Darshan Nalkande's fifer and Aman Mokhade's century guide Vidarbha to Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 Final

Vidarbha are dreaming of their first Vijay Hazare Trophy title by reaching the Final for the 2025-26 edition after beating the defending champions Karnataka by six wickets in the first Semi-final. Vidarbha have reached the back-to-back Vijay Hazare Trophy Finals after taking a strong revenge for their last Vijay Hazare Trophy Final defeat against Karnataka.

Karnataka chose to field first in the day-night match at Bengaluru. After a poor start, Karnataka were all out for 280 in 49.4 overs. In reply, Vidarbha chased down the target in 46.2 overs after losing four wickets.

Darshan Nalkande claimed fifer to control Karnataka innings

Karnataka openers, captain Mayank Agarwal (9) and Devdutt Padikkal (4), were dismissed in single digits, as they were struggling at 20/2. While Dhruv Prabhakar (28) was dismissed after getting a start, Karun Nair and Krishnan Shrijith had a strong 113-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

Nair scored 74 off 90 balls with eight fours and one six, while Shrijith was dismissed soon after Nair with the score of 54 off 53 balls with seven fours. Shreyas Gopal (36) and Abhinav Manohar (26) then had a 55-run partnership for the sixth wicket. In the lower-order batting, only Vijaykumar Vyshak managed to reach the double-digit score with 17 runs off 11 balls.

Darshan Nalkande was brilliant with the ball, as the right-arm pacer claimed a fifer and ended with the bowling figures of 10-0-48-5. Nalkande dismissed four set batters who were Dhruv Prabhakar (28), Karun Nair (74), Shreyas Gopal (36) and Abhinav Manohar (26), along with Vidyadhar Patil (1). Also, Yash Thakur got two wickets, finishing with the bowling figures of 9.4-3-64-2.

Aman Mokhade slammed powerful century

Although the Vidarbha opener Atharva Taide (6) was dismissed cheaply, his opening partner Aman Mokhade was the hero of the match with a memorable century. There were back-to-back strong partnerships, as Aman had a 98-run partnership with Dhruv Shorey (47) for the second wicket, and a powerful 147-run partnership with Ravikumar Samarth for the third wicket.

Aman scored 138 of 122 balls with 12 fours and two sixes. It was his fifth century in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26. Meanwhile, Ravikumar was not out for 76 off 69 balls with the help of seven fours, as these top strong batting performances were enough for them to win the match against the defending champions.