Gladiators pip Brigadiers

Bhatkal scores composed 47 as youthful Malnad side dash home

Gladiators, the franchise that owns the most number of youngsters, showed a lot of maturity while chasing down 124. Raju Bhatkal was the chief architect of their victory, scoring a composed 47 (44b, 4x4). Brigadiers made 123 after their skipper Deepak Chougule opted to bat.

Another Gladiator lad, K Gowtham, too played a massive role in the victory taking three wickets with his part-time off-spin and then playing a brutal 24 (14b, 2x4, 2x6) that provided the initial spur to his team’s chase.

But without Bhatkal’s mellowed innings the win would not have been possible. The burly all-rounder was in complete control of the proceedings, marshalling the hunt with quick runs between the wickets and timely hits to the fence. Bhatkal and a sedate Ganesh Satish (31, 34b, 2x4) added 45 runs for the fourth wicket to steer Gladiators close to the target, and the former brought up the winning runs with a boundary off pacer M Vinod.
Earlier, Brigadiers struggled for momentum once Robin Uthappa departed, settling for a below par score. Their start was steady after promoted opener Steve Lazarus got out playing a tame fend off pacer KP Rohan to KP Appanna.

Uthappa and K L Rahul cut out all frills during their second-wicket association that yielded 64 precious runs. Their alliance, based on a commonsense approach, was significant from Brigadiers’ point of view because runs dried up once they were separated through a needless run out of Rahul.

Till then, Uthappa and his colleague had raised visions of a late charge, displaying a lot of pragmatism without letting the run-rate dip in the early stages of their innings. Uthappa, with scores of 0 and 5 in the two previous matches, understandably started with a lot of caution.

The Kodava lad dropped hints of an impending storm, thumping medium pacer Bhatkal over long-off for a six, following it up with a slog-swept six off Ryan Ninan. Rahul, on the other end, batted with fluency allowing Uthappa to play in a lower gear and find his touch.

However, the much-anticipated Uthappa blitz never arrived as a mistimed pull off offie Gowtham ended in the hands of Kunal Kapoor. The dismissal was accompanied by a serene period as Brigadiers managed only 28 runs in the last five overs.

DH News Service