The Vijay Hazare Trophy has reached the business end of the tournament, culminating in the semi-final results, where Karnataka triumphed over the defending champions, Haryana, to secure their fifth final appearance in the tournament's history. Karnataka bowler Abhilash Shetty was the standout performer, taking 4 wickets to restrict Haryana to a modest total. Devdutt Paddikal and Smaran Ravichandran played crucial roles in the chase, leading their team to victory by five wickets.
Haryana opted to bat first and got off to a decent start, with their top-order batters scoring steadily. However, it was Shreyas Gopal who provided Karnataka with their first breakthrough, which opened the floodgates for wickets to tumble. Abhilash Shetty's wicket-taking ability kept Karnataka in control throughout the match.
Late Flourish
With some late contributions from Haryana's tailenders, they managed to reach 237/9 by the end of their 50 overs. The top scorers for Haryana were captain Ankit Kumar, who scored 48 runs off 52 balls, and Himanshu Rana, who made 44 runs off 75 balls. Karnataka's bowling attack was led by Abhilash Shetty, who took 4 wickets for 34 runs, along with Shreyas Gopal, who claimed 2 wickets for 36 runs.
Chasing a target below par, Karnataka's captain Mayank Agarwal was dismissed for a duck (0 runs off 3 balls), giving Haryana the early advantage. However, Devdutt Paddikal soon took charge of the innings; he bided his time while ensuring his team didn't lose any further wickets. Aneeh KV departed after contributing a valuable 22 runs off 47 balls. Smaran Ravichandran joined Paddikal in the middle and looked strong from the very first ball.
Easy Chase
Paddikal and Ravichandran forged a solid partnership, with Ravichandran playing aggressively while Paddikal maintained his natural game. The pair added 128 runs to the team's total before Nishant Sandhu from Haryana broke the partnership by dismissing Paddikal, who fell just short of a century, scoring 86 runs off 113 balls, including 8 fours and 1 six. Following Paddikal's departure, Ravichandran also missed out on his century, scoring 76 runs off 94 balls, featuring 3 fours and 3 sixes.
Despite losing two quick wickets of set batters, Karnataka remained in firm control. Shreyas Gopal finished the chase with 23 runs off 20 balls, sealing the victory with 3 overs to spare. Karnataka defeated Haryana by 5 wickets in Vadodara, earning a place in the finals.
