New Delhi: Aman Mokhade smashed his fifth century of the Vijay Hazare Trophy season 2025-26 during the semi final against defending champion Karnataka, and guided Vidarbha to a commanding six-wicket win and secure a place in the final on Thursday.
Mokhade’s impressive knock of 138 off 122 balls, along with an unbeaten 76 off 69 from R Samarth, anchored Vidarbha’s successful chase of 284 for four, as they overhauled Karnataka’s 280 all out, built with half-centuries from Karun Nair and KL Shrijith.
Darshan Nalkande starred with the ball, picked five-wicket haul
Earlier, pacer Darshan Nalkande starred with the ball, as picked five-wicket haul conceding 48 runs to rein in Karnataka at the death. Vidarbha will now meet the winner of the second semifinal between Punjab and Saurashtra in Sunday’s final.
After losing opening partner Atharva Taide early in the chase, Mokhade held played a calm and composed innings against a confident Karnataka attack and battled cramps late in his innings, bringing up his century in 101 balls.
He played a vital role in two partnership, a 99-run partnership for the second wicket with Dhruv Shorey (47), followed by a commanding 147-run stand for the third-wicket with Ravikumar Samarth. (76)
Vysakh Vijaykumar had to leave the field due to a concussion
Pacer Vysakh Vijaykumar had to leave the field due to a concussion which hampered Karnataka’s bowling in the middle overs. Vysakh had been struck on the helmet by pacer Yash Thakur in the last over of Karnataka’s innings, with Manvanth Kumar coming in as a concussion substitute.
Earlier, Karnataka put together a competitive total. Their innings got off to a sluggish start, as they managed to score just 33 runs in the first 10 overs while losing both openers, Mayank Agarwal and Devdutt Padikkal.
Stability followed through a 54-run third-wicket stand between Karun and Dhruv Prabhakar, who came in for the injured R Smaran. Prabhakar appeared in good touch but was rushed by Nalkande into a pull shot, only to be caught at square leg by Shorey.
Karun then combined with KL Shrijith to add a solid 113-run stand
Karun then combined with KL Shrijith to add a solid 113-run stand for the fourth wicket. While Karun found fluency hard to come by, he played a supporting role to the more assured Shrijith. Karun showed flashes of his strokeplay and survived a close call when Yash Rathod caught him just beyond the boundary off Bhute. He brought up his half-century from 73 balls, a milestone that appeared to settle him.
A brief lift came through Shreyas Gopal (36) and Abhinav Manohar (26), who contributed 55 for the sixth wicket. But Karnataka lost wickets in quick succession at the death, squandering momentum and valuable runs.