FACE2NEWS/MYSORE

Rain played spoil sport in the second game on Monday, but that didn’t stop Mangalore United from picking up the win against the home team, Mysore Warriors. Samarth R’s Mangalore United won by 8 runs basis VJD method at the Srikantadatta Narasimha Raja Wadiyar Ground in Mysore.

Asked to bat first, the Mysore Warriors had a slow start, losing captain Karun Nair (5) and Naga Bharath (9), just before the end of the powerplay. Meanwhile, Nihal Ullal at the other end was making run-scoring look relatively easier in comparison.

Ullal and Pavan Deshpande were in the middle, with a task on their hand, which they set about doing on cue. The third wicket partnership produced 38 runs with Ullal (44) just missing out on a well-deserved half-century.

Deshpande and yesterday’s hero Shreyas Gopal could not kick on as the latter departed for 5 and the former was dismissed for 14. Shivraj S (19*) and Shubhang Hegde (10*) put the long handle to good use, scoring some crucial runs before rain decided to pay an untimely visit.

The delay forced the umpires and officials to rework the playing conditions, and Mysore, who scored 112/5 in 16.3 overs, would have 114 runs to defend in 14 overs against Mangalore United.

In response, Mangalore too lost early wickets as Macneil Noronha (9) failed to cash in on conditions that seemed to have eased out. Captain Samarth R though was taking confident strides towards the target, even though he saw Nikin Jose (9) make the long walk back to the hut in the 6th over.

With rain eyeing yet another visit, new man Abhinav Manohar and Samarth were looking to up the ante, driving the score to 53/2 in 7 overs. Rain stopped play on 7.5 overs with Mangalore’s score on 63/2, having edged ahead of the par score on the basis of the VJD method.

The three-week T20 extravaganza will be telecast live on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports Kannada. It will also be streamed live on the Fancode app for larger consumption.
Tuesday will see Gulbarga Mystics taking on Shivamogga Strikers at 3pm while the Bengaluru Blasters play Hubli Tigers in the 7pm game, both in Mysore.

Brief Scores:
Mysore Warriors – 112/5 in 16.3 overs (Nihal Ullal – 44, Shivraj S – 19*, Rohit Kumar – 2/32, HS Sharath – 1/12) lost by 8 runs against Mangalore United – 63/2 in 7.5 overs (Samarth R – 31*, Abhinav Manohar – 14*, Vidyadhar Patil – 1/21)