Bengaluru, Aug 25 Shivamogga Lions held their nerves to beat Mangaluru Dragons by three wickets and eight balls to spare in a thrilling match no.22 in the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
It was S Shivaraj's blistering knock of 24 runs off 9 balls that not only made the run-chase look easy towards the end but also ensured Shivamogga Lions registered back-to-back victories, trying to muster their way up the points table with four points on the chart.
The star of the Lions’ innings was Abhinav Manohar, as he came up with yet another impressive knock, scoring 43 off 25 balls. He entertained the Sunday audience with five sixes to not only surpass Karun Nair for maximum sixes in the tournament but he also is now the proud owner of the orange cap with 372 runs this season.
Rohan Naveen, the trusted player of the Lions, truly played to the title backing Manohar's fine innings with a steady 37 off 34 balls after openers Dheeraj Mohan and captain Nihal Ullal lost their scalps early in the game - thanks to good spells by Abhilash Shetty and Shreyas Gopal.
Meanwhile, the Lions' bowlers did well to restrict Mangaluru Dragons to 152/7 in 20 overs.
Similar to their winning tactics on Friday against Hubli Tigers, Shivamogga Lions decided to field first yet again. Pacers Doddamani Anand and Vasuki Koushik did well with the new ball, picking up early wickets and putting Dragons in a precarious position at 2 for 27 in 4.4 overs. While Anand dismissed Macneil Noronha (6) in his second over, Koushik bagged the dangerous Rohan Patil's (9) wicket in the following over putting pressure on the Dragons' batting line-up.
Coming in at No.3, Nikin Jose then steered the Dragons' innings with a strong 57 off 37 balls, hitting seven boundaries and one over it. Though Krishnamurthy Siddharth (9) and KS Lankesh (3) couldn't muster a longer partnership along with Jose, as they lost their wickets to HS Sharath and Ashok in quick succession, Jose had to rely on his Captain Shreyas Gopal to stitch together a strong 39-run partnership off 16 balls, taking the total to 110 in 16.2 overs. In-form allrounder Hardik Raj eventually broke the partnership, sending Jose back to the dugout.
Gopal lost his wicket to Avinash in the following over but a quickfire 19 off 8 balls by Lochan Gowda and an unbeaten 18 off 12 balls by MB Darshan helped the Dragons take their total to a fairly defendable 152/7 in 20 overs but it was eventually not enough - thanks to tournament's highest run-getter Abhinav Manohar's onslaught.
Brief scores: Mangalore Dragons 152/7 in 20 overs (Nikin Jose 57, Shreyas Gopal 19, Lochan Gowda 19; D Ashok 1-20, Hardik Raj 1-21) lost to Shivamogga Lions 153/7 in 18.4 overs (Abhinav Manohar 43, Rohan Naveen 37, S Shivaraj 24; Advith Shetty 2-49, Paras Arya 2-14) by three wickets.
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