Maharaajas off to royal start

With evening showers reducing the day’s second match to a nine-over affair, a lot of fireworks were expected, but United couldn’t build on their brisk start. After restricting United to 68 for five, Maharaajas coasted to 69 for three with an over to spare. Openers KB Pawan and Sudhir Rao gave them a reasonably good start, putting on 26 from 22 balls.

But it was Nitin Bille, the man of the match, who made the difference with a 15-ball 27 (2x4, 2x6). The Dharwad lad, who finished the proceedings with pulled six off left-arm seamer S Arvind, kept the Maharaajas in the game despite a brief scare when they lost three quick wickets, including the openers.  
    
Asked to bat first, Mangalore United threatened to stack up a big total with opener Bharat Chipli looking ominous from the first ball.

The right-hander cut paceman and Maharaajas skipper Chetan William to the third man fence off ball one before depositing one over long-on. But his stint lasted only four balls when his fierce cut couldn’t get past SP Manjunath stationed at point.
The introduction of left-arm spinner C Raghavendra, who was the best bowler on view along with paceman Tarun Muthanna, proved to be a smart move as he dismissed United skipper Rohit Sabharwal and Daniel Sequeria in the same over to peg the Mangalore team back.

Jonathan R came up with a useful 14-ball 18, while Karun Nair and Azghar Pasha put together 25 runs with some hard running between the wickets.

Despite early setbacks during their chase, Maharaajas held their nerve, while United didn’t help their cause by sending down as many as eight wides, a crucial error in a nine-over match.

SCORE BOARD

MANGALORE UNITED: Rohit Sabharwal c Manager b Raghavendra 2, Bharat Chipli c Manjunath b William 12, Jonathan R c Manager b Muthanna 18, Daniel Sequeria st Bille b Raghavendra 2, Azghar Pasha (not out) 14, Karun Nair c Manager b William 16, Vijay Chauhan (not out) 0 (0b). Extras (B-1, LB-1, W-2) 4. Total (for 5 wkts, 9 overs) 68.
Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Chipli), 2-25 (Sabharwal), 3-28 (Sequeria), 4-41 (Jonathan), 5-66 (Nair). 
Bowling: Chetan William 2-0-20-2 (w-1), Aditya Sagar 2-0-18-0, C Raghavendra 2-0-10-2, Tarun Muthanna 2-0-9-1 (w-1), Abrar Kazi 1-0-9-0.
MYSORE MAHARAAJAS: KB Pawan c Sequeria b Khader 10, Sudhir Rao (run out) 9, Nitin Bille (not out) 27, Shoaib Manager lbw Sequeria 1, Manunath SP (not oot) 8. Extras (LB-6, W-8) 14. Total (for 3 wkts, 8 overs) 69.
Fall of wickets: 1-26 (Sudhir), 2-31 (Pawan), 3-39 (Manager). 
Bowling: S Arvind 2-0-25-0 (w-8), Azghar Pasha 1-0-10-0, Sinan Abdul Khader 2-0-11-1, Daniel Sequeria 2-0-9-1, H Venkatesh 1-0-8-0.