Bengaluru August 19 : Captain Luvnith Sisodia scored a stunning half-century as did B.U.Shiva Kumar as the Hubli Tigers put on a spectacular display in their match against the Shivamogga Strikers on Friday, winning by 8 wickets. The top players of the day could be also been influenced by the presence of IPL Scouts from Chennai Super Kings, KKR and Lucknow Super Giants at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Batting first in the first innings, the Strikers openers of Sharath B.R.and Stallin Hoover began off to a fantastic start, making excellent use of the gap in the powerplay in an impressive partnership.They were scoring at a high rate, around 9 runs per over as they put together an unbroken standing of around 78 runs prior to Hoover (38) was the wicket that fell first at the end of the 10th over.
Sharath (36) left in the next over and was then followed by Desmond Antony (7), as the Strikers were experiencing some of an upswing.
Siddharth (23) however was doing all he could to maintain the scoring rate, but he also took the long trek back to the hut.
In the middle order, Chaitanya S.added 32 runs to aid the Strikers in closing the game with the score of 146/5, the organisers said in an announcement.
Aiming at an unattainable goal, Hubli Tigers’ openers B.U.Shiva Kumar and Luvnith Sisodia were in top form, stopping the Strikers bowling and keeping in front of the necessary run rate.
At a fast pace the openers made sure that the Strikers wouldn’t be in a position to take the first wickets, pushing the score up to 49/0 in 6 overs.From there on in the innings, the duo continued working their way up with Sisodia getting his half-century in fashion, with a monster six in the 11th over of the innings.
Sisodia however was able to reach his 62th wicket and was first player to go after the openers had put up 100 runs.
Then, Abhimanyu Mithun (1) was dismissed before Shiva Kumar got to his half-century, as Tigers were getting closer to the end of the road.
Shiva Kumar had Liyan Khan to help him and the two did not succeed in getting the job done.
Brief scores: Shivamogga Strikers 146/5 in 20 overs (Stallin Hoover 38, Sharath BR 36, Chaitanya S 32, Siddharth 23; V Koushik 2/29, BU Shiva Kumar 1/17) beat Hubli Tigers 149/2 in 17.2 overs (Luvnith Sisodia 62, BU Shiva Kumar 61, Liyan Khan 19; K Gowtham 1/34).
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