Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25, Final Review: Smaran, Shrijith, Manohar shine in Karnataka's finale triumph

The stage was set for the summit clash of the Vijay Hazare Trophy as Karnataka took on Vidarbha in the at the Kotambi Stadium, Vadodara on Saturday, January 18.

The clash began with Karnataka coming in to bat first after losing the toss. Openers Mayank Agarawal and Devdutt Padikkal did not spend too much time in the middle, scoring 32 and eight respectively. Coming in at No. 3, KV Aneesh scored a sedate 21 off 27. After Karnataka’s top-order’s failed to go big, Ravichandran Smaran took the onus on himself, scoring a brilliant 101 off 92 including seven fours and three sixes.. 

Smaran's knock was well complimented by quickfire seventies from Krishnan Shrijith (78 off 74) and Abhinav Manohar (79 off just 42) as Karnataka posted a massive 348 on the board at the loss of six wickets. As for Vidarbha, Darshan Nalkande and Nachiket Bhute took two wickets each while Yash Thakur and Yash Kadam took one apiece. 

Dhruv Shorey’s knock goes in vain as Karnataka lift title

Coming out to chase, Vidarbha openers Dhruv Shorey and Yash Rathod gave the team a decent start before Rathod was was dismissed for 22 off 19. However, his partner Shorey put up a show, smashing 110 off 111 including eight fours and two sixes. Karun Nair, who was in red-hot form throughout the tournament, did not get going in the summit clash as he fell for 27 off 31 to Prasidh Krishna. He finished the tournament as the highest run-scorer by some distance, amassing 779 runs at staggering average of 389.50.

Yash Kadam (15 off 20) and Jitesh Sharma (34 off 43) hung around for a while but did not convert their starts. After the middle-order’s lacklustre performance, Harsh Dubey fought hard, hitting five sixes and fours each in his 30-ball 63 to keep his team alive. Despite his efforts, the lack of support from others meant that Vidarbha were eventually restricted to 312 as Karnataka won by 36 runs to lift the trophy.