Leg spinner Shreyas Gopal registered a hat-trick in the recently ended Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy clash between Karnataka and Baroda at Emerald High School Ground in Indore. However, it didn’t help Karnatak much as Baroda still won the match by four wickets to register their fourth in the ongoing tournament. Batting first, Baroda posted a total of 169/8. While Baroda replied by scoring 172/6 in 18.5 overs.
Coming to bat after winning the toss, Karnataka got a poor start as they lost three wickets for 3 runs in Smaran Ravichandran and Shreyas Gopal added 48 runs for the fourth wicket. Ravichandran got out after scoring 38(35), while Gopal scored 18(16) runs. After that, Abhinav Manohar took charge in the middle-order and top scored with an unbeaten 56*(34) runs hitting six sixes, as Karnataka crossed the 160-run mark. For Baroda, skipper Krunal Pandya and Atit Sheth took 2 wickets while Lukman Meriwala and Akash Singh scalped a wicket each.
Shreyas Gopal’s hat-trick scare Baroda in run chase
Chasing the winning total, Karnataka lost their first wickets at the score of 13 runs in 1.4 overs as Abhimanyu Rajptu got out after scoring a mere six runs. After that, Shashwat Rawat and Bhanu Pania put up a partnership of 89 runs for the second wicket. Rawat got out after scoring 63(37) runs. He was the first batter to get dismissed by Shreyas Gopal in the first ball of the 11the over. After that, the leg spinner dismissed Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya in the next two balls respectively to complete his hat-trick and bring Karnataka back in the game.
After a couple of overs, Shreyas Gopal struck again dismissing Bhanu Pania (42 off 24) as Baroda were reduced to 117/5 after 12.1 overs. After that, Shivalik Sharma and Vishnu Solanki added 49 runs for the sixth wicket and took the match away from Karnataka. Shivalik got out after scoring 22(21) runs while Solanki scored an unbeaten 28*(21) along with Atit Sheth who smashed a six to finish the match with seven balls to spare. Shreyas Gopal registered figures of 4/19, while Vidyadhar Patil and Vyshak Vijay Kumar scalped a wicket each.
