Bengaluru August 27, : A elegant fifty scored by Devdutt Padikkal as well as an impromptu blitzkrieg from captain Manish Pandey, and then some precise bowling by the bowlers under Manoj Bhandage, helped the Gulbarga Mystics lift the inaugural edition of the Maharaja Trophy.The Mystics beat the competition of Bengaluru Blasters by 11 runs at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday night.
Batting first The Gulbarga Mystics were off to an impressive start with the excellent Jeswath Acharya and Rohan Patil firing all the right gears in the powerplay.
Both batters were raking in boundaries in the initial stage -scoring over 10 runs per over, and they put up an impressive display of 60 runs.Patil became the first player to leave for 38.
Acharya was joined by the fashionable Padikkal and they kept the momentum up.The partnership was not an enormous one as Acharya returned with 39 in the 7th over.From there, Padikkal took charge, taking some pretty elegant shots and looking like he’s set to take a big shot.
Krishnan Shrijith added a quickfire 38, smacking two of sixes and a few boundaries as he could before Manish Pandey and Padikkal took over in the final section, with the Mystics well in the hunt for a score in the vicinity of 200.
Padikkal reached the mark of fifty in the 18th over, and had the most comfortable seat in the house, as captain Pandey was moving through the gears at an incredibly fast pace at the opposite end.In the 19th over, Pandey hit the three-run hat-trick of sixes, which took the score to 200 and the Mystics ended with 220 runs.
The Blasters could not get off to a great start despite the fact that Mayank Agarwal and L.R Chethan appeared to be in good form at first.The openers were able to make 20 runs prior to the skipper being sacked.
The floodgates were opened and the middle order sank with Kush Marathe (1), Shivkumar Rakshith (0) and Aniruddha Joshi (7) being the next three players to fall as the Blasters were huffing and puffing to reach 46/4 at the conclusion of the powerplay.
Chethan was holding his end in.J Suchith was dismissed for 5 runs, while Chethan on the other end was close to his 50th wicket in 21 balls.
The Blasters were losing wickets regularly and quickly, and needed 139 runs over 11 overs with five wickets in the hands.From this point on the tone of the match was changed with the Blasters counter-attacking with Chethan who was in good team in Kranthi Kumar.
Chethan was moving at a fast speed, taking in massive hits only as he ran toward a century barely about keeping his team in the hunt.The Blasters required 74 runs from the final 6 overs.Chethan’s explosive knock , however, took just 40 deliveries in the course of which he made 91 runs by smashing 6 fours and 8 sixes.The opener’s wicket marked the beginning of the wall for the Blasters.
Kranthi Kumar scored with 47, while Pradeep T.was sacked for 3 runs before Rishi Bopanna (13) and Ronit More (22*) brought hope with an impressive final attack.But it was too much for the Blasters which fell short of the title by 11 runs.
Brief scores:
Gulbarga Mystics 220/3 in 20 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 56*, Manish Pandey 41*, Jeswath Acharya 39, Rohan Patil 38; Aniruddha Joshi 1/15, Rishi Bopanna 1/35) defeated Bengaluru Blasters 209/9 in 20 overs (LR Chethan 91, Kranthi Kumar 47, Ronit More 22*; Manoj Bhandage 3/32, Ritesh Bhatkal 2/20, Pranav Bhatia 2/39) by 11 runs.
BSK
