Mayank Agarwal demolished Maharashtra’s bowling attack as he powered Karnataka into the final of the Vijay Hazare trophy. Maharashtra’s batting failed to get going as they were bowled out for 160, before Karnataka chased it down with nine wickets in hand on Saturday.
The target was never going to be a big ask for a quality batting line-up as openers Agarwal (81 not out off 86 balls) and skipper Karun Nair (70 not out off 90 balls) took Karnataka home in only 30.3 overs.
In sublime form throughout the season, Agarwal has now become the highest ever run-getter in a single edition of the national one-day tournament with 633 runs.
Anupam Sanklecha, Pradeep Dadhe and Shrikant Mundhe didn’t have the pace to bother the two openers and repeated half volleys only made it easy.
While Agarwal was off the blocks faster, Karun started matching him stroke for stroke once spinners were introduced into the attack. Agarwal completed his half century and 600 runs in the tournament with another cover drive off left-arm seamer Divyang Himganekar.
Earlier, Mundhe (50) again played a good hand but none of the other batsmen could put up a fight. Seamer M Prasidh Krishna (2/26) and off spinner Krishnappa Gowtham (3/26) were the wreckers-in-chief.
Brief Scores: Maharashtra 160 in 44.3 overs (Shrikant Mundhe 50, Krishnappa Gowtham 3/26) lost to Karnataka 164/1 in 30.3 overs (Mayank Agarwal 81 not out, Karun Nair 70 not out) by nine wickets.
– With inputs from PTI