Mangalore United bags 8-wicket win against Hubli Tigers

Shreyas Gopal played a brilliant hand with the bat before Shubhang Hegde picked 4 wickets as the Mysore Warriors put on a show for the home crowd last evening, defeating the Shivamogga Strikers by 69 runs on the opening day of Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 Cricket Tournament at Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Grounds here yesterday.

Asked to bat first, Mysore Warriors lost a couple of early wickets in Nihal Ullal (6) and Naga Bharath (1), before captain Karun Nair and Pavan Deshpande got their act going. The duo absorbed the pressure and then cut loose as the powerplay ended with the score on 41/2. 

Karun was well on his way before the opposing skipper K. Gowtham had his number for 27. That brought Shreyas Gopal to the middle, and he went on to knock the stuffing out of the Shivamogga Strikers’ bowling.

Shreyas brought out his full array of strokes, around the park in a 39-ball knock in which he clattered three sixes and five boundaries, scoring 62, and providing the home fans a lot to cheer about. Shreyas and Deshpande put on 89 runs at good clip, before the southpaw was castled by Gowtham for 43.

Shivraj and Shubhang added a few lusty blows in the final overs, as Mysore asked Shivamogga to chase 173 for the win.

For the Strikers, Gowtham and Stallin Hoover picked a couple of wickets each while D. Avinash bagged the big wicket of Shreyas, who was dropped twice, first in the 8th over and then in the 19th.  In the powerplay, Strikers lost Rohan Kadam (3), Stallin (0), Krishnamurthy Siddharth (21) and R. Smaran (0) and finished the phase with the score on 28/4. Mysore were fielding and bowling brilliantly.

The Strikers, with Gowtham looking to counter-attack, reached 50/4 after 8 overs, and had a mountain to climb. However, right after Gowtham was packed off for 23, before a rain stoppage reduced the target to 161, but off 18 overs.

Avinash was the next to depart for 9 as the Strikers started to collapse like a pack of cards.  

Shubham Hegde then packed off Rajvir Wadhwa (3) and M.B. Darshan (1) in the same over, to take his wickets tally to 4, with the Warriors needing two more scalps to win. Shreyas Gopal then knocked over K.C. Cariappa for 10 in the 14th over, before Vidyadhar Patil wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Vinay Sagar for 18. The Strikers were bowled out for 91.

Brief Scores

Mysore Warriors: 172/5 in 20 overs (Shreyas Gopal 62, Pavan Deshpande 43, Stallin Hoover 2/19, K. Gowtham 2/32) won by 69 runs against Shivamogga Strikers: 91 all out (K. Gowtham 23, K. Siddharth 21, Shubham Hegde 4/11, Prateek Jain 2/17).

Hubli Tigers: 119/9 (Liyan Khan 34, Tushar Singh 34, HS Sharath 2/17, Vijaykumar Vyshak 2/23) lost by 8 wickets to Mangalore United: 114/2 after 16 overs (R. Samarth 57*, Abhinav Manohar 25*, Abhimanyu Mithun 1/20, Zahoor Farooqi 1/24).

SCHEDULE

Today’s Matches (august 8)

Bengaluru Blasters Vs Gulbarga Mystics       3.00 pm

Mysore Warriors Vs Mangalore United         7.00 pm

Tomorrow’s Matches (august 9)

Gulbarga Mystics Vs Shivamogga Strikers    3.00 pm

Bengaluru Blasters Vs Hubli Tigers      7.00 pm

Venue: SDNR Wadiyar Stadium, Mysuru