Mumbai, February 9 Indian batter KL Rahul struck his 24th century in first-class cricket, leading Karnataka to a brilliant four-wicket victory over the 42-time champions, Mumbai, which propelled the southern team into the Ranji Trophy semifinals here on Monday.
Rahul scored 130 off 182 balls, with 14 boundaries and a six, setting up Karnataka's win in their quarterfinal match at the Mumbai Cricket Association Bandra Kurla Complex. The team was chasing a challenging target of 325.
This win meant that Karnataka would face Uttarakhand in the semifinals in Bengaluru next week.
Rahul, a key member of the Indian Test and ODI squads, found a strong partner in Ravichandran Ashwin, as the duo stitched together a match-winning partnership of 147 runs for the fourth wicket on the penultimate day of the game.
Ashwin remained unbeaten, scoring 83 off 123 balls with 11 boundaries.
Thanks to Rahul's innings, Karnataka, who have won the premier Indian domestic red-ball tournament eight times, were comfortably leading at 265 or three when the lunch break was taken.
However, Rahul's innings ended soon after lunch as he was dismissed by Tushar Deshpande. At that point, Karnataka was still 40 runs short of the target of 325.
This breakthrough gave Mumbai a glimmer of hope as their bowlers, Deshpande and Tanush Kotian, dismissed two more batsmen, leaving Karnataka at 285 for six and 40 runs short of the target.
However, the 22-year-old Ashwin, who has already amassed over 1000 runs in first-class cricket with an incredible average of 69.94, showed great resilience under pressure and remained in the middle until Vidyadhar Patil hit the winning run for Karnataka, the second most successful team in the tournament after Mumbai.
During his stay, the 33-year-old Rahul looked determined, even raising his bat briefly after reaching his century before returning to bat again.
Rahul reached his century by nudging Kotian through the off-side for four.
Rahul's presence has been a major positive for Karnataka since he joined the team late in the group stage, where he scored a fifty in the first innings against Punjab.
Rahul scored 28 in the first innings, but Karnataka managed a crucial lead of 53 runs, which helped them greatly in their second innings chase.
