As the Hubli Tigers defeated the Shivamogga Strikers by 8 wickets on Friday, captain Luvnith Sisodia and B.U. Shiva Kumar both scored superb half-centuries.
In their opening at-bat, the Strikers' Sharath B.R. and Stallin Hoover made excellent advantage of the powerplay's gaps while forming a strong combination. Before Hoover (38) got the first wicket to fall at the start of the 10th over, the pair had put on a partnership of 78 runs while scoring at a rate of over 9 runs per over.
Following that, the Strikers faltered a little bit, as Sharath (36) and Desmond Antony (7) left the game in the same over. However, Siddharth (23) was doing every effort to maintain the score rate before he too made the exhausting trek back to the hut.
According to a press statement from the event's organisers, Chaitanya S.'s 32 runs in the middle order helped the Strikers end their innings with a score of 146/5.
The Hubli Tigers' openers, B.U. Shiva Kumar and Luvnith Sisodia, were in top form as they attempted to chase down what appeared to be a difficult mark. They stopped the Strikers' bowling and maintained a higher run rate than was necessary.
The openers guaranteed that the Strikers would not be able to pick off the early wickets by scoring quickly, taking the score to 49/0 in just 6 overs. From that point on, the pair continued to make progress, with Sisodia reaching his half-century with a towering six in the eleventh over of the innings. However, Sisodia was able to reach 62 and was the first to leave after the openers put together a century stand.
As the Tigers neared the finish line shortly after, Abhimanyu Mithun (1) was dismissed before Shiva Kumar reached his half-century. Shiva Kumar was joined by Liyan Khan, and the two spent little time finishing the assignment.
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).