LUCKNOW, Feb. 20 -- On Thursday, it was just a formality for eight-time champions Karnataka on Thursday to make it to the Ranji Trophy final after their five-day semi-final against hosts Uttarakhand ended in a draw, at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here in Lucknow. Karnataka, under the leadership of Devdutt Padikkal, ended an 11-year wait to enter the Ranji final and will now face Jammu and Kashmir in the summit clash at Hubballi, starting February 24. Riding high on some fine batting performances from skipper Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul, Ravinchandra Smaran and others, Karnataka scored 736 after being sent to bat first and took a solid 503 runs first innings lead after Uttarakhand got out for 233 in their first essey. In the second innings too, Karnataka's dominance with willow continued and they posted 323, stretching their overall lead to 826, an impossible task for Uttarakhand to achieve in their second innings on the final day of the five-day encounter on Thursday. And as expected the hosts could make 260/6 before the two captains decided to shake hands for a draw, allowing Karnataka to step forward to relish their dream of winning the coveted trophy for the ninth time. Resuming Day 5 from 299/6, Karnataka's tail folded swiftly, losing their last four wickets to finish at 323. Though Uttarakhand mounted a gritty response, with fifties from Avneesh Sudha (66, 71b, 10x4), Sachin Rawat (53*, 114b, 4x4, 2x6), and Abhay Negi (57*, 66b, 5x4, 3x6) propelling them to 260/6 in the second innings. Karnataka had pushed aggressively after slumping the hosts to 156/6 midway through the middle session, but an unbroken 104-run stand for the seventh wicket between Negi and Rawat forced the captains to call stumps 30 minutes post-tea. This triumph marks Karnataka's return to the final since their last title in 2014-15, a golden era under R Vinay Kumar when they swept the Ranji Trophy, Irani Cup, and Vijay Hazare Trophy, emulating Mumbai as only the second side to claim all three in successive seasons. Uttarakhand's campaign, powered by Mayank Mishra's record 59 wickets, ends in heartbreak despite their maiden semi-final berth. Mishra's pre-season first-class haul of 143 wickets at 24.43 across 37 games underscored his rise, but Karnataka's batting depth proved decisive. "We are happy that we played like a unit and made it to the semi-finals for the first time. The loss has taught us many lessons and I am sure that in the next season, we will come out with much better plans," Uttarakhand's skipper Kunal Chandela said after the match. However, Karnataka's senior batter Karun Nair admired the team's overall show this season so far. "I think we've done really well to get to the final list here, you know, we have had our good days and we've had our bad days. But we are a good team, and make use of all the opportunities that we get," he said. "We've been able to do that so far, and we have one more game to go. And we are all, you know, really excited to play that game. We have that hunger. I think this group of boys have that in them, and that's the only thing that we talk about," he added....