Powered by stellar performances from Jaydev Unadkat and Prerak Mankad, Saurashtra defeated Karnataka and advanced to the Vijay Hazare Trophy final

On Wednesday in Ahmedabad, Saurashtra defeated Karnataka by five wickets to advance to the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Veteran left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat produced a fantastic four-wicket haul, and Prerak Mankad put on a display that was impressive in all facets of the game for Saurashtra.

Karnataka’s top-order was shaken up by Jaydev Unadkat, who dismissed skipper Mayank Agarwal (1) and keeper-batter BR Sharath (3) for a low score. This was followed by Mankad, who brought Karnataka’s score down to 47 for 4 inside of 19 overs by taking the wickets of Nikin Jose (12) and Manish Pandey (0) in the space of four balls.

Because of the difficulty of the situation, seven of Karnataka’s batters were unable to reach double figures before the end of their innings, which ended with 171 runs scored in 49.1 overs.

In their response, the defending champions from Saurashtra completed their run chase in 36.2 overs, with No. 3 batsman Jay Gohil leading the way with the highest score with 61 runs off 82 balls, including eight fours and one six.

In addition, Mankad made an important contribution by scoring 35 runs off of 32 balls during the crucial 53-run partnership that he and Gohil put together to almost completely resolve the issue.

Earlier on, opener Ravikumar Samarth (88; 135 runs; 4×4, 1×6) did a fine job of holding the Karnataka innings together with a half-century. However, as wickets fell around him, he lost his patience and became Unadkat’s third victim.

“It’s a fantastic sensation. As we moved into the knockout phase, we were keeping our fingers crossed that we would be able to attack at the optimal moment. “It simply does not get much better than this,” Unadkat remarked.

“Both with the ball and with the bat, it was a pleasure to witness such a strong effort. After winning the coin toss, I believe it was necessary for me to score first. Because of the manner I bowled throughout the competition, I knew I would do well.

After the strain began to mount, the boys bowled exceptionally well. The brief scores are as follows: Karnataka scored 171 runs in 49.1 overs, but they were defeated by Saurashtra’s 141 runs in 31 overs, with Jay Gohil scoring 61 runs, Prerak Mankad scoring 35 runs, and Samarth Vyas scoring 33 runs.