Robin Uthappa slammed a 135-ball 133 to set up Karnataka’s 21-run win over a spirited Jharkhand as the Ranji and Irani Trophy champions stormed into the Vijay Hazare Trophy final at the JU second campus ground in Salt lake here on Friday.
Ishank Jaggi kept Jharkhand in the hunt with a more belligerent ton hitting 144 from 121 balls in an 87-run partnership with skipper Saurabh Tiwary (47) but Karnataka skipper R Vinay Kumar (4/75) took two wickets in two balls after H S Sharath dismissed the centurion to restrict Jharkhand to 302/9 in the stipulated 50 overs.
In pursuit of an unprecedented hattrick of titles at the domestic level, Karnataka will face the winners of Bengal and Jharkhand in the one-day tournament summit clash at Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Earlier, Uthappa’s masterclass knock laced with 12 boundaries and four sixes set the momemtum for Karnataka who were sent in on a batting friendly strip. Uthappa, who had struck 132 not out in their quarters against Gujarat, began from where he had left as he shared two century plus partnerships with Mayank Agarwal and lokesh Rahul.
Raliways beat Bengal
Railways put up an all-round performance to down Bengal by five wickets in a low-scoring match and set up final with Karnataka at the Eden Gardens. Bengal’s inept batting coupled with the defensive strategy to shave off the green top on the eve of the match brought the home team’s downfall as it was bundled out for a paltry 185 in 47.4 overs. In reply, Railways openers feasted on the Bengal attack to put on a 109-run partnership with Amit Paunikar scoring 83 before Ashok Dinda gave made the first breakthrough in the 22nd over.
Brief Scores
Karnataka: 323/6 (Robin Uthappa 133, lokesh Rahul 67; Rahul Shukla 3/59) beat Jharkhand: 302/9 (Ishank Jaggi 141; R Vinay Kumar 4/75, Abhimanyu Mithun 3/52) by 21 runs.
Bengal: 185 (Manoj Tiwary 61; Chanderpal Saini 3/25) lost to Railways: 188/5 (Amit Paunikar 83, Shivakant Shukla 56*; Veer Pratap Singh 3/54) by 5 wickets.