Vijay Hazare Trophy:Karnataka thrash Saurashtra to clinch title

Riding on Mayank Agarwal's blistering 90-run knock, Karnataka thrashed Saurashtra by 41 runs to lift Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground here in the national capital on Tuesday.

After being asked to bat first, Karnataka failed to make great start to their innings,losing both opener Karun Nair and first drop KL Rahul for duck.

Thereafter, Mayank steadied his side's innings as he not only notched up 79-ball 90 runs, including four boundaries and three sixes, but also shared a 136-run stand with Ravikumar Samarth (48) for the third wicket.

Pavan Deshpande (49) and Shreyas Gopal (31) also made notable contributions to help Karnataka post a respectable total of 253 runs against Saurashtra in the title clash.

In reply, Karnataka's Prasidh Krishna struck twice to dismiss Saurashtra batsmen SB Vyas (10) and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (one) inside three overs.

Subsequently, opener Avi Barot (30) and Saurashtra skipper Cheteshwar Pujara (94) tried to steady the innings, but loss of wickets at regular intervals continued hurting them as the side eventually bundled out for 212 runs in 46.3 overs.

Krishnappa Gowtham was the pick of the bowlers for Karnataka for his figures of three for 27 followed by M Prasidh Krishna, who finished with the figures of three for 37.

Meanwhile,Stuart Binny and Pavan Deshpande also chipped in with a wicket each.

Mayank, who has had a dream season with scores of 109, 84, 28, 102, 89, 140, 81 and 90 in eight matches for Karnataka, was declared `Player of the Match` for his brilliant batting performance.

Meanwhile,it was Karnataka's third triumph in the Vijay Hazare, having earlier clinched the coveted trophy in 2013-14 and 2014-15

-- ANI