{"id":104695,"date":"2026-02-19T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=104695"},"modified":"2026-02-19T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:04:11","slug":"karnataka-enter-ranji-trophy-final-after-11-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=104695","title":{"rendered":"Karnataka Enter Ranji Trophy Final After 11 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lucknow, Feb 2026 : The Karnataka cricket team, led by <strong>Devdutt Padikkal<\/strong>, has finally broken an 11-year drought by securing a spot in the Ranji Trophy final for the first time since the 2014\u201315 season. Their qualification was sealed after they gained a crucial first-innings lead against Uttarakhand in the semifinal held at the <strong>Ekana Cricket Stadium<\/strong> on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The eight-time Ranji Trophy champions will now face <strong>Jammu and Kashmir<\/strong>, who scripted history by entering their first-ever final after defeating Bengal in the other semifinal. While the <strong>BCCI<\/strong> has not yet officially declared the venue for the title clash, strong indications suggest that <strong>KSCA Rajnagar Stadium<\/strong> in Hubli is the frontrunner. A <strong>JKCA<\/strong> official informed IANS that Hubli is most likely to host the historic final, pending formal confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Karnataka\u2019s Dominant First Innings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>After losing the toss and being asked to bat, Karnataka delivered an extraordinary performance, batting for 194.4 overs and amassing a monumental <strong>736 runs<\/strong> in their first innings. Captain Padikkal led from the front with a brilliant double century, scoring 232 runs off 330 deliveries and anchoring the innings with remarkable grit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senior batter <strong>K. L. Rahul<\/strong> continued his excellent run of form, contributing a fluent 141. Rising talent Smaran Ravichandran showcased maturity beyond his years, adding a well-crafted 135 that further strengthened Karnataka\u2019s grip on the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bowlers Seal the Advantage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Karnataka\u2019s bowlers reinforced the team\u2019s dominance by bundling out Uttarakhand for <strong>233 runs<\/strong> in 88.5 overs. This massive 503-run lead put Karnataka firmly on the path to the final. Vidyadhar Patil and Vijaykumar Vyashak claimed three wickets each, while Shreyas Gopal added two crucial breakthroughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the second innings, Karnataka piled on another <strong>323 runs<\/strong>, with Ravichandran smashing 127 and Rahul adding an unbeaten 86. Kruthik Krishna also chipped in with a valuable 52, pushing the target for Uttarakhand to an improbable 827.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Match Ends in a Draw, Karnataka Advance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On the final day, chasing the enormous target, Uttarakhand reached 260\/6 in 62 overs before both captains agreed to call off the match. Abhay Negi (57*) and Aditya Rawat (53*) showed resilience, but the result had already been sealed through Karnataka\u2019s massive first-innings lead. In the second innings, Gopal took three wickets, while Prasidh and Vijaykumar added two and one respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Brief Scores<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Karnataka:<\/strong> 736 &amp; 323 (Smaran Ravichandran 127, KL Rahul 86*, Kruthik Krishna 52; Mayank Mishra 4\u201369)<br><strong>Uttarakhand:<\/strong> 233 &amp; 260\/6 in 62 overs (Abhay Negi 57*, Aditya Rawat 53*)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Team Maverick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lucknow, Feb 2026 : The Karnataka cricket team, led by Devdutt Padikkal, has finally broken an 11-year drought by securing a spot in the Ranji Trophy final for the first time since the 2014\u201315 season. Their qualification was sealed after they gained a crucial first-innings lead against Uttarakhand in the semifinal held at the Ekana &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":104696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[88],"post_format":[],"flags":[],"class_list":["post-104695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-news","tag-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104697,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104695\/revisions\/104697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104695"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_format&post=104695"},{"taxonomy":"flags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fflags&post=104695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}