Karnataka thus earned the right to defend their title. They now await the outcome of the Hyderabad-Madhya Pradesh tie. As for Punjab, a late order revival led by Amit Sharma not only saved the team from an innings defeat, it also gave them an outside chance of scraping through. However, coming in the backdrop of a humiliating first innings disaster (all out for 90), it was too big a task from them.

Resuming at overnight 199 for six, Punjab reached 322 thanks to a 199-run seventh wicket stand between Amit Sharma (80: 190b, 235m, 10x4, 1x6) and Sarandeep Singh (46).

Needing 91 runs for an outright victory, the visitors did start shakily, as the Punjab seamers Bharat Bhushan and Sandeep Sharma had the Karnataka openers Sujit Somasunder andJ Arun Kumar searching for the ball.

Sandeep castled Arun but Punjab's joy was shortlived. Karnataka's technical gamble of promoting S Shiraguppi to No 3 paid dividends as he went after the attack. Taking a cue, the skipper Shomasunder hoisted Punjab's main hope Harbhajan Singh for two sixes. The off-spinner had his revenge accounting for both Shomasunder and Shiraguppi. But Vijay R Bharadwaj ensured there were no further alarms for the defending champions.

Scoreboard

Punjab (1st innings): 90

Karnataka (1st innings): 322

Punjab (2nd innings; overnight 199-6): Vikram Rathore c Shiruguppi b Yalvigi 33, Navjot Sidhu b Yalvigi 60, Sandeep Sharma lbw Ganesh 5, Pankaj Dharmani run out 14, Dinesh Mongia c Anil Kumar b Yalvigi 5, Amit Sharma lbw Katti 80, Harminder Jugnu c sub (Akhil) b Yalvigi 2, Sarandeep Singh st Shiruguppi b Katti 46, Harbhajan Singh b Ganesh 18, Navdeep Singh c Naidu b Katti 25, Bharat Bhushan not out 0; Extras: (nb14, lb8, b12) 34. Total: (all out in95.1 overs) 322.

Fall of wickets: 1-91, 2-104, 3-104, 4-129, 5-129, 6-137, 7-256, 8-285, 9-317

Bowling: Ganesh 32-4-94-2, Khan 8-2-19-0, Katti 27.1-6-85-3, Bharadwaj 10-1-44-0, Yalvigi 18-4-60-4

Karnataka (2nd innings): Sujith Somasunder lbw Harbhajan 33, J Arun Kumar b Sandeep Sharma 6, Somasekhar Shiruguppi c Amit Sharma b Harbhajan 16, Vijay Bhardwaj not out 30, A Vijay not out 9; Total: (for 3 wickets in 18.2 overs) 94

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-40, 3-71

Bowling: Bharat Bhushan 4-1-24-0, Sandeep Sharma 6.2-1-17-1, Navdeep Singh 3-0-15-0, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-30-2, Sarandeep Singh 1-0-8-0.