They will take on Tamil Nadu in the title round to be played at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium from December 31 to January 3.
Malewar, who was unbeaten on 136 overnight, extended his partnership with Zubairoddin to 237 runs for the third wicket to snuff out Karnataka’s challenge. Zubairoddin fell for 82, but skipper Md Faiz (33) added a further 64 runs with Malewar to make Karnataka bowlers toil at VCA’s Kalamna ground in Nagpur. Malewar was the fifth man out for 199 (223 balls, 4x30, 6x2) but Vidarbha simply batted Karnataka out of the contest.
Brief scores:
Vidarbha 1st innings 450 in 127.4 overs (Neel Athaley 162, Rohit Binkar 65, Jagjot Singh 94, Dharmendra Thakur 48; Aaditya Nair 3/50, Hardik Raj 3/101)
Karnataka 197 all out in 89.5 overs (Swaroop Hippargi 74, Prakar Chaturvedi 66; Pratham Maheshwari 6/30, Gaurav Farde 3/65)
Vidarbha 2nd innings 374/9 in 96 overs (Danish Malewar 199, Zubairoddin 82, Md Faiz 33; Dhruv Prabhakar 4/84)
Result: Match drawn; Vidarbha progress to final on the basis of first innings lead