The Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 is a special for Vidarbha opener Aman Mokhade, where the right-handed batter dominated. During the first Semi-final of the tournament against defending champions Karnataka on Thursday (January 15), just a day before his 25th birthday, he equalled a world record in List A cricket.  

Aman Mokhade scored match-winning 138 in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 1st Semi-final

After Karnataka chose to field first against their last season's Vijay Hazare Trophy Final rivals, they scored 280 all out in 49.4 overs. In reply, the Vidarbha opener Aman Mokhade scored his fifth century in the tournament and scored 138 off 122 balls with the help of 12 fours and two sixes, as Vidarbha reached the Final of the tournament for the second consecutive time after winning the first Semi-final by seven wickets with 22 balls remaining. 

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Aman Mokhade equals record of fastest List A 1000 runs

During the chase, Aman Mokhade completed his 1000 List A runs. While it was his 16th List A innings to achieve the feat, he equalled the record for the fastest List A 1000 runs. Former South African batter Graham Pollock previously held the record alone by completing this feat in 16 List A innings. 

Previously, Abhinav Mukund and Devdutt Padikkal jointly held the record for the fastest 1000 List A runs by an Indian, as both completed the feat in their 17th innings. 

At the end of his 16th List A (17 matches), Aman scored 1013 runs with an average of 67.53, including five centuries and three half-centuries. With 781 runs in nine innings with an average of 97.62, including five centuries and one half-century, Aman stands as the leading run-scorer in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26. 

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.

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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.