Vijay Hazare Trophy Final: Karnataka crowned one-day champions

What do you do when your stellar performance is not rewarded the way it should be? You go out and smash your way to another good knock, right? Okay, you can sulk too but that’s not what Mayank Agarwal did.

Two days after a distasteful snub by the national selectors despite posting 2051 runs across three formats in this season, Agarwal added another 90 on Tuesday and helped Karnataka lift the Vijay Hazare Trophy for the third time in last five years. His tally is surely going to inflate further with at least two Deodhar Trophy matches yet to come, three if Karnataka reach the final.

A former cricketer who had gone through a similar painful experience in the late 90s and early aughts said the only way out of this is to love yourself and your cricket. He also emphasized the importance of the family support. “You saw the way I batted today. That’s all I can do,” Mayank said when asked how the snub has affected him.


It didn’t much. In fact, he seemed as hungry for runs as he was before the snub. The pressure of the final notwithstanding, Agarwal played in his familiar aggressive style reaching 90 off just 79 balls. En route to his ninth half-century of the season, Agarwal revived the Karnataka innings along with his usual middle-order partner Ravikumar Samarth with a 136-run stand for the fourth wicket after his side lost captain Karun Nair and KL Rahul for just 5 runs. Though he rued missing a good opportunity to score yet another century, the opener expressed happiness that his team managed to put enough on the board and win the match with relative ease.

While chasing 254 on a sluggish pitch, Saurashtra never looked in the hunt. Karnataka bowlers struck at regular intervals while keeping a tight noose on the run rate. And Saurashtra captain Cheteshwar Pujara didn’t help the matter with his slothful batting. The only time Pujara looked like playing the same game as others when in the 43rd over of Saurashtra’s innings, batting on 69 off 115 balls, he clubbed Sreenath Aravind for 15 runs, including a six two fours. It seemed like a statement that everyone had been waiting for since he emphasized on his limited-overs credentials recently. The burst, however, ended prematurely two overs later. Pujara (94) got run out and with him the last shred of hopes of Saurashtra’s revival too as they lost the final by 41 runs. He can take heart in the fact that he was the only Saurashtra batsman who went past 30.

ARAVIND RETIRES
Karnataka left-arm seamer Sreenath Aravind, who had played a T20 International against South Africa in 2015, on Tuesday announced retirement from first-class cricket. “I have decided to retire from all forms of domestic cricket. I wanted to end on a winning note and it can’t be better than winning the Vijay Hazare final,” the 33-year-old told reporters. In his 10-year career, he played 56 first-class games taking 186 wickets including two five-for. Often on slow tracks, he would bowl his slow left-arm spinners. He also had 103 T20 wickets from 84 games. In his only international appearance (T20I) against South Africa, he ended with figures of 1 for 44. He also played a few seasons of IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore. “I didn’t want to block the progress of any talented player. I thought that this is the right time,” Aravind said.