Bengaluru 23rd August : A revitalized Mysore Warriors ended the brave run of the Hubli Tigers by five wickets in the final match of the Maharaja Trophy T20 Tournament on Tuesday.Aiming for a hefty 165 to secure an opportunity to play in the second Qualifier scheduled for on Thursday The Warriors kept their focus throughout and kept the pace under control.They eventually sailed to a comfortable victory.But not without a incident after they dropped three wickets in the 19th over with victory in sight – nine runs of the final 12 balls.
Opening players Nihal Ullal and captain Karun Nair added 52 runs to the first wicket, while the Warriors scored 54 runs in the six-over power-play in contrast to the Tigers 56-0 in the same time.
It was a good base but it was also a good opportunity to hit the brakes in the later stages in the innings.
And they did the same in the 15th over when Shreyas Gopal and Ullal hit 24 balls of M.G Naveen (2, N.B.6, 6, 1 1, 1 6, 1, 1) in order to cut down a daunting goal to a manageable 34 of the remaining 30 balls.
Gopal who had previously claimed 3-33 as the top wicket-taker with 16 scalps in 11 matches He batted with his usual ability and freedom, smacking anything that fell short or wide , while Ullal (77*, six fours, 58 balls and 3 sixes) who made his first half-century was more calculated and aggressive.
The pair came together at 94-94 after Nair (23 14 balls and four fours) was thrown for an unintentional shot with two balls left in the power play.
Pavan Deshpande (24 20 balls and 2 fours) left in the 12th over when he seemed poised to make another big score and remain in the top spot in the batters’ list.
His 24th birthday, however, led him to 396 runs from 11 matches, but it was not enough to secure the top spot, while Tigers captain Luvnith Sisodia with an impressive 33 earlier in the day, moved towards the top with the same number of runs, 401 of similar numbers of matches.
With nine wickets in the need of the two last overs The Warriors nearly collapsed after dropping three wickets of the first four balls of the 19th over, including the one of Gopal who was being caught in the in depth of Anand Doddamani, who was on a hat-trick.He ended up with impressive numbers of 4-27.
But Naga Bharath struck an unbeaten six off the fifth ball, which helped settle the nerves and cut the difference to three of the last over and, of course, Ullal hit the winning runs with an off-spin of the ball that was first of the final over.
In the earlier game in the day, the Tigers were playing their third game in three days, which included an exciting do-or die match to defeat Mangaluru United and book the fourth and final playoff spot on Monday night were all set to score a huge total when they were put to bat.
Captain Sisodia (33 24 balls 4 fours one six) and Mohammed Saha (27, 18 balls, 2 fours two six) continued where the start they took on Monday night when the Tigers were returning to the field, scoring 56 runs in the power-play, compared to 80 in the same time frame just 24 hours earlier.
However, when the openers and No.3 B.U Shiva Kumar (6 4 balls 1 four) dropped by the ninth over the Tigers had lost a significant amount of the energy.
While Swapnil Yelave (30 25 balls 4 fours) and M G Naveen (32 24 balls 2, 2 fours, 2 sixes) added 53 runs to the sixth wicket, and Abhimanyu Mithun was quick to add a quick 15-ball 19 (1 six) which only increased the total up to 164.This ended up being at 25 runs off.
Brief scores: Hubli Tigers 164-7 (Luvnith Sisodia 33, Mohammed Taha 27, Swapnil Yelave 30, MG Naveen 31, Abhimanyu Mithun 19; Shreyas Gopal 3-33, Shubhang Hegde 2-20) lost to Mysore Warriors 165-5 in 19.1 overs (Nihal Ullal 77, Karun Nair 23, Pavan Deshpande 24, Shreyas Gopal 32; Anand Doddamani 427).
BSK
