Published: Jan 28, 2019, 11:14 AM (IST)
Edited: Jan 28, 2019, 11:14 AM (IST)
Centuries from Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson sealed a comfortable five-wicket win for Saurashtra against Karnataka at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Monday.
Resuming on their overnight tally of 224/3 in the second semi-final of the Ranji Trophy 2018-19, Saurashtra took 17.4 over to seal the deal at the cost of two more wickets. They made 279/5 in 91.4 overs to set up final clash with defending champions Vidarbha.
The unbeaten pair of Pujara and Jackson resumed from where they left of on Sunday evening. Jackson could only add 10 runs to his overnight tally but that was enough to bring up his century. He reached the milestone with a four off Abhimanyu Mithun in the 78th over. But was cleaned up by Karnataka skipper immediately afterwards. He consumed 217 deliveries while hitting 15 fours during his innings.
Pujara, however, continued taking his team closer to the target. With Aarpit Vasavada, he added 37 runs for the fifth wicket. Vasavada scored 12 before falling to Ronit More. However, by his dismissal, Saurashtra were just five runs shy of the target.
Pujara remained unbeaten on 131 off 266 with 17 fours alongside Prerak Mankad (4*) as the duo completed the formality.
The final of the ongoing Ranji season will be played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur from February 3.
Brief Scores: Saurashtra 236 and 279/5 (Cheteshwar Pujara 131*, Sheldon Jackson 100; R Vinay Kumar 3/75) beat Karnataka 275 and 239 by five wickets
