Bengaluru, Oct 25: Birthday boy Abhimanyu Mithun snared five wickets, including a hat-trick, as a dominant Karnataka defeated Tamil Nadu by 60 runs via VJD method in a rain-marred final to lift the Vijay Hazare Trophy for the fourth time here on Friday.
Karnataka fast bowler Abhimanyu Mithun has become the second bowler after Australia's Peter Siddle in professional cricket history to take a hat-trick on birthday.
Mithun, who turned 30 on Friday, returned with impressive figures of 5 for 34, which includes a hat-trick in the final over, to bowl out Tamil Nadu for 252 in 49.5 overs after opting to bowl.
Chasing the target, Karnataka were coasting at 146 for one in 23 overs when rain played spoilsport, interrupting play for almost 40 minutes.
The match was later called-off by the on-field umpires as they believed there wasn't enough time to complete the game.
Brief Scores:
Tamil Nadu: 252 all out in 49.5 overs (Abhinav Mukund 85, Baba Aparajith 66; Abhimanyu Mithun 5/34).
Karnataka: 146 for one in 23 overs (Mayank Agarwal 69, KL Rahul 52; Washington Sundar 1/51).
Karnataka won by 60 runs via VJD method.
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Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."