Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Abhimanyu Mithun’s five-wicket haul helps Karnataka thrash Haryana; Tamil Nadu beat Rajasthan to enter final

Surat: Pacer Abhimanyu Mithun, openers Devdutt Padikkal and KL Rahul starred as defending champions Karnataka romped into the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after thrashing Haryana by 8 wickets in the first semi-final on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_148305” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Abhimanyu Mithun took a five-wicket haul as Karnataka stormed into the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Reuters[/caption] The highlight of the match was Mithun (5/39) taking five wickets in an over including a hat-trick and registering his name in the record books. Mithun became the first bowler in the domestic circuit to claim hat-trick in all the formats. He had snared a hat-trick in the Vijay Hazare (national ODI championship) final against Tamil Nadu earlier this year. In the 20th over of the innings, he dismissed Himanshu Rana (61) and Rahul Tewatia (32) off the first two balls and completed his hat-trick by sending back Sumit Kumar (0). There was more drama in store as Mithun got a wicket on the fourth ball, that of Amit Mishra (0), and then sent back Jayant Yadav (0) on the final ball of the over. Asked to bat first, Haryana piled up 194/8 on the board but Karnataka chased it in 15 overs, thanks to blazing half-centuries by openers Devdutt Padikkal (87) and KL Rahul (66), who took the opposition attack to the cleaners. In the second semi-final, Tamil Nadu bowlers dished out a clinical show to restrict Rajasthan to 112/9 after putting them to bat. For Rajasthan, barring two-down Rajesh Bishnoi (23), no batsman showed spine as the southern outfit grabbed wickets at regular intervals. A patient unbeaten 22 by Ravi Bishnoi helped Rajasthan cross the 100-run mark. For Tamil Nadu, all-rounder Vijay Shankar (2-13) was the pick of the bowlers. Tamil Nadu then rode on a gritty unbeaten 54 by all-rounder Washington Sundar as they overhauled the target with 2.1 overs to spare. Sundar played a responsible knock as he held the innings from one end. India’s key spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, in a surprise move, opened the batting and scored valuable 31 runs off 33 balls. After Ashwin departed, Sundar took the side home. Brief Scores: Haryana 194/8 (Himanshu Rana 61, Chaitanya Bishnoi 55; Abhimayu Mithun 5-39) lost to Karnataka 195/2 (Devdutt Padikkal 87, KL Rahul 66; Harshal Patel 1-28). Rajasthan 112/9(Rajesh Bishnoi 23, Ravi Bishnoi 22 not out; Vijay Shankar 2-13) lost to Tamil Nadu 116/3 (Washington Sundar 54 not out; Ravichandran Ashwin 31; Deepak Chahar 1-11) by seven wickets.