Young opener Devdutt Padikkal sent a strong message to the national selectors before England ODIs as he slammed his fourth consecutive List A ton as Karnataka beat Kerala by 80 runs in a quarter-final game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Monday.
Karnataka rode on skipper Ravikumar Samarth’s knock of 192 off 158 balls and a stroke-filled 101 by 20-year-old left-handed Padikkal (off 119 balls) to post an imposing 338/3 and then bundled out the opposition for 258. Kerala’s decision to put Karnataka into bat backfired badly, as Samarth and Padikkal toyed with their attack with a massive 249-run partnership for the first wicket.
He completed his century in 112 balls and was aggressive right from the start, while Padikkal hammered 10 boundaries and two maximums.
It was a Samarth-Padikkal show as Karnataka were going strong at 196/0 after 35 overs having laid the foundation for a mammoth total.
While Padikkal continued his fabulous show in the national ODI tournament and in the process scored his 4th consecutive List A century and became the first Indian to do so, Samarth surpassed veteran Wasim Jaffer’s unbeaten 170 to register the highest score in a Vijay Hazare knock-out match.
For Kerala, right-arm medium pacer Basil NP (3/57) was the pick of the bowlers, while others had an off-day.
Gujarat in semis
Skipper Priyank Panchal’s stroke-filled 134 and an equally impressive show from the bowlers set up Gujarat’s massive 117-run win over Andhra in the second quarter-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Gujarat rode on Panchal’s 134 to post a competitive 299 for 7 and then bundled out the opposition for 182, to make it to the semi-final. India Test star and Andhra captain Hanuma Vihari was out for a five-ball duck.