Defending champs Karnataka exit Hazare Trophy despite big win

After registering a nine-wicket over Kerala on Thursday, Karnataka needed two things to happen to qualify for the quarter-final - a huge win over Jammu and Kashmir and for Gujarat to lose against Kerala. The defending champions did their part by registering a 207-run victory, but finished third in the table with Gujarat beating Kerala to move into the quarter-finals.

Sent in to bat, Karnataka got off to a brisk start with openers Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul guiding the team closer to fifty in the first seven overs. A minor collapse after Rahul’s departure put Manish Pandey and CM Gautam needing to do a repairing job to the innings.

The middle-order duo added 145 runs for the fifth wicket to take the innings past 250. CM Gautam, who smashed an unbeaten century, joined hands with Vinay Kumar to take the hosts to a mammoth score of 349/5 as they scored 91 runs in the last 37 balls.

Chasing a target of 350, Jammu and Kashmir's innings got off to the worst possible start with both openers departing cheaply. Bandeep Singh and Ian Dev Singh tried to steady the innings by putting a 78-run stand for the third wicket.

Sreenath Arvind finally provided a double breakthrough for the hosts to start the collapse as J&K folded up for 147 losing eight wickets for 50 overs. Jagadeesha Suchith was the most sucessful bowler for Karnataka as he picked up three wickets for 26 runs, while, Vinay Kumar, Shreyas Gopal and Arvind chipped in with two wickets each.

Teams qualified for knock-out stage:

Group A – Tamil Nadu, Punjab;

Group B – Jharkhand, Gujarat;

Group C –Vidarbha, Delhi;

Group D – Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh