Beerala shines in Bulls win

Opener hits 63 as Bijapur cruise home by six wickets

Beerala’s well-composed knock was the rock around which Bulls constructed their successful chase of 146. Earlier, Gladiators made 145 for five after batting by choice.

The lively right-hander’s innings was in complete contrast to some other innings played on the day. Coming after a failure in the first match against Mysore Maharaajas, Beerala might have felt a bit of pressure. But there was no sign of uncertainty as conviction radiated from each of his strokes.

Man of the match Beerala (63 n.o, 52b, 6x4, 2x6) took his time to measure the pitch and bowlers, concentrating on taps between gaps for quick singles and twos.
The only black spot on an otherwise impeccable innings was a loose drive he essayed off KP Rohan on 13, but Ryan Ninan failed to grab the chance at covers.

The drop bruised the Gladiators’ skipper even more as Beerala smashed two successive sixes off the off-spinner to give a fillip to the scoring. However, Bulls should thank Gaurav Dhiman and Sudhindra Shinde also for their forceful innings.
Dhiman swatted away the ball like an irritant fly, garnering a quick 26 while Shinde batted with customary flair to make an unbeaten 27.

The elegant right-hander added 53 runs off seven overs in the company of Beerala that sealed the match in favour of Bulls.

Earlier, Gladiators never managed to add acceleration to their scoring against a set of spot-on Bulls bowlers. Despite the plethora of youngsters, there was no sign of youthful energy in their batting, struggling to score over seven runs per over.

Kunal Kapoor looked good during his stay at the wicket, but the Bangalore youngster could not accelerate the scoring and the regular fall of wickets at the other might also have made him a bit hesitant to adopt an all-out aggressive method.

However, Kapoor (46, 41b, 4x4) managed to stay till the end to marshal others around him.

Ganesh Satish and Raju Bhatkal played cameos in the middle and towards the end respectively as Gladiators reached a total that stretched Bulls, but not enough to get a favourable result.

Score board

Malnad Gladiators: K Goutham b Liao 28; Nishant Hegde c&b Shetty 2; Ganesh Satish st Patil b Liao 26;  Kunal Kapoor (not out) 46; Raju Bhatkal b Binny 19; A Mithun st Patil b Anish 7; Ryan Ninan (not out) 4; Extras (LB-1, W-12) 13; Total (for 5 wkts, 20 overs) 145.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-35, 3-98, 4-127, 5-141.
Bowling: Jaya Prakash Shetty 4-0-34-1, DV Aneesh 4-0-30-1, Daniel Liao 4-0-19-2, Stuart Binny 4-0-33-1, CK Akshay 3-0-21-0, Praveen Kumar 1-0-7-0.
Bijapur Bulls: Gaurav Dhiman c R Shanbal b Rohan 26; Mithun Beerala (not out) 63; Jaya Prakash Shetty c G Satish b Akshay 12; Devraj Patil c R Bhatkal b Ninan 11; Stuart Binny b Ninan 2; Sudhindra Shinde (not out) 27; Extras (B-1, LB-1, W-2, NB-2) 6; Total (for 4 wkts, 18.2 overs) 147.
Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-47, 3-72, 4-94.
Bowling: A Mithun 3.2-0-25-0, KP Appanna 3-1-22-0, Rohan KP 3-0-19-1, SL Akshay 3-0-31-1, Ryan Ninan 4-0-32-2, Raju Bhatkal 2-0-16-0.