Karnataka batting first against Vidarbha in Vijay Hazare Trophy semifinal:Devdutt Padikkal, captain Mayank Agarwal open batting against Harsh Dubey’s side

The Vijay Hazare Trophy 2026 semi-final 1 is being played between Karnataka and Vidarbha at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence ground 1 on Thursday. Karnataka captain Mayank Agarwal won the toss and elected to bat first. The winner of semi-final 1 will be playing the winning team from semi-final 2 between Saurashtra and Punjab, in the summit clash. Devdutt Padikkal in red-hot form for Karnataka Having scored 815 runs before the semi-final, Devdutt Padikkal has been in red-hot form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy this season. On the other hand, Aman Mokhade has been Vidarbha’s top run scorer. With the two players who have the most runs in the competition coming face to face, there will be fireworks on the field. High-scoring contest on the cards Karnataka, the defending champions, have been at their marauding best this campaign, winning six of seven group-stage matches. In the quarterfinals, they defeated Mumbai (via VJD method) by 55 runs. Vidarbha, on the other hand have won five of seven preliminary contests and registering an impressive 76-run victory over Delhi in the last eight. Both Aman Mokhade and Dhruv Shorey have been key in Vidarbha’s run so far. Interestingly, a high-scoring contest could be on the cards as Karnataka have scored 320+ totals four times, while Vidarbha have crossed the 300-run mark five times in eight games.