Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26: Padikkal and Co. deliver Karnataka an early Christmas gift against Jharkhand
The Christmas cake will be tasting sweeter for Devdutt Padikkal and his Karnataka team-mates after the defending champion made a winning start to its Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 campaign by chasing down a record total at the Narendra Modi Stadium Ground B here on Wednesday.
The sombre mood in the Karnataka camp during the lunch break progressed to staccato claps and whistles as captain Mayank Agarwal and Devdutt Padikkal hit a flurry of boundaries to give their team a flying start.
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“Both of us were positive from the start and the wicket was ideal for strokeplay. The bowlers didn’t have much control and we capitalised on it. My plan was to stay till the end. I am disappointed that I couldn’t finish the match. Their spinners bowled well and our plan was to play them out and wait for the pacers to come for the second spell. It is good to start with a century and I am happy I was able to contribute to the win,” said Devdutt Padikkal.
“To be honest there we didn’t have any specific plans in the chase but we knew we needed to bat pretty well in the first 30 overs. Padikkal gave us a very good start and the momentum was carried on by the other batters. We sensed victory when we reached something like 220 in the 30th over. It was a flat wicket and defending 190 plus in the final 20 was always going to be difficult. Hats off to Abhinav Manohar and young Dhruv Prabhakar for pulling it off with a good partnership under pressure,” said Karnataka captain Mayank Agarwal.
Published on Dec 24, 2025
