Vijay Hazare Trophy | Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul star as Karnataka book place in final

Brief scores: Karnataka 229-1 (Padikkal 92 and Mandal 1/51) beat Chhattisgarh 223 all-out (Amandeep Khare 78 and V Koushik 4/46) by 9 wickets

After skipper Manish Pandey won the toss and elected to bowl first on a cloudy morning, pacer V Koushik gave the hosts the perfect start as he sent both the openers Jiwanjot Singh (6) and Shashank Singh (0) back to the hut for single-digit scores, before scalping the third wicket to leave Chhattisgarh reeling at 35-3.

Despite their star man Amandeep Khare (78) putting up a valiant fight, the underdogs kept losing wickets at regular intervals and at one stage looked like they were going to fall well short of the 200-run mark. However, a late blitz from Sumit Ruikar (40) down the order took their score to 223, with Abhimanyu Mithun, Krishnappa Gowtham and Praveen Dubey scalping two wickets each while Koushik, the pick of the bowlers, and claimed four wickets.

Chasing a modest target of 224, Karnataka's opening partnership of KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal put on a game-clinching 155-run stand for the first wicket, with the latter taking the attack to the Chhattisgarh bowlers. The teenager recorded his fifth consecutive fifty-plus score of the tournament but fell eight runs short of a third century, chopping one onto his stumps off the bowling of Ajay Mandal.

However, there was no respite for the Chhattisgarh bowlers as Mayank Agarwal, straight from Ranchi, continued his merry run with the bat, smashing an unbeaten 47 off just 33 balls to propel his team over the line. Both Rahul and Agarwal stayed unbeaten towards the end and ensured that Karnataka booked a place in the final without any hiccups. 

The Pandey-led side will now take on 2016/17 champions Tamil Nadu in a riveting 'South Derby' Final at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday.