Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26: Devdutt Padikkal's 4th Ton Powers Karnataka Over Tripura; Rajasthan Beat TN In Thriller

Out-of-favour India batter Devdutt Padikkal struck his fourth century in Vijay Hazare Trophy this season as star-studded Karnataka registered an 80-run win against Tripura to secure their fifth victory in Group A here on Saturday.

Domestic heavyweight Padikkal struck a 120-ball 108 as Karnataka made a mammoth 332 for 7 and then dismissed Tripura for 252 with an over to spare for the facile win.

With two more league games to be played, Karnataka are nicely perched at the top with 20 points, followed by Madhya Pradesh (16), Jharkhand (12) and Kerala (12). Tripura are on eight points, followed by Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan on four points each.

The 25-year-old, who, within a span of just 10 days, has scored more than 500 runs in five games, was on song as he held the innings together after Karnataka were two down for just six runs. Both skipper Mayank Agarwal (5) and Karun Nair (0) departed in the third over, done in by the pace generated by Tripura's Abhijit Sarkar (4/50) with the new ball.

Padikkal and Ravichandran Smaran batted with gumption for a 136-run partnership for the third wicket. The opener further steadied the innings with a 65-run stand with India keeper-batter KL Rahul (35).

Karnataka white-ball specialist Abhinav Manohar then hit a breezy unbeaten 79 (43 balls), leaving the opponents with an uphill task.

Tripura never looked like they were in with a chance after they lost their top five batters for just 59 runs. Veteran middle-order spin all-rounder Swapnil Singh kept the flame flickering with a 100 -- his highest career List A score -- as Tripura frustrated Karnataka for nearly 24 overs.

Swapnil along with Rajat Dey (66) added 107-runs for the sixth wicket before both of them were dismissed in quick succession as the innings folded up soon after.

Thrilling Win For Rajasthan Against Tamil Nadu

Young right-arm pacer Ashok Sharma, playing his first Vijay Hazare season, achieved career-best figures of 5/58 as Rajasthan scored a thrilling 10-run win against star-studded Tamil Nadu.

India white-ball specialist Deepak Hooda (70 off 69 balls) helped Rajasthan to 225 in 46.5 overs with skipprt Manav Suthar chipping in with a laboured 93-ball 43. India mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy (4/25) and pacer Gurjapneet Singh (2/44) made scoring difficult for Rajasthan.

But things started looking equally dismal for Karnataka once they came out to bat with only their top-three -- Athish SR (54), skipper Narayan Jagadeesan (71) and Washington Sundar (36) -- playing with authority. The rest fell like ninepins with six of them departing for single-digit scores.

Kerala Ace 300+ Jharkhand Total

India keeper-batter Sanju Samson (101 off 95 balls) and Rohan Kunnummal (124 off 78 balls) shared a 212-run opening partnership as Kerala chased down a 312-run target to beat Jharkhand by eight wickets with 45 balls to spare.

Kumar Kushagra scored an unbeaten 143, while Anukul Roy struck 72 as Jharkhand reached 311 for 7 in 50 overs. Skipper Ishan Kishan scored 21.

However, Kerala's opening pair of Sanju and Rohan turned the tables on their opponents with a 200-plus run stand to complete an easy chase in 42.3 overs.

Brief Scores

Karnataka: 332 for 7 in 50 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 108, Ravichandran Smaran 60, Abhinav Manohar 79 not out; Abhijit Sarkar 4/50)

Tripura: 252 in 49 overs (Rajat Dey 66, Swapnil Singh 100; Vijaykumar Vyshak 3/54, Shreyas Gopal 3/33) by 80 runs.

Rajasthan: 225 in 46.5 overs (Deepak Hooda 70, Manav Suthar 43; Gurjapneet Singh 2/44, Sonu Yadav 2/38, Varun Chakravarthy 4/25)

Tamil Nadu: 215 in 41.4 overs (Athish SR 54, Narayan Jagadeesan 74; Ashok Sharma 5/58, Manav Suthar 3/44) by 10 runs.

Jharkhand 311 for 7 in 50 overs (Kumar Kushagra 143 not out, Anukul Roy 72; MD Nidheesh 4/46) lost to Kerala 313 for 2 in 42.3 overs (Sanju Samson 101, Rohan Kunnummal 124, Baba Aparajith 41, Vishnu Vinod 40).

Madhya Pradesh 228 (Akshat Raghuwanshi 73; Aryan Pandey 46; Sagar Udeshi 2/19, Parth Vaghani 2/40, Aman Khan 3/5) lost to Puducherry 229 for 6 in 43 overs (Parameeswaran Sivaraman 69, Aman Khan 59 not out; Shubham Sharma 2/27) by 4 wickets. PTI AM AM PDS PDS