Mysuru, August 7.: Mangalore United captain R Samarth put on a impressive display with his bat assisting his team beat Hubli Tigers by eight wickets at the Srikantadatta Narasimha Raja Wadiyar Ground in the first game of the Maharaja KSCA T20 Trophy on Sunday. In the first innings, in the overcast weather and on a spongy wicket the Hubli Tigers had a slow start, losing Naveen (1), Luvnith Sisodia (7) and BU Shiva Kumar (7) in the powerplay.Liyan Khan and Tushar Singh then stabilized the ship, and put together the team of 38 runs in the fourth wicket which gave Hubli the chance to gain momentum.
Liyan was 34 when he scored and hit three sixes with two boundaries in his innings.Tushar also scored 34 with two sixes as well as a boundary of his own.He was the fifth wicket to go down, in the 15th over with the score of 92.Hubli were hoping for a strong finish , but no one reached double figures, as the remainder of the batting line-up was unable to speed up the pace, as Hubli scored 119-9 in 20 overs.
In the case of Mangalore United, HS Sharath and Vijaykumar Vyshak picked two wickets each and Muralidhara Venkatesh, Rohit Kumar and Amit Verma picked up one wicket each.Rain delays meant that Mangalore United were set to chase 112 in 18 overs using the VJD method.
They fell to Macneil Noonha (6) in the 3rd over prior to when Samarth and Nikin Jose took over.Captain Samarth was the most aggressive player in the partnership, and was able to reach the fence with relatively ease.
Samarth’s counter-attack assisted Mangalore to reach 39-1 by the conclusion of the powerplay the time Nikin also was feeling confident after a slow start.At the close of the eighth over Mangalore were at 56-1 with half of the work completed very comfortably.
The next time, Nikin and Samarth brought up their fifty-run stand.
In the 12th over Hubli captain Abhimanyu Mithun got the much-needed breakthrough with the bat, as he was able to get Nikin trapped for 23 and ended the stand at 67 runs.
Samarth continued to make it fifty with an impressive six off Naveen.He ended the match unbeaten on 57.Abhinav Manohar, who closed the match with a single-handed six, was not out on the 25th as Mangalore finished the chase with two overs remaining.
In the past, the tournament was officially opened by HRH Maharani of Mysuru Pramoda Devi during an exciting ceremony of opening in which KSCA officials including the President, and 1983 World Cup winner, ex-India all-rounder Roger Binny, were present along with the six captains Samarth, Mithun, Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, K Gowtham and Karun Nair.
Brief Scores: Hubli Tigers 119-9 in 20 overs (Liyan Khan 34, Tushar Singh 34, HS Sharath 2-17, Vijaykumar Vyshak 2-23) lost to Mangalore United 114-2 in 16 overs (R Samarth 57 not out, Abhinav Manohar 25 not out, Abhimanyu Mithun 1-20, Zahoor Farooqi 1-24) by eight wickets
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