Karnataka 348 for 6 wickets (Smarn 101, Manohar 79, Sreejit 78, Nalkande 2-67) defeated Vidarbha 312 (Shore 110, H Dubey 63, Kaushik 3-47, Shetty 3-58) by 36 runs
Dubey, on the basis of Shore’s third consecutive century, scored a half-century in 25 balls in the lower order and brought the equation to 37 runs in 12 balls. In the end, Dubey ran out of partners and was the last man out when he edged left-arm fast bowler Abhilash Shetty to deep midwicket, giving Karnataka the win to break their five-year trophy drought.
The game was evenly contested for the most part. Put in to bat, Karnataka lost in-form Devdutt Padikkal in the sixth over, before KV Anish and Mayank Agarwal took the innings forward.
The dismissal of Sreejeet in the 38th over forced Manohar to step in and he enhanced his reputation of being a finisher with some excellent hitting, not once giving the impression that he was slogging. At 24 off 25 at the end of the 44th over, Manohar regained the lead by hitting Bhute in the order of 4, 4, 6 to start the 45th over.
When Bhute bowled a length ball down the pitch, Manohar used the angle to take a four behind point. When Bhute bowled a wide yorker, he edged it to the deep-cover fence, and when he missed the yorker, Manohar stayed inside the crease and shoveled the ball to clear long-off.
Thakur had to bear the brunt of Manohar’s anger in the next over when he was dismissed for hitting two fours in the 46th over and three consecutive fours in the 48th over, as Vidarbha’s attack started to slow down. Karnataka got 83 runs in the last seven overs as they got excellent finishing.
Vidarbha started the chase quickly, but lost the previous game’s centurion Yash Rathod for 22 when he got an edge from Padikkal at slip. Nair and Shorey then made a half-century partnership to boost Vidarbha’s hopes.
Nair was particularly brilliant in his short stay, punching and pulling Prasidh Krishna through cover and midwicket, and then driving past legspinner Shreyas Gopal at the first hint of spin. But he was out for 27 off 31 balls when he failed to cover the line of the Prasidh inker, who was placed slightly low.
Vidarbha then combined with Jitesh Sharma to score a half-century with Shorey before being dismissed at long-on. That wicket not only emboldened Karnataka but also freed Vidarbha to break like Dubey. With some support, he might still have been able to carry out the robbery, but that did not happen.
Shashank Kishore is senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo













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