JOIN USBrilliant Naidu guides Provident to first win
Winless after their first two matches, the holders brushed aside Bangalore Brigadiers’ challenge in the Bangalore derby, the marquee clash of a packed Sunday at the Chinnaswamy stadium, by seven wickets with two deliveries to spare, riding on the back of Naidu’s classy unbeaten 65 (52b, 9x4) and his tournament-high opening stand of 93 (76b) with MK Manjunath.
Brigadiers had started the evening the brighter of the two sides after Deepak Chougule opted to bat first, but as the artificial lights began to take effect, so did Provident. Brigadiers eventually paid a heavy price for not building on a fantastic start given to them by Syed Ibrez and KL Rahul and only managed 141 for nine when at least 20 more looked on the cards, and Provident cashed in by storming to 145 for three with two deliveries to spare.
Naidu was forced to abandon wicket-keeping duties early in the Brigadiers innings after injuring a finger in his left hand, but it didn’t affect his batting any. Only for a couple of overs did he play second fiddle to Manjunath. Then, he opened up with a hat-trick of boundaries off Dilip Sagar, and never looked back as he dotted the off-side boundaries with stunning regularity, making sure he was around at the end to get the job finished.
Manjunath is no mean striker of the ball, but he was forced to stand and admire as his partner totally dominated proceedings. Provident stuttered briefly when Manjunath and Amit Verma fell in quick succession, but with the asking rate mounting, Aniruddha Joshi played a cameo (25, 17b, 1x4, 2x6) to put the issue beyond doubt.
The evening had begun with great promise when Ibrez (42, 45b, 2x4, 3x6) and Rahul (34, 32b, 4x4) added 85 (74b), the latter showing that one didn’t need to try to hit every ball out of the ground even in this version. Primed for a decisive assault, Brigadiers however totally lost their way through a combination of ordinary stroke selection and some intelligent bowling from Joshi the off-spinner and skipper Anand Katti, the veteran left-arm spinner.
Had it not been for Vinu Prasad Narayanan’s (26, 7b, 1x4, 3x6) blistering onslaught, Brigadiers would have been hard pressed to reach 141. But not even that was enough, such was the brilliance of Naidu’s batsmanship.
Score Board
BANGALORE BRIGADIERS: Syed Ibrez b Joshi 42, KL Rahul b Katti 34, Deepak Chougule lbw Katti 13, Steve Lazarus c Manjunath b Joshi 2, M Vinod lbw Katti 1, Nikhil Kashyap b Aiyappa 1, Vinu Prasad Narayanan (run out) 26, David Mathias (run out) 3, Nishanth Singh Shekhawat b Aiyappa 4, Dilip Sagar (not out) 0. Extras (B-1, LB-8, W-6) 15. Total (for 9 wkts, 20 overs) 141.
Fall of wickets: 1-85 (Rahul), 2-93 (Ibrez), 3-105 (Lazarus), 4-107 (Vinod), 5-108 (Chougule), 6-118 (Kashyap), 7-137 (Mathias), 8-141 (Shekhawat), 9-141 (Narayanan).
Bowling: NC Aiyappa 4-0-21-2 (w-2), DH Sunil Kumar 3-0-21-0 (w-3), Anand Katti 4-0-41-3, Sarfaraz Ashraf 3-0-22-0 (w-1), Amit Verma 2-0-8-0, Aniruddha Joshi 4-0-19-2.
PROVIDENT BANGALORE: MK Manjunath b Vinod 26, Thilak Naidu (not out) 65, Amit Verma c Narayanan b Kashyap 5, Aniruddha Joshi st Rahul b Kashyap 25, Rahul Bhatkal (not out) 4. Extras (LB-10, W-9, NB-1) 20. Total (for 3 wkts, 19.4 overs) 145.
Fall of wickets: 1-93 (Manjunath), 2-104 (Verma), 3-141 (Joshi).
Bowling: Zahour Faroqui 3-0-23-0 (w-3), Dilip Sagar 2-0-16-0, David Mathias 4-0-30-0 (nb-1), Vinu Narayanan 4-0-31-0 (w-5), M Vinod 4-0-24-1 (w-1), Nikhil Kashyap 2.4-0-11-2.