Vijay Hazare Trophy | Karnataka clinch fourth title after Abhimanyu Mithun hat-trick
Abhimanyu Mithun made his 30th birthday a memorable one with a hat-trick, as uninterrupted rain resulted in Karnataka trumping Tamil Nadu by 60 runs, according to the VJD rule. By the time rain arrived, Karnataka were 60 runs ahead of required 86 runs to win the game as per the BCCI’s own rule.
After opting to bowl first, with chances of rain always being on the cards, Manish Pandey gave his side something to work on and Abhimanyu Mithun took the full benefit of it. By sending Murali Vijay back to the hut for a two-ball duck, Mithun inspired hopes in the filled P3 stand of the Chinnaswamy Stadium that anyway loved its cricket. With the partisan crowd being fully involved in the game for a change, Abhinav Mukund tried adding impetus to the batting with the help of Baba Aparajith, who has been a solid form this year.
The duo added 124 runs for the third wicket when a miscommunication ran him out, but with Dinesh Karthik and Vijay Shankar coming next on the line, Tamil Nadu had little to fear. However, Karthik’s dismissal opened the floodgates, and Shankar was running out of partners. Shahrukh Khan had played a brief cameo to give some sort of advantage to Tamil Nadu, but Mithun returned to finish things off in a style as he became the first Karnataka player to take a Vijay Hazare Trophy hat-trick, ending the visitors’ innings at 252.
Karnataka had a brief detour at the start of the run-chase when Washington Sundar got the better of Devdutt Padikkal, who had already hit five consecutive fifty-plus scores including two centuries, but once Mayank Agarwal came out to bat, it seemed hunky-dory for the home team. KL Rahul and Agarwal entertained the audience with some classy cricket shots, and by the time, rain arrived Karnataka had already reached 146/1 in 23 overs.
With no further game possible, umpires called it off and declared Karnataka winners by 60 runs as per the VJD method.
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