Maharaja Trophy T20: Hubli Tigers Beat Mangaluru, Finish On Top Of Points Table

Maharaja Trophy T20: Hubli Tigers beat Mangaluru, finish on top of points table (Image Source: IANS)

Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20: The Hubli Tigers beat the Mangaluru Dragons by 5 wickets to ensure a top-place finish in the points table in the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 here on Saturday.

Manvanth Kumar (5-33) put on a brilliant display of bowling to pick up five wickets before Md. Taha (51 off 23 balls) and skipper Manish Pandey (56* off 33 balls) took Hubli to a comfortable win over Mangaluru, beating them by 5 wickets with 10 balls to spare.

Put into bat, Mangaluru Dragons' wicketkeeper-batsman B.R Sharath got his team off to a quick start scoring 40 runs off 23 balls before he was bowled by Manvanth Kumar in the fifth over.

Rohan Patil (34) and K.V. Siddharth (53) added 60 runs in a strong second-wicket partnership before Praveen Dubey scalped Patil in the 12th over, at the end of which the score read 105-2.

Another productive partnership of 48 runs was formed for the third wicket between K.V Siddharth and Thippa Reddy (19) as Mangaluru went on to breach the 150 mark in 16.5 overs, setting the team up for a high score by the end of the innings.

However, the fall of Reddy and Siddharth in the 18th over bowled by Manvanth Kumar went on to trigger a collapse as they managed just 16 runs off the final three overs for the loss of seven wickets courtesy of some ingenious mix of pace by Manvanth Kumar and Lavish Kaushal.

Mangaluru ended their innings at 167/9 with the in-form pacer for Hubli Tigers Manvanth Kumar (5-33) turning up as the wrecker in chief, picking up his first fifer of the tournament to break the momentum generated by the Mangaluru top order.

In reply, Hubli Tigers notched up 46 runs in the first four overs as Md. Taha (51) launched an all-out attack on the Mangaluru Dragons’ bowlers.

Despite the fall of both Naga Bharath (14) and K.L Shrijith (4) in the fifth over, the flow of runs wasn’t impeded as Md. Taha went on to bring up his half-century in 21 balls before ending up as Anand Doddamani’s third victim of the evening in the ninth over at the end of which the score read 88/3.

Praveen Dubey (17) then joined skipper Manish Pandey (56 not out) at the crease and rotated strike well before he was dismissed by Paras Arya in the 13th over.

K. Gowtham got rid of Manvanth Kumar the following over at the end of which, the Hubli Tigers were 127-5 with Manish Pandey well set on 33 off 22 balls.

With just 41 runs required off the final six overs and Manish Pandey bringing up his half-century in 32 balls, the Hubli Tigers beat the Mangaluru Dragons by five wickets with 10 balls to spare as BA Mohith (20*) and Pandey saw them through to the finish line.

Brief scores:

Mangaluru Dragons 167/9 in 20 overs (KV Siddharth 53, BR Sharath 40, Rohan Patil 34; Manvanth Kumar 5-33, Lavish Kaushal 2-26) lost to Hubli Tigers 170/5 in 18.2 overs (Manish Pandey 56*, Md. Taha 51; Anand Doddamani 3-34, Krishnappa Gowtham 1-32) by 5 wickets.