Vijay Hazare Trophy: Mayank Agarwal shines as Karnakata defeat Saurashtra to clinch title

New Delhi: Sensible batting from opener Mayank Agarwal (90) helped Karnataka outplay Saurashtra by 41 runs in the final match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 50-overs cricket tournament in New Delhi on Tuesday. Following the win, Karnataka pacer Sreenath Arvind also announced his retirement from first-class and List A cricket. Chasing, 254, Saurashtra failed to get the start they wanted and started losing wickets at quick intervals. The first two wickets fell inside three overs with the scoreboard reading 15 runs. Apart from skipper Cheteshwar Pujara (94 in 127 balls), no other batsmen stepped up to the occasion and they gifted away their wickets. [caption id=“attachment_4369541” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Karnataka defeated Saurashtra by 41 runs to clinch the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Image courtesy: BCCI website[/caption] Pujara, however, tried to match the pace of the game but lack of support from the other end resulted in their loss. Prasidh Krishna and Krishnappa Gowtham took three wickets each for Karnataka. Put into bat, Karnataka started off on a bad note, losing Karun Nair (0) and KL Rahul (0) in first three overs in the innings. With scoreboard reading 5/2, Ravikumar Samarth (48) came in the middle and played handsomely. The duo forged 136-run partnership to stabilise the innings. But just when things seemed good in the middle, Agarwal was dismissed in the 25th over by Dharmendrasinh Jadeja. In his 79 ball innings, Agarwal played slammed 11 fours and three sixes. Soon, Samarth was also sent packing by Prerak Mankad in the next over to make it 147/4. Unperturbed by the fall of wickets, Incoming batsmen Pavan Deshpande (49) played a crucial knock in the middle overs. Apart from him, other batsmen Stuart Binny (5), Shreyas Gopal (31), Krishnappa Gowtham (9) could not add much to the score. In the 44th over, Deshpande was also dismissed by Kamlesh Makvana. Lower-order batsmen – Sreenath Aravind (13) and Pradeep T (1) –tried to contribute but were dismissed inside two overs after the fall of Despande’s wicket. For Saurastra, Kamlesh Makvana chipped in four wickets while Prerak Mankad took two wickets. Brief scores: Karnataka 253/10 (Mayank Agarwal 90, Pavan Deshpande 49; Kamlesh Makvana 4/32) against Saurashtra 212/10 (Cheteshwar Pujara 94; Krishnappa Gowtham 3/27).