tempo with Prashant Veer and the lower order providing support. Rizvi’s unbeaten 88 off 77 deliveries (10x4s, 2x6s) helped Uttar Pradesh to 310/8.

In reply, Harvik Desai provided the charge at the top despite losing Vishvaraj Jadeja early. With all-rounder Prerak Mankad providing solid support, Desai constructed a fine century, as he went about laying a platform the old-fashioned away, getting to the landmark off 116 deliveries just as the drizzle picked up.

While Mankad made 67 and Sammar Gajjar departed for 14, Chirag Gani was batting on 40 off 31 balls before the game came to a halt with Saurashtra 17 runs ahead on the VJD system.

Brief scores: UP 310/8 in 50 overs (Sameer Rizvi 88 not out, Abhishek Goswami 88; Chetan Sakariya 3/54) lost to Saurashtra 238/3 in 40.1 ovs (Harvik Desai 100 not out, Prerak Mankad 67) by 17 runs (VJD Method).