Vijay Hazare Trophy | Devdutt Padikkal stars again as Karnataka exact revenge

Bengaluru: The in-form Devdutt Padikkal smashed his fourth century in five matches as defending champions Karnataka exacted a sweet revenge on Tripura and rose to the top of Group A in the Vijay Hazare Trophy after pace-setters Madhya Pradesh slipped against Puducherry in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

Riding on Padikkal’s 108, a counter-attacking 79 not out off 43 balls from the big-hitting Abhinav Manohar and 60 from R Smaran, Karnataka posted a formidable 332/7 in 50 overs at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

Pacer Vijaykumar Vyshak (3/54) and leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal (3/33) then bagged three wickets apiece as Karnataka bowled out Tripura for 252 in 49 overs, thereby avenging the bruising Super Over defeat they suffered against the same opponents in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the same venue last month.

With Madhya Pradesh suffering a shock four-wicket defeat against Puducherry, Karnataka seized top spot with 20 points from five matches. A win from the next two games will seal their spot in the quarterfinals, scheduled to be held at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence from January 12. Karnataka next play Rajasthan on January 6 before taking on MP on January 8.

MP are second on 16 points while Jharkhand and Kerala are placed third and fourth with 12 points each. 

Group A brief scores: Karnataka: 332/7 in 50 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 108, R Smaran 60, KL Rahul 35, Abhinav Manohar 79 n.o., Shreyas Gopal 29; Abhijit Sarkar 4-50) bt Tripura: 252 all out in 49 overs (Tejasvi Jaiswal 25, Rajat Dey 66, Swapnil Singh 100, Sentu Sarkar 26 n.o.; Vijaykumar Vyshak 3-54, Shreyas Gopal 3-33) by 80 runs. PoM: Devdutt Padikkal.

Madhya Pradesh: 228 all out in 49.5 overs (Shubham Sharma 47, Akshat Raghuwanshi 73, Aryan Pandey 46; Sagar Udeshi 2-19, Parth Vaghani 2-40, Aman Khan 3-58) lt to Puducherry: 229/6 in 43 overs (Ajay Rohera 41, Jashwanth Shreeram 29, Parameeswaran Sivaraman 65, Aman Khan 59 n.o.; Shubham Sharma 2-27) by 4 wkts. PoM: Aman Khan. 

Rajasthan: 225 all out in 46.5 overs (Aditya Rathore 34, Ramnivas Golada 28, Deepak Hooda 70, Manav Suthar 43; Gurjapneet Singh 2-44, Sonu Yadav 2-38, Varun Chakravarthy 4-25) bt Tamil Nadu: 215 all out in 41.4 overs (Athish SR 54, N Jagadeesan 71, Washington Sundar 36; Ashok Sharma 5-58, Manav Suthar 3-44) by 10 runs. PoM: Ashok Sharma.

Jharkhand: 311/7 in 50 overs (Kumar Kushagra 143 n.o., Anukul Roy 72; MD Nidheesh 4-46, Baba Aparajith 2-56) lt to Kerala: 313/2 in 42.3 overs (Sanju Samson 101, Rohan Kunnummal 124, Baba Aparajith 41 n.o., Vishnu Vinod 40 n.o.) by 8 wkts. PoM: Rohan Kunnummal.