Belagavi Panthers move to top of the table

Captain Vinay Kumar led from the front

Hubballi, September 9: Defending champions Mysuru Warriors face the possibility of not making it to the qualifiers of the Karbonn Smart KPL 2015 as they succumbed to their third loss from four matches this far.

In a rain delayed and curtailed match, which was reduced to a 10-overs-a-side from a 17-overs affair at the start, the Warriors chasing a revised target based on VJD which was propped up from 91 to 96, never got into the hunt losing wickets at regular intervals.

Barring Shoaib Manager (11) none of the Mysuru batsmen got into doubles figures.

For the Panthers, all their bowlers bowled with purpose and returned good figures and were amongst wickets too. Left-arm spinner Vinoo Prasad was the most successful bowler claiming three wickets for 18 runs, all three victims being caught by Praveen Dubey in the long off region.

Mysuru will have to win the rest of their three matches and hope for the top teams to lose a couple for them to make the grade.

With this win, the Panthers are on top of the points table.

Rains caused the delay of the match forcing the umpires to make it a 17-overs-a-side affair that was further reduced to 10-overs-a-side due to rain interruption for 80 minutes.

Having faced 5.2 over before rain stoppage, Belagavi skipper Vinay Kumar went into top gear at the resumption and slammed the Mysuru bowlers all over the park. On 10 when play resumed, in 17 balls that he negotiated Vinay amassed 41 runs. In all his 52 came off 28 deliveries and was studded with five fours and three towering sixes.

Abhishek Reddy was not to be left behind as he scored a 26-ball 32 that had three fours and a six as the Panthers finished at 91 for four in their quota of 10 overs.

However, the target for Mysuru Warriors was pumped up by five runs via the VJD method and the defending champs had to chase 96 runs for victory.

SCOREBOARD

Belagavi Panthers:

Abhishek Reddy c K Gowtham b J Suchith 32 (26b, 3 x 4, 1 x 6); Mayank Agarwal c K Gowtham b Sunil Kumar 4; Pushtak Nag c A Hoysala b D Mathias 0; R Vinay Kumar b J Suchith 52 (28b, 5 x 4, 3 x 6); R Jonathan (not out) 1. Extras: (lb-2) 2.

Total: (For four wickets, 10 overs) 91

Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Agarwal); 2-14 (Nag); 3-88 (Vinay); 4-91 (Reddy).

Bowling: J Suchith 2-0-6-2; Sushil Kumar DH 2-0-10-1; David Mathias 1-0-7-1; Naveen MG 2-0-31-0; K Gowtham 2-0-22-0; Anand Doddamani 1-0-13-0.

Mysuru Warriors:

Arjun Hoysala c A Reddy b HS Sharath 8; Manish Pandey c Chiranjeevi b Stalin Hoover 9; Manjesh Reddy b Praveen Dubey 6; MG Naveen c Praveen D b Vinoo Prasad 8; Shoaib Manager c Praveen Dubey b Vinoo Prasad 11; K Gowtham c P Dubey b Vinoo P 5; Nihal Ullal (run out) 1; J Suchith c Chiranjeevi b Vinay 7; David Mathias c Jonathan b Vinay 3; DH Sunil Kumar ; Anand Doddamani ;

Extras: (w-1, lb-8) 9

Total: (For nine wickets, 10 overs) 74

Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Hoysala); 2-25 (Reddy); 3-31 (Pandey); 4-39 (Naveen); 5-48 (Gowtham); 6-54 (Manager); 7-62 (Ullal); 8-65 (Suchith); 9-66 (Mathias).

Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 2-0-13-2; HS Sharath 2-0-7-1; Stalin Hoover 2-0-15-1; Praveen Dubey 2-0-13-1; Vinoo Prasad 2-0-18-3.

Toss: Won by Mysuru Warriors; opted to field

Result: Belagavi Panthers won by 21 runs (VJD method).