Karun slams fifth ton as Vidarbha enter semifinals; Haryana in last four

VADODARA: Vidarbha outclassed Rajasthan by nine wickets, while Haryana edged out Gujarat by two wickets to move into the semifinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Sunday.

In the semi-finals, Haryana will be up against Karnataka on Wednesday, while Vidarbha will face Maharashtra on Thursday here.

Karun Nair continued his red-hot form in this edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, striking his fifth hundred —a whirlwind unbeaten 82-ball 122 (13x4, 5x6) — which was also his fourth ton in the last five innings.

Karun had able support from fellow centurion Dhruv Shorey (118 not out, 131b, 10x4, 3x6) as they added 200 runs for the unbroken second wicket in just over 29 overs, propelling Vidarbha past the target of 292 in 43.3 overs.

The 33-year-old now has 664 runs from eight matches at an astonishing average of 664.

He is now on par with former Karnataka teammate Devdutt Padikkal, former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara and ex-South African batter Alviro Petersen as batters with four successive List A hundreds.

The record for most consecutive List A hundreds currently stands in the name of Narayan Jagadeesan, who smashed five centuries on the trot in the 2021-22 edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Coming in at one down, Karun just had to build on the splendid 92-run start to the chase given by Shorey and Yash Rathod (39) and he did that job to perfection.

Earlier, several Rajasthan batters made start but none of them actually converted into a bigger score.

Kartik Sharma (62, 61b, 2x4, 4x6), Shubham Garhwal (59, 59b, 5x4, 4x6) were the main run-getters and then there were scattered scores such as a 31 (14b) by Deepak Chahar, a 45 (49b) by Deepak Hooda and a 32 (45b) by skipper Mahipal Lomror.

Medium pacer Yash Thakur (4/39) helped Vidarbha restrict their rival to a sub-300 total.

Haryana squeeze through

Haryana survived a fine spell by India leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (4/46) as they made a heavy weather of the chase of a seemingly easy 197 set by Gujarat.

Earlier, Hemang Patel made 54 (62b) but Anuj Thakral and Nishant Sindhu took six wickets among them equally between them to derail Gujarat.

Himanshu Rana, who made 66 off 89 balls, anchored Haryana’s chase and they then rode on bits and pieces contribution from the rest of the batters to reach home.

However, Gujarat skipper Axar Patel, who is in the India squad for the T20I series against England, had a poor outing, making just three with the bat and going wicketless in 10 overs in which he conceded 41 runs.

Brief scores:

Gujarat: 196 all out in 45.2 overs (Hemang Patel 54, Chintan Gaja 32; Anuj Thakral 3/39, Nishant Sindhu 3/40) lost to Haryana: 201/8 in 44 overs (Himanshu Rana 66, Parth Vats 38; Ravi Bishnoi 4/46) by 2 wickets.

Rajasthan: 291/8 in 50 overs (Kartik Sharma 62, Shubham Garhwal 59, Deepak Hooda 45, Deepak Chahar 31; Yash Thakur 4/39) lost to Vidarbha: 292/1 in 43.3 overs (Karun Nair 122 not out, Dhruv Shorey 118 not out) by 9 wickets.