Vijay Hazare Trophy | Madhya Pradesh hammer Karnataka to seal quarters ticket

Sidney Kiran: A determined Madhya Pradesh brought fire to the field in a must-win final Elite Group A Vijay Hazare Trophy encounter against Karnataka, trouncing the on-song defending champions by seven wickets to secure the second quarterfinal spot in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

With Kerala and Jharkhand -- both on 16 points, the same as MP -- the final set of group games carried a lot of significance for all three sides except Karnataka, who had already buttoned down the top spot in the group and a knockout ticket.

Of the quarterfinal chasing trio, MP faced the toughest examination but the Venkatesh Iyer-led side came out guns blazing to decimate Karnataka with 26.4 overs to spare. Despite the massive win, MP faced some anxious moments as a simple win for Kerala against Tamil Nadu would have taken them into the knockouts on the basis of superior run-rate. But Kerala fluffed their lines badly, losing by 77 runs.

First left-arm spinner Shivang Kumar laid the foundation for MP, his superb 5/45 skittling Karnataka for 207 in 47.4 overs at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Openers Mayank Agarwal (49) and Devdutt Padikkal (35) yet again laid the foundation but middle-order’s inconsistency came to the fore again as none of the batters was able to counter Shivang.

MP batters then took the Karnataka attack to the cleaners, first openers Yash Dubey (40) and Himanshu Mantri (34) scoring at run-a-ball to set things up nicely. Skipper Ventakesh, coming in at one-drop, then led from the front with a blistering 33-ball 65 not out to fuel MP’s rapid chase.

Karnataka signed off with 24 points from 7 games while MP finished second with 20.  

In the quarterfinals on January 12 at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence, Karnataka will take on arch-rivals Mumbai while Uttar Pradesh play Saurashtra. On the next day, MP clash with Punjab and Delhi play Vidarbha.

Elite Group A brief scores: Karnataka: 207 all out in 47.4 overs (Mayank Agarwal 49, Devdutt Padikkal 35, Vidyadhar Patil 34 n.o.; Shivang Kumar 5-45) lt to Madhya Pradesh: 208/3 in 23.2 overs (Yash Dubey 40, Himanshu Mantri 34, Venkatesh Iyer 65 n.o., Akshat Raghuwanshi 26, Tripuresh Singh 36 n.o.) by 7 wkts. PoM: Shivang Kumar.

Tamil Nadu: 294/8 in 50 overs (Athish SR 33, N Jagadeesan 139, C Andre Siddarth 27, Boopathi Kumar 35; Eden Apple Tom 6-46) bt Kerala: 217 all out in 40.2 overs (Rohan Kunnummal 73, Baba Aparajith 35, Vishnu Vinod 35, Salman Nazir 25; Sai Kishore, Sachin Rathi 4-52, Mohamed Ali 4-36) by 77 runs. PoM: N Jagadeesan.

Rajasthan: 269/8 in 50 overs (Ramnivas Golada 64, Karan Lamba 108, Kukna Ajay Singh 31; Sagar Udeshi 3-32, Nitin Pranaav 2-51) bt Puducherry: 137 all out in 26.5 overs (Nitin Pranaav 56; Khaleel Ahmed 2-30, Danish Bhambhu 3-35, Manav Suthar 2-38, Ashok Sharma 2-27) by 132 runs. PoM: Karan Lamba.

Tripura: 320 all out in 50 overs (Sridam Paul 150, Rajat Dey 102; Sushant Mishra 6-52) bt Jharkhand: 123 all out in 31.1 overs (Kumar Kushagra 26, Rajandeep Singh 29, Manishi 40; Abhijit Sarkar 4-40, Ajay Sarkar 2-23, Swapnil Singh 2-28) by 197 runs. PoM: Sridam Paul.

Quarters line-up Jan 12: Karnataka vs Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh vs Saurashtra. Jan 13: Punjab vs Madhya Pradesh, Delhi vs Vidarbha. Note: The semis is scheduled for Jan 15 & 16 while the final will be played on Jan 18. All knockouts at BCCI’s CoE.