Kerala’s scourge Karun Nair scored an unbeaten century 130 not out (130b, 14×4) while Devdutt Padikkal 124 (137b, 12×4, 3×6) smashed his second consecutive century as Karnataka comfortably overhauled a target of 285 for the loss of two wickets and 10 balls to spare.
Akhil Scaria gave Kerala an early lift by trapping Mayank Agarwal (1) in front, but Padikkal and Karun shut out any hopes by figuring in a match-winning partnership of 223 from 236 balls.
Also read | How did India players perform in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 Round 2?
Karun took the charge initially playing the sweep shots, regular and reverse, against the spinners for boundaries and played effortlessly on a true wicket to complete his century. Padikkal was unhurried and struck the occasional big shots to progress to his ton. Leg spinner Vignesh Puthur bowled with control but found little support as Padikkal and Karun took the game away from Kerala.
Earlier, left arm medium pacer Abhilash Shetty’s opening spell (3/24 from six overs) under helpful conditions reduced Kerala to 49/3. B. Aparajith (71) and Akhil Scaria (27) repaired the damage by adding 77 runs for the fourth wicket and later Mohammed Azharuddeen (84 not out) and M.D. Nidheesh (34 out) added 99 runs (from 88 balls) for the eighth wicket to enable Kerala post a competitive total.
Madhya Pradesh survived a late mini collapse to score a two-wicket win over Tamil Nadu. Chasing 281, Yash Dubey (92) and Himanshu Mantri (90) put Madhya Pradesh on road to win with a second-wicket stand of 178. However, MP lost wickets regularly and slipped from 208 for two to 271 for eight at the start of the 48th over. But Aryan Pandey smashed Gurjapneet Singh for a six as MP won with four balls to spare. Earlier, Tamil Nadu failed to build on to a fine start of 115 given by openers Sai Sudarshan (51) and N. Jagadeesan (55) and posted a sub-par total of 280.
The scores
Kerala 284/7 in 50 overs (Mohammed Azharuddeen 84 n.o., B Aparajith 71) lost to Karnataka 285/2 in 48.2 overs (Karun Nair 130 n.o., Devdutt Padikkal 124).
Tamil Nadu 280 in 49.3 overs (S. Mohamed Ali 57, N. Jagadeesan 55, Sai Sudarshan 51, Sunny Sandhu 43) lost to Madhya Pradesh 283/8 in 49.2 overs (Yash Dubey 92, Himanshu Mantri 90, Govinth 4/54).
Jharkhand 301 in 50 overs (Shikar Mohan 129, Anukul Roy 52, Khaleel Ahmed 4/49) bt Rajasthan 228 in 50 overs (Karan Lamba 102, Shubham Singh 6/50).
Pondicherry 150 in 41.3 overs (Jayant Yadav 51) bt Tripura 151/3 in 32.3 overs (Udiyan Bose 53, Vijay Shankar 47 n.o.).
Published on Dec 26, 2025
Discover more from News Link360
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
