Padikkal, Harvik Desai take Karnataka & Saurashtra to VHT semis

Karnataka easily defeated Mumbai to advance to the Vijay Hazare Trophy semifinal, with Devdutt Padikkal and Karun Nair as his companions. Padikkal, who was already in top form, made Mumbai's bowlers' lives difficult after their batsmen scored only 254 runs. Mumbai struggled and was reduced to 60/4 before captain Siddhesh Lad and Shams Mulani revived the team with the absence of most of their star players. Mulani struck a crucial 91-ball 86 while Lad was out for 38, and Sairaj Patil's cameo got them past 250. After that, Karnataka's skipper Mayank Agarwal was lost early for just 12, and Padikkal and Nair worked together to get Karnataka back on track. 143 runs were added for the second wicket by both batters as they breezed past their respective half-centuries before poor lighting prematurely ended the match. By the VJD method, Karnataka were declared winners at that point, needing 68 runs in 17 overs. Saurashtra came up with the best response in the run chase to win the second quarterfinal, defeating Uttar Pradesh despite their strong batting performance. Abhishek Goswami started the innings with 88 runs at the top of the order, even though Aryan Juyal left early for a duck. Skipper Rinku Singh was ineffective, but Sameer Rizvi, along with the likes of Prashant Veer and Zeeshan Ansari, made crucial contributions to propel UP to 310/8, propelling UP to victory at the final hurdle. After that, captain Harvik Desai and Prerak Mankad made a century stand for the second wicket to help Saurashtra. When Veer broke the partnership and Vipraj Nigam struck again, UP saw an opening. However, Desai joined Chirag Jani to get the chase back on track. Desai also reached three figures as Saurashtra were coasting toward the goal despite the in-form Zeeshan Ansari's inability to break through. Once more, poor lighting prevented the teams from getting a proper finish, so Saurashtra emerged victorious.