Mysuru, June 24 (IANS) Gulbarga Mystics scored their maiden victory on Tuesday, trouncing Shivamogga Yodhas by 95 runs in the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 tournament in Mysuru.

A turbo-charged batting display in the Power-play during which the Mystics smashed 93 runs, and a heroic all-round performance by Kranthi Kumar (31 of 22, 2/8) did the magic for Gulbarga, who posted a challenging 232/8. Gautam Mishra (3/34) and Ronit More (2/7) also shone with the ball as Gulbarga restricted Shivamogga to 137.

To complete an outstanding day, Kranthi Kumar returned to claim two decisive wickets for just eight runs in three overs to put Gulbarga on the highway to a comfortable victory.

Kumar first dismissed Harshil Dharmani (23 off 17) on the last ball of his first over. Then he got rid of captain Smaran Ravichandran (23 off 23) on the first ball of his next to effectively end Shivamogga’s ambitions of pulling off a high-scoring chase.

For Shivamogga Yodhas, opener Luvnith Sisodia’s (30 off 14) early burst hardly mattered as the line-up could not cope with the mounting pressure. The match eventually petered out into a one-sided contest. It was Shivamogga’s second defeat in three matches.

Earlier, put into bat first, Gulbarga opener Lochan Gowda (47 off 21) and No.3 Prakhar Chaturvedi (45 off 19) set the early tempo with some aggressive strokes, and once in the saddle, they stepped up the pace to such an extent that a 300-run target was possible.

But Shivamogga’s medium pacer Bheem Rao Navale, who had gone for 18 runs in his first over, dismissed both Gowda and Chaturvedi in the space of 11 runs to firmly grab the initiative back.

Macneil Noronha (26 of 16) and captain Manish Pandey (22 off 11) stemmed further rot from setting in by adding an 18-ball 35 for the fifth wicket. But their run rate suffered as, at one stretch of play, there were no boundaries for 15 deliveries. Dhruv Prabhakar (13 off 14) supported Kranthi Kumar to close out the innings at a formidable total.

Brief scores:

Gulbarga Mystics 232-8 in 20 overs (Lochan Gowda 47, Prakhar Chaturvedi 45, Manish Pandey 22, Kranthi Kumar 31; Bheem Rao Navale 2-31, Naveen MG 2-44) beat Shivamogga Yodhas 137 all out (Luvnith Sisodia 30; Gautam Mishra 3-34, Ronit More 2-12, Kranthi Kumar 2-7) by 95 runs.

–IANS

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