Deepak Hooda played a captain's innings as he struck a magnificent 180 to help Rajasthan beat Karnataka by six wickets and enter the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Rajkot on Thursday.
Hooda's stupendous 128-ball🧸 knock was studded with 19 fours and five sixes as Rajasthan chased down the target of 283 with 38 balls to spare in the second semiꦦfinals.
Hooda, who is trജying to return to India reckoning, found an able ally in Karan Lamba (73 not out off 112 balls) as the duo resurrected the Rajasthan i🍃nnings after being reduced to 23 for 3 in the sixth over with a massive 255-run stand for the fourth wicket.
Rajasthan will face Haryana in the final ��on Saturday. Haryana crushed five-time champions Tamil Nadu by 63 runs to enter their maiden Vijay H🌠azare final on Wednesday.
Coming in ﷺto bat in the second over itself after the departure⛎ of opener Ram Chouhan (0), Hooda was understandably cautious initially, as he took 23 balls to reach double digit score.
But once he and Lamba succeeded in steadying Rajasthan in🔯nings, Hooda launched on the hapless Karna♛taka bowlers in stunning fashion, punishing them to submission.
Lamba was the more aggressive of the two for a while 𓂃but Hooda took upon himself the task of dismantling the opposition bowling with a flurry of fours and sixes.
He reached his fifty in 52 deliveries but needed just ano💮ther 33 balls to touch his hundred (85 balls) in the 30th over when the t💎eam score was 169 for 3.
By then Hooda had left Lamba far behind.
Hooda continued in the same vein and reached his 150 with๊ a four in the 38th over. He took 108 bal꧒ls to reach there.
Rajasthan were 260 for 3 at the end of the 40th over and their victory was a foregone conclusion by then a𒆙s they needed just 17 runs from the last 10 overs. Hooda was out just five runs away from the target but by then he had done his job in a magnificent way.
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For Karnatak꧒a, Vasuki Koushik,🤡 Vijaykumar Vyshak and Manoj Bhandage took a wicket apiece.
Earlier,🍌 lower-order batters Abhinav▨ Manohar (91 off 80 balls) and Bhandage (63 off 39 balls) revived Karnataka innings after they were two down for 27 runs in the ninth over after they elected to bat first.
Manohar was involved in two big stands -- 89 runs with Manish Pandey (28) for the fifth wicket and 95 with Bhandage for the sixth wicket as he played🅘 the anchor role to t✃ake Karnataka past the 280-run mark.
Manohar's fine knock wa▨s studded with 10 fo𓃲urs and three sixes.
Bhandage gave final flourish to the Karnataka innings as his aggressive innings was laced with fiv🍒e sixes and three four💝s.
For Rajasthan, Aniket Choudhary and Kukna Ajay Singh grabbed two wickets apiece and they were mi🀅serly also as each of them gave away 43 runs from their 10 overs.
