In a repeat of last year’s final, Karnataka will take on Vidarbha in the first of the 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy semifinals at the BCCI Centre of Excellence near here on Thursday.

Mayank Agarwal & Co., the defending champions, have been at their marauding best this campaign, winning six of seven group-stage matches and recording a convincing 55-run triumph over Mumbai (via VJD method) in the quarterfinals.

Devdutt Padikkal’s tournament-leading 721 runs, studded with four centuries and two half-centuries, have been instrumental in this run.

Vidarbha has played just a notch below, winning five of seven preliminary contests and registering an impressive 76-run victory over Delhi in the last eight.

The outfit may not have last edition’s best batter Karun Nair (779 runs) amongst its ranks anymore, but it has been propelled by Aman Mokhade (643 runs), Dhruv Shorey (468) and another Karnataka import in R. Samarth (351).

In fact, Karnataka and Vidarbha have been the perfect embodiments of the high-scoring nature of this season’s competition. Karnataka has totalled above 320 four times while Vidarbha has made 300 or more in five of the eight matches. Another batting feast is very much on the cards.

The second last-four clash will pit Punjab against Saurashtra on Friday. For the former, captain Prabhsimran Singh impressed with a 86-ball 88 in the 183-run thrashing of Madhya Pradesh in the quarters.

Punjab’s success was a wholesome team effort, with four half-centurions – including Anmolpreet Singh, who has tallied 427 runs – helping amass 345 and four bowlers taking two or more wickets.

Saurashtra has been in excellent form too, putting up scores of 349 and 383 in the last two group victories, and conjuring another fine performance against Uttar Pradesh to enter the semifinal.

Skipper Harvik Desai’s century (100 n.o.) was the highlight of that 17-run win (via VJD method), and Saurashtra’s top-scorer this edition (497 runs) will want to extend his purple patch.

Interestingly, only one bowler from the four semifinalists figures in the top-10 wicket-takers’ list – Saurashtra medium-pacer Ankur Panwar with 19 scalps at 21.78 and an economy rate of 5.84. It has been an out-and-out batters’ competition. Even some moderately tight bowling can thus prove match-winning.