Vijay Hazare Trophy: Red-hot Mayank Agarwal to the fore again

NEW DELHI: Mumbai were struggling at 139/4 against Maharashtra in the first quarter-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Palam grounds. Far away from that, in the other corner of the city at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium, Karnataka’s Mayank Agarwal was stamping his class on the match against Hyderabad with an unbeaten 139 on Wednesday.
Add to it Ravikumar Samarth’s equally impressive, almost run-a-ball 125, and his 242-run partnership in just 211 balls with Agarwal for the second wicket, as Karnataka simply cruised past the Amabati Rayuduled side in the one-sided ‘southern derby’ by 103 runs.Chasing Karnataka’s 348-run victory target, Hyderabad were bundled out for 244 in 42.5 overs.
Agarwal and Samarth’s blitzkrieg reduced the Hyderabad bowlers to mere spectators. The two joined hands at the fall of skipper Karun Nair’s wicket (10) in the fourth over of the day. Agarwal, who has been in a prolific form this season scoring heavily in the domestic cricket, brought up his hundred in style carting off-spinner Palakodeti Sairam for a huge six over the deep mid-wicket.
When the two were batting, Karnataka looked very much on course to reach the improbable mark of 400 runs. At 271 for one, with more than 11 overs still to be bowled, the stage was perfectly set for the final assault. However, Teja got rid of danger-man Agarwal, who was caught on long-on by Tanay Thyagarajan while looking to dispatch an outside off delivery for another maximum. Agarwal hit a 111-ball 140, studded with 12 fours and an astonishing seven sixes.
Samarth followed Agarwal in the dressing room after pacer Ravi Kiran had him caught at long-on by Akash Bhandari. Samarth’s 125 was decorated with 13 fours.
In reply, Hyderabad’s chase never took off and barring captain Ambati Rayudu’s 62-ball 64 and Ravi Teja’s 57-ball 53, no other batsmen could pose a serious threat to Karnataka’s challenging total.
Brief scores: Karnataka 347/8 (Mayank Agarwal 140, Ravikumar Samarth 125; Mohammed Siraj 5/59) bt Hyderabad 244 in 42.5 overs (Ambati Rayudu 64, Shreyas Gopal 5/31).