11:17 PM IST and Local Time: This game was nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. Gulbarga Mystics were off to a flier, wobbled in the middle but at the end, Manish Pandey's patience and experience prevailed as he remained unbeaten to seal the deal for his side. Mystics come out victorious in this game by 3 wickets and with 7 balls to spare.
Chethan LR and SU Karthik hit a few boundaries early in the innings but both of them failed to meet the expectations. Chethan hit three sixes on his way to score 24 runs from 12 balls before Macneil Noronha dismissed him. SU Karthik took the charge after Chethan's dismissal but a stupendous catch from Manish Pandey brought the demise of his innings. Warriors reached the fifty run mark inside the powerplay and were looking promising for a big score on the board.
Then the momentum was halted for the Mysore Warriors. KP Karthikeya got off the mark with a maximum in the 5th ball of the 6th over but after that, the next boundary came 31 balls later. In this period, the Warriors lost Vishal Onat and Yuvraj Arora perished. Sagar Gowtham was sent in as an impact sub but he mustered only 12 from 19 balls. Manoj Bhandage also departed cheaply. KP Karthikeya was the only silver lining of the Mysore innings. He hit 2 fours and 4 sixes on his way to score 63 off 43 balls. He was dismissed in the last ball of the innings as run out.
For the Gulbarga Mystics, Ronit More picked up 2 wickets for 31 runs. Paras Gurbax Arya (1/19) and Kranthi Kumar (1/15) kept things tight for the Mystics. Paras troubled the Mysore batters with the turn and the extra bounce and Kranthi used the drift cleverly to restrict the batters. Gautam Mishra (1/25) and Macneil Noronha (1/22) picked up wickets but were expensive.
Gulbarga Mystics' innings ebbed and flowed. Sharath BR played some quality shots early in the innings and those made up for the slow start by his partner Lochan Gowda. Lochan failed to recover from the slow start and was dismissed for 18 off 19. At the end of the powerplay, Mystics were 66/1, with Sharath scoring 39 out of those in just 15 balls.
Mysore Warriors came back in the match and the courtesy entirely goes to their spinners. Ritesh Bhatkal gave the first breakthrough by removing Gowda and later he got the better of Prakhar Chaturvedi. In the same over, he removed Macneil Noronha and in his final over, he cleaned up Thippa Reddy. His spell of 4/20 from his 4 overs was immensely crucial in the context of the game. KP Karthikeya bowled a few good overs earlier and Madhav Bajaj did well to restrict the run flow. In the 7th to 15th over phase, Mystics could score just 52 losing 5 wickets. They played 49 boundaryless balls in this phase.
Manish Pandey and Kranthi Kumar then built up the innings. They nudged the ball around, played with soft hands and rotated the strike. Stole a few second runs where only single was possible and that kept the scoreboard moving. They needed 30 from 4 overs and took 12 from the 17th over. The 18th over went for 12 and in the final over, Manish finished the game. Kranthi gave away his wicket to Karthikeya in the penultimate over but Manish remained unbeaten on 43 to finish the game for his side.
Except the brilliant spell from Ritesh Bhatkal, KP Karthikeya picked up 2 wickets but went for 35 in 3.5 overs. Madhav Bajaj picked up a wicket but gave 43 runs away.