Southern giants to clash in Vijay Hazare Trophy final

In what is expected to be a mouthwatering contest, Southern giants Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will be taking on each other in the finale of Vijay Hazare Trophy, after they thumped their semi-final opponents on Wednesday. The final will be played at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.

The first semi-final saw Chattisgarh lock horns with Karnataka at the latter's backyard. Being invited to bat first, the visitors could never manage to gain ascendancy in the game. Losing wickets at regular intervals right from the word go, Chattisgarh scraped through to a paltry total of 223, largely owing to a gritty 78 by young Amandeep Khare. For Karnataka, it was V Koushik who stood out with the ball, scalping four wickets.

The Karnataka batsmen came out all guns blazing in their pursuit of a spot in the final. Openers KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal put on a match-winning 155 run stand for the first wicket to snatch the game away from Chattisgarh's reach. While Padikkal, after scoring 92, perished in the 31st over, India's Test opener Mayank Agarwal joined hands with Rahul to ensure there were no further hiccups. The Karnataka superstars took the attack to the opposition and helped their team stomp home to victory in the 40th over, bringing the curtains down on a one-sided affair.

The second semi-final, between Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, was reduced to a 40-over-side contest due to the rain. Opting to field first, Tamil Nadu showcased remarkable skill with the ball to restrict Gujarat to 177. M Mohammed scalped 3 wickets to stand as the pick of the bowlers for Tamil Nadu while Dhruv Raval top-scored with a quickfire 40 for Gujarat.

A chase of 178, which was expected to be a cakewalk for Dinesh Karthik and Co, posed several hurdles along the way, thanks to spirited bowling effort by Gujarat. Picking 5 of the opposition's wickets for just 96, the Parthiv Patel-led side put on a resilient show and kindled hopes of pulling off an unlikely win. Their hopes though were dashed by Washington Sundar and Shahrukh Khan, who stitched an exceptional 85-run partnership for the sixth wicket to book Tamil Nadu's ticket to final.