Diamonds put it across Gladiators

Diamonds’ skipper Sunil Joshi elected to bat after winning the toss, and they made a frenetic beginning to their innings despite losing opener M Abhilash early on in the innings. Before rain arrived to drench the City, Diamonds made 52 for two in 7.1 overs.

Forced to chase 44 in just five overs under V Jayadevan method, Gladiators could make only 36 for five. The defeat, their fifth in the competition, has shut the door on Gladiators’ semifinal hopes.

The value of the innings played by man of the match Mayank Agarwal (30n.o, 27b, 2x4, 2x6) got multiplied on the day as it turned out to be the difference between the two sides. Raju Bhatkal bore the brunt of Agarwal’s fury as the hard-hitting right-hander smashed him for two sixes in the medium pacer’s third over, both coming through the long-off area.

Chasing such targets can play in the minds of the batsmen and the torrid stay of K Gowtham manifested it. Joshi, who opened the bowling for Diamonds, teased the youngster with some hugely-spun deliveries, reducing him to a nervous wreck. Another left-arm spinner Prasanna Patil ended the torture of Gowtham.

Patil drew the batsman out of the crease with a well-flighted delivery and stumper CM Goutham has only formalities to complete. From that moment, it was uphill climb for Gladiators.

SCORE BOARD

SD DIAMONDS: M Abhilash (not out) 0; Mayank Agarwal (not out) 30; Pawan Deshpande b Ryan 12; K Bipin (not out) 0; Extras (B-4, W-6) 10; Total (for 2 wkts, 7.1 overs) 52

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-52.

Bowling: A Mithun 1-0-6-0, Raju Bhatkal 3-0-26-0, K Gowtham 1-0-1-0, Santosh Kumar 2-0-15-0, Ryan Ninan 0.1-0-0-1

MALNAD GLADIATORS: K Gowtham st CM Goutham b Prasanna Patil 1; A Mithun (run out) 8; SL Akshay (run out) 8; Raju Bhatkal c Agarwal b Raghavendra Rao 9; Ganesh Satish (run out) 1; Ryan Ninan (not out) 9; Nishanth Hegde (not out) 1; Total (for 5 wkts, 5 overs) 36

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-14, 3-18, 4-26, 5-27.

Bowling: Sunil Joshi 1-0-7-0, Prasanna Patil 1-0-3-1, Sunil Raju 1-0-7-0, AV Raghavendra Rao 1-0-10-1, P Maghizendan 1-0-9-0.