K Gowtham starred with a five-wicket haul to guide Karnataka to a massive 123-run win over Jharkhand in the Elite Group A encounter of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore. After two days of heavy rains which swept the state capital Bangalore, the weather eventually cleared up for the Vijay Hazare match between Karnataka and Jharkhand on Thursday.
Put in to bat first, Karnataka made an imposing 285 for 9 on the back of half tons from Deshapande, Manish Pandey (52) and Devdutt Padikkal (58). Meanwhile KL Rahul did not have a very good outing with the bat, only scoring 29 off 51 balls. Pacers Rahul Shukla and Anand Singh got four wickets each for Jharkhand.
Chasing a challenging 286-run target, Jharkhand never got themselves in a position to chase down the total, losing wickets at regular intervals. Saurabh Tiwary top scored with 43 while Ishan Kishan fell for just 11. Off-spinner K Gowtham wrecked the Jharkhand batting order by bagging 5 for 43 from 7.5 overs.
Besides Karnataka registering their maiden win in the Elite Group A, Saurashtra and Andhra’s win came in rain-curtailed encounters against Kerala and Goa respectively