A blistering 20-ball 46 from Prakhar Chaturvedi, studded with eight fours and a six, set up the Hubli Tigers’ seven-wicket victory against Mysore Warriors in a rain-interrupted clash in the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 here on Saturday.
Chasing a target of 177, the Tigers were handed a revised target of 86 in nine overs when rain interrupted play at the four-over mark. The Tigers hunted it down with ease to register their third win of the tournament.
In the second over of the Tigers’ run chase, impact player Prakhar Chaturvedi hit Kumar L.R. for 27 runs with five fours and six to stamp his authority on the chase. The match was interrupted at this juncture, and the second Innings was reduced to 9 overs due to rain, with a target of 86 set.
After the interruption, Prakhar picked up where he left off, striking two more boundaries before he was accounted for by Gautam Mishra (impact player) in the sixth over.
Gautam M. picked up Abhinav Manohar (20 off 10) and Devdutt Padikkal (0) in consecutive balls, but the breakthrough went in vain. Taha remained unbeaten to bring the Tigers home with four balls to spare.
Invited to bat first, the opening pair of Karthik S.U. and Karthik C.A. put on a brisk partnership of 61 runs in 34 balls. Karthik C.A. had dispatched Shreesha Achar and Samarth Nagraj for two sixes each before he fell to Nithin Shanthaveri in the sixth over.
Lankesh K.S. (2) fell to Manvanth Kumar, before Yashraj Punja struck twice in quick succession to dismiss Harshil Dharmani (5) and skipper, Manish Pandey (0), reducing the Warriors to 93/4 at the halfway mark. Unfazed, Karthik S.U. pressed on, attacking the spinners through the middle overs to bring up his half-century in just 32 balls.
Karthik S.U. and Venkatesh M. (26 off 22) built an alliance of 44 runs in 26 balls until Karthik S.U. was cleaned up by Shreesha Achar in the 15th over with the score at 136/5.
The Tigers clawed back, and the wickets tumbled quickly at the back end of the innings. Sumit (1) was run out, Yashovardhan Parantap (5) succumbed to Punja, and Venkatesh M. perished to Manvanth while looking to switch gears.
K. Gowtham (15 not out off 7) remained unbeaten to provide a final push, but Nithin Shantaveri snapped up Shikar Shetty and Kumar LR in the span of four balls as the Warriors bundled out for 177 in 18.5 overs.
Brief scores:
Mysore Warriors 177 all out in 18.5 overs (Karthik SU 71, Karthik C.A. 37, Venkatesh M. 26; Nithin Shanthaveri 3-17, Manvanth Kumar 2-27, Yash Raj Punja 3-32) lost to Hubli Tigers 86/3 in 8.2 overs (Prakhar Chaturvedi 45, Abhinav Manohar 20; Gautam Mishra 3-9) by 7 wickets via VJD method.
