Vijay Hazare Trophy: Karnataka opener Devdutt Padikkal registers 4th consecutive century

Karnataka's opening batsman Devdutt Padikkal struck his fourth consecutive century in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy on Monday.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batsman has been on fire ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, which is due to begin on April 9. He along with his opening partner Ravikumar Samarth led Karnataka into the semi-finals of the 50-over domestic tournament.

On being put to bat by Kerala on Monday, Karnataka were off to a flying start, thanks to their opening pair of Padikkal and Samarth. Padikkal struck 10 fours and two sixes en route his sixth List A century. Out of the six hundreds, four have come in the underway Vijay Hazare Trophy. Padikkal and Samarth put up 249 runs for the first wicket before the former got out for 101 off 119 balls. Karnataka captain Samarth went on to score 192 off just 158 deliveries, including 22 fours and three sixes.

Karnataka eventually put up 338 for 3 in 50 overs before bowling out Kerala for 258 in 43.4 overs.

Padikkal and Samarth produced match-winning knocks in the previous game as well. During Karnataka's chase of 285 against Railways in their last group stage match, Samarth and Padikkal remained unbeaten on 130 and 145 respectively to take their side into the last eight of the tournament.

Prior to the Railways encounter, Karnataka had locked horns against Kerala in the group stage. Batting first, Kerala put up 277 for 8 in 50 overs. In reply to that, Karnataka sealed the games with nine wickets and 4.2 overs to spare. Padikkal struck 13 fours and two sixes as he scored 126 not out from 138 balls.

The RCB opener's century-streak began with Karnataka's encounter with Odishal, a match that saw Padikkal register his highest List A score. The team's skipper and Padikkal once again were top notch with the bat as the two put up 140 runs for the opening wicket. Samarth scored an 83-ball 60 before getting stumped. Paddikal, meanwhile, scored 152 runs off 140 balls. En route his highest score in a 50-over game, the RCB batter struck 14 fours and five sixes. Karnataka set a target of 330 before winning the game by 101 runs.

With 673 runs in six innings at an incredible average of 168.25, Padikkal is the current top scorer in the ongoing edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. RCB will hope the Karnataka batsman carries this momentum into the IPL 2021. He had finished with the most runs among RCB batsmen last season, with 473 runs in 15 matches, including five fifties.

The 14th edition of IPL is set to begin next month, with defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) taking on RCB in the opening encounter in Chennai. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has picked five venues for IPL 2021: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. In this edition, there will be no matches and each team will play at four venues in the group stage games. The playoffs and the final on May 30 will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.