Tamil Nadu are five-time Vijay Hazare champions and have been unbeaten in the current tournament as well.
The final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20 got underway at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and saw Tamil Nadu bat first after losing the toss to Karnataka.
M Vijay (0) and R Ashwin (8), who was promoted to number three spot got out early, but A Mukund made 85, Baba Aparajith (66) and contributions from Vijay Shankar and M Shahrukh Khan took the team total to 252.
The total may have been a bit higher, if not for birthday boy Abhimanyu Mithun. The right-hand pacer, who has played 4 Tests and 5 ODIs for the Indian team, rattled the lower order of the Tamil Nadu team and in the last over created history, as he became the first Karnataka bowler to take a hat-trick in the domestic one-day tournament.
He removed M Shahrukh Khan, M Mohammed and M Ashwin on the 3rd, 4th and 5th deliveries of the final over to put an end to the Tamil Nadu innings. With the hat-trick, he also completed his five-wicket haul, giving away just 34 runs. V Koushik also picked 2/39, while PA Jain and K Gowtham picked a wicket each.
BRIEF SCORES:
TN 252 (A MUKUND 85, B APARAJITH 66; A MITHUN 5/34)