All-round Gowtham stars as Malnad beat Bijapur
Round-up of the sixth day's action in the Karnataka Premier League
ESPNcricinfo staff
22-Sep-2010
Offspinner K Gowtham's 3 for 25 restricted Bijapur Bulls to 130 for 8 which the Malnad Gladiators chased down with five wickets to spare in Bangalore.
Though Devraj Patil top-scored with 47 off 39 deliveries, he fell to Gowtham in the 17th over to leave Bijapur at 90 for 5. Some late hitting from Jayprakash Shetty and Ravi Kane took their team to 130.
Wicketkeeper Chandrushekar Avinash anchored the Malnad chase with an unbeaten 45 off 46. Fittingly, Gowtham smashed the winning runs, remaining unbeaten on 12 off six balls as Malnad won with four balls remaining. Stuart Binny took 2 for 27 for Bijapur.
While Bijapur failed to defend 130, Mysore Maharaajas stifled Bangalore Brigadiers to defend the same total by five runs in Bangalore.
Offspinner C Raghu's 2 for 14 kept things tight as the asking rate mounted for Brigadiers. The pressure got to them as they lost regular wickets in the latter half of their innings. With eight needed from nine, Adithya Sagar sent back Munikrishna Vinod who had made 24 off 12 deliveries till then. Nikhil Kashyap was run out in the last over as Brigadiers finished on 125 for 7.
Chethan William, the Mysore captain, had earlier top-scored with 37 off 33. However, from 112 for 3, his side lost five wickets for six runs in two overs to end up on 130 for 8 after having looked set for a bigger score.