3:50 PM IST, Local Time: The umpires say that this is enough and finally the game comes to a conclusion. Karun Nair shakes hands with the Uttarakhand batters. Karnataka have officially qualified for the Ranji Trophy final 2025/26 and will meet Jammu and Kashmir there. The match has been drawn but Karnataka win on their first innings lead. They will now face Jammu and Kashmir in the Ranji Trophy final. Uttarakhand had their best-ever season this time but their campaign will now come to an end.
Day 5 started with a wicket on the very first ball of the day's play. Uttarakhand spinner Mayank Mishra took a wicket on the final ball of Day 4 and then took one on the first ball of Day 5. However, he failed to get a hat-trick. It didn't take many overs in the first session as Karnataka ended their second innings at 323/9 with Devdutt Padikkal not coming out to bat because of an injury. KL Rahul remained unbeaten at 86*. Ravichandran Smaran finished as the top scorer of Karnataka with 127. Notably, Smaran scored twin centuries in this game.
Mishra was the pick of the bowlers for Uttarakhand. He took four wickets and finished his Ranji Trophy season with 59 scalps. He is currently leading the wickets chart but can be overtaken by J&K pacer Auqib Nabi (55 wickets) as the latter will feature in the final too.
After being given an impossible target of 827 runs, Uttarakhand resumed their second innings with the aim of batting as long as possible and denying an outright defeat. Though the target of an improbable win was always beyond reach, their second innings showed improved resilience and application compared with their first outing.
BB Lalwani and Prashant Chopra opened the batting but the latter got out for a duck. Lalwani (15) also followed him soon. But it was Avneesh Sudha and Lakshya Raichandani who paired up to steady the ship after the fall of the second wicket, frustrating Karnataka’s attack with careful defence and smart running between the wickets. However, Raichandani fell for 10 but Sudha went on to bring his half-century. He showed patience and negotiated the spinners and seamers, grasping for breakthroughs, but along with that, he looked fluent too before getting dismissed for 66 off 71 balls.
Skipper Kunal Chandela was not feeling well but yet came out to bat. However, he got dismissed for 20. The side was struggling at 156/6, and it was then Saurabh Rawat and Abhay Negi took the responsibility in their hands and stitched Uttarakhand's first 100-run partnership in this game. Both of them scored half-centuries and remained unbeaten before the stumps were drawn with Uttarakhand's score being at 260/6.
Pacer Prasidh Krishna (2/17) and spinner Shreyas Gopal (3/83) impressed the most with their bowling in the second innings.
The final day ended with Uttarakhand on 260/6, and the match drawn after the scheduled five days of play. However, thanks to their staggering 736 first-innings total, Karnataka’s massive lead proved decisive — allowing them to book a place in the Ranji Trophy final with an emphatic performance dominated by bat and maintained through sustained bowling pressure.
The match started with Karnataka batting first and responding with ruthless authority, piling up a mammoth 736 all out in 194.4 overs and effectively deciding the contest within the first three days.
Captain Devdutt Padikkal led from the front with a magnificent 232, an innings built on patience early and fluent stroke-play once set, anchoring partnerships that steadily drained the Uttarakhand attack. Alongside him, KL Rahul and Ravichandran Smaran crafted polished tons, blending composure with controlled aggression to ensure Karnataka never lost momentum.
This record-breaking first innings total was enough to put Uttarakhand on back foot, who struggled badly and managed only 233/10. Karnataka seamers Vidyadhar Patil and Vijaykumar Vyshak picked up three wickets each to give their side a 503-run first innings lead.