The Brigadiers, increasingly resembling a rag-tag outfit which had just one point -- courtesy a wash-out -- going into their last game, drove one nail after another into the Bulls, emphatically derailing their campaign with a most convincing 49-run victory.
With openers Syed Ibrez and man of the match Deepak Chougule (61, 59b, 6x4) firing on all cylinders, the Brigadiers made a mockery of the Bulls’ designs of chasing down a target at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday.
Vinu Prasad Narayanan and Nikhil Kashyap came up with bruising cameos at different stages of the innings so that at the break, the Brigadiers had powered along to 184 for five, the second highest score of the competition.
Having seen his decision to stick the opposition in backfire, Sudhindra Shinde needed an exceptional effort from his batsmen, himself included, for last year’s semifinalists to sneak into the last four. As it transpired, only Stuart Binny, batting as low as number six and forced to requisition a runner early in his essay, showed any spunk with a 21-ball 44 (4x4, 3x6), the rest disappearing like falling autumn leaves as the Bulls were shot out for 135.
Devraj Patil, all too briefly, ignited the Bulls’ hopes but too many wickets were falling around him -- and then he too succumbed to that ugly innovation, the reverse sweep -- for Shinde’s boys to mount any challenge. A hobbling Binny put the track and the bowling in perspective with characteristic beefy hits, but once Vinu Prasad defeated his pull and rattled timber, it was all over bar the shouting.
Narayanan and fellow left-arm spinner TK Ananth, the veteran, picked up six wickets between themselves.
In the afternoon, the Brigadiers quickly got on the bike and sped away, Chougule was the initial aggressor before Ibrez came to the party. Perhaps, the pressure got to the Bulls, because there were far too many buffet balls on offer, and all of them were promptly punished by the intrepid Ibrez (49, 32b, 3x4, 2x6), the dominant force in an opening stand of 91 (64b).
Narayanan tonked the bowling around on his way to a 10-ball 26 (2x4, 2x6), but his dismissal triggered a rot as the Brigadiers lost three for eight in 12 deliveries including skipper Robin Uthappa for a golden duck. All along, Chougule carried on unflustered, and Kashyap provided the final push with an unbeaten 34 (14b, 2x4, 2x6), the last five overs producing 54 and signalling the end of the Bull run.
SCORE BOARD
BANGALORE BRIGADIERS: Syed Ibrez c Mulki b Anish 49, Deepak Chougule c Beerala b Mulki 61, Vinu Prasad Narayanan (run out) 26, Robin Uthappa c Shinde b Rajashekar 0, M Vinod lbw Anish 4, Nikhil Kashyap (not out) 34, Sadiq Kirmani (not out) 0. Extras (LB-5, W-4, NB-1) 10. Total (for 5 wkts, 20 overs) 184.
Fall of wickets: 1-91 (Ibrez), 2-122 (Narayanan), 3-123 (Uthappa), 4-130 (Vinod).
Bowling: Jaya Prakash Shetty 2-0-12-0 (nb-1), DV Anish 4-0-27-2 (w-2), Nithin Mulki 4-0-41-1 (w-1), Syed Nooruddin 3-0-20-0, Stuart Binny 1-0-13-0 (w-1), B Rajashekar 4-0-39-1, Pranesh Desai 2-0-27-0.
BIJAPUR BULLS: Mithun Beerala c Narayanan b Faroqui 8, Ravi Khande c Rahul b Sharath 4, Devraj Patil c Inrez b Ananth 22, Jaya Prakash Shetty st Uthappa b Narayanan 15, Sudhindra Shinde b Narayanan 17, Stuart Binny b Narayanan 44, DV Anish (run out) 7, Nithin Mulki c Rahul b Ananth 3, Syed Nooruddin b Ananth 1, B Rajashekar (not out) 4, Pranesh Desai c Vinod b Chougule 5. Extras (B-2, LB-1, W-1, NB-1) 5. Total (all out, 18.2 overs) 135.
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Khande), 2-17 (Beerala), 3-37 (Patil), 4-61 (Shetty), 5-103 (Shinde), 6-120 (Binny), 7-123 (Anish), 8-126 (Mulki), 9-126 (Nooruddin).
Bowling: Zahoor Faroqui 2-0-11-1 (nb-1), HS Sharath 3-0-34-1 (w-1), TK Ananth 4-0-26-3, Vinu Prasad Narayanan 4-0-22-3, Deepak Chougule 1.2-0-12-1, Nikhil Kashyap 3-0-16-0, M Vinod 1-0-11-0.
