In the Maharaja Trophy T20 Tournament semifinal on Tuesday, a revitalised Mysore Warriors defeated the valiant Hubli Tigers by five wickets.
The Warriors eventually cruised to an easy victory while chasing a challenging 165 for a spot in the Qualifier 2 that will be played on Thursday. The Warriors maintained their focus throughout and managed the asking rate. With victory in sight, they lost three wickets in the 19th over, but not before scoring nine runs off of the final 12 balls.
In comparison to the Tigers' 56-0 in the same period, the Warriors scored 54 runs in the six-over power play, led by openers Nihal Ullal and captain Karun Nair, who combined for 52 runs for the first wicket.
Nevertheless, it provided a solid foundation from which to press the gas pedal later on in the inning. And in the 15th over, Shreyas Gopal and Ullal destroyed 24 overs of M.G. Naveen (2, NB6, 6, 1, 1, 1, 6) in order to accomplish that goal and lower the challenging aim to an achievable 34 runs off the final 30 balls.
Gopal, who had earlier claimed 3-33 to surpass Ullal (77*, 58 balls, 6 fours, 3 sixes), who reached his first half-century, as the player with the most wickets (16 from 11 games), batted with his customary flair and freedom, punishing anything dropped short or wide. Ullal was more calculated and aggressive.
The pair joined forces at 94 for two after Pavan Deshpande (24, 20 balls, 2 fours) left in the 12th over just as he appeared poised to continue leading the batters list and Nair (23, 14 balls, 4 fours) was dismissed for a loose shot with two balls remaining in the power play.
However, his 24 brought him to 396 runs from 11 matches, which was not enough to keep him in first place. The Tigers skipper Luvnith Sisodia, who had earlier in the day gone to the top with a magnificent 33, now leads with 401 from the same amount of matches.
The Warriors, who needed nine runs from the final two overs, nearly collapsed after losing three wickets in the first four deliveries of the 19th over, including Gopal, who was caught in the deep by Anand Doddamani, who was on a hat-trick and eventually finished with pleasing statistics of 4-27.
However, Naga Bharath scored a six off the fifth ball to calm the crowd and cut the deficit to three going into the final over. Ullal then deservedly hit the winning run with a boundary off the first ball of the last over.
The Tigers had appeared poised for a large total after being put into bat. The Tigers were playing their third match in three days, including a thrilling do-or-die battle to defeat Mangaluru United and secure the fourth and last playoff position on Monday night.
As the Tigers were back on the attack, adding 56 runs in the power-play compared to the 80 in the same time less than 24 hours before, captain Sisodia (33, 24 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) and Mohammed Saha (27, 18 balls, 2 four, 2 six) continued where they had left off on Monday night.
However, the Tigers lost a lot of their momentum as the openers and No. 3 B.U. Shiva Kumar (6, 4 balls, 1 four) were out by the ninth over.
Though Swapnil Yelave (30, 25 balls, 4 fours) and M G Naveen (32, 24 balls, 2 fours, 2 sixes) added 53 runs for the sixth wicket and Abhimanyu Mithun contributed a quick-fire 15-ball 19 (1 six), it only boosted the total to 164 which eventually proved at least 25 runs short.
Brief scores: Hubli Tigers 164-7 (Luvnith Sisodia 33, Mohammed Taha 27, Swapnil Yelave 30, MG Naveen 32, Abhimanyu Mithun 19; Shreyas Gopal 3-33, Shubhang Hegde 2-20) lost to Mysore Warriors 165-5 in 19.1 overs (Nihal Ullal 77, Karun Nair 23, Pavan Deshpande 24, Shreyas Gopal 32; Anand Doddamani 4-27).