Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25: Karun Nair scores fourth consecutive List A century in quarter-finals against Rajasthan

The Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) 2024-25 is down to just four teams after the quarter-finals concluded today. The semi-finals are due to start from January 15 and there have been a number of notable performances including Karun Nair's. The Vidarbha captain has been delivering impressive performances in the tournament.

Nair might have not gone on to play a lot of international cricket but that has not stopped him from giving some of his best performances in domestic cricket this season. The 33-year-old has continued his purple patch in VHT where he brought up his fourth consecutive century in the quarter-final against Rajasthan and became only the third Indian batter to score four back-to-back tons in List A cricket after Karnataka’s Devdutt Padikkal and Tamil Nadu's star Narayan Jagadeesan in the tournament. He also equalled Jagadeesan's tally of five centuries in the VHT. 

Talking about the match, the Rajasthan team put up a competitive total of 291 on the board. However, the Nair-led Vidarbha side had other ideas as openers Dhruv Shorey and Yash Rathod put up 92 runs for the first wicket.

Also Read - Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25: Devdutt Padikkal hammers sensational ton in quarter-final

After Rathod’s dismissal, the Vidarbha skipper joined the party with Shorey and scored another incredible century. Nair ended up being unbeaten on 122 runs which he scored from just 82 deliveries. This was enough to put Vidarbha through to the semi-finals, winning the game by nine wickets in the end. Nair’s innings included 13 fours and five sixes and ended with a strike rate of 148.78.

This innings has now made Nair the leading run scorer in the VHT so far where he has scored 664 runs from six innings at a phenomenal average of 664 as well. This is a dream run for Nair in domestic cricket and it is safe to say he has led from the front in this tournament. The next two players on the run chart are Karnataka skipper Mayank Agarwal (619 runs from eight innings) and Punjab’s wicketkeeper-batter Prabhsimran Singh (498 runs from eight innings).