Karnataka cricket team represents the Indian state of Karnataka in domestic cricket competitions. It has traditionally been one of the strongest teams in the domestic circuit and has produced many of Indian cricket team's iconic players. It was known as Mysore cricket team before the state of Mysore was officially renamed as Karnataka in 1973. It has won the Ranji Trophy eight times and been runners-up six times (including twice as the Mysore team). The team's home ground is the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. There was a major push in cricketing infrastructure in 2010s and as of now, grounds in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi are constantly used in Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy & Karnataka Premier League
Competition history
Karnataka has produced some of the best cricketers from the southern part of India. There was a time during the late 90s when 8 out of 11 players were from Karnataka and from 1996 to 2001 there were about 4–5 players from Karnataka State consistently representing the Indian team.
In the Irani Trophy, Karnataka has won six times and lost twice against the Rest of India team.
The team showed good performance in 2007–08 season. As international players had to move in and out of the squad due to their national duties, the team could not adjust well with the changes in a short period.
A young Karnataka unit performed well in the 2009–10 season and made it to the finals comfortably. The finals took place at the picturesque Gangotri Glades in Mysuru, where Karnataka, backed by a charged full-house crowd, came up with a spirited performance but lost to Mumbai by just 6 runs. Manish Pandey was the highest scorer of the season with 882 runs from 9 matches.
The team emerged winners in the 2013–14 season under the captaincy of Vinay Kumar beating Maharashtra by 7 wickets in the finals played at Hyderabad. They went on to win the Irani Trophy (vs Rest of India) and Vijay Hazare Trophy (domestic ODI tournament) in the same season, thus completing a historic treble.
Karnataka continued their dominance in 2014–15 season too. Firstly, they successfully defended the Vijay Hazare Trophy, winning their final against Punjab by 156 runs. They had a stupendous run in the Ranji Trophy too, and beat Tamil Nadu by an innings and 217 runs in the final at Mumbai to retain the trophy. Karun Nair scored 328, the highest ever individual score in a Ranji Trophy final (bettering Gul Mohammad's 319, scored in the 1946/47 season final). Vinay Kumar became the first captain to pick up a five-wicket haul and score a century in a Ranji final. In the Irani Trophy game that followed, they beat the Rest of India team by 246 runs and retained the trophy. By doing so, they not only repeated the historic treble of the previous season, but also became only the second domestic team (after Bombay) to bag back-to-back Irani Cups.
Karnataka had a modest 2015–16 Ranji season, chalking up 2 wins, 1 loss and 5 draws in the league stage. They did not qualify for the knock-outs. Karnataka's only loss came against Maharashtra in their final league game, which ended an unbeaten streak of 37 first-class matches (20 wins, 17 draws) that stretched back to November 2012. Karnataka did not qualify for the knock-outs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy too, despite winning 4 of their 6 league games.
In the 2016–17 Ranji season, Karnataka had a good run until the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by Tamil Nadu in a low scoring game.
Karnataka had a dominant run in the 2017–18 Ranji season, notching up 4 wins and 2 draws and topping Group A. They faced Mumbai in the quarter-finals and inflicted an innings defeat on them. However, they suffered a heart-breaking 5-run loss to Vidarbha in the semifinals and bowed out of the competition. Mayank Agarwal (1160 runs) and Krishnappa Gowtham (34 wickets) were the stand-out performers of the season.
In the 2018–19 domestic season, Karnataka won their maiden T20 title. They beat Maharashtra by 8 wickets in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. They went on to defend their title in the 2019–20 season when they beat Tamil Nadu by 1 run in the finals.
Rahul Dravid scored hundreds in the finals of both 1995–96 and 1997–98 Ranji Trophy.
