Consequently, the vaunted Brigadiers stumbled to their third defeat in as many matches in Mantri KPL II, this time by five runs to the Mysore Maharaajas, well served by the calm under great pressure of paceman Aditya Sagar.
No urgency
The Brigadiers showed little urgency during the first three-fourths of their chase after restricting the Maharaajas to a manageable 130 for eight so that by the time Vinod arrived in the middle, they needed 48 off 28 deliveries for victory. That escalated to 29 off the last two overs, necessitating Vinod (24b, 12b, 3x6) to show the top-order batsmen what a little bit of initiative earlier on could have done.
The little right-hander smashed Tarun Muthanna for three sixes to bring it down to 10 off the last over, but Sagar (4-0-12-1) held his nerve despite bowling a no-ball to gobble up Vinod and concede just four runs, steering the Maharaajas to their second win in three matches.
On hindsight, KL Rahul’s 33-ball 21 and Vinu Prasad Narayanan’s 12-ball four will come back to haunt the Brigadiers, now bringing up the rear of the table alongside fellow-strugglers Mangalore United, also winless after three outings.
The Maharaajas will consider themselves somewhat fortunate to get out of jail after an extraordinary collapse in the last three overs of their innings pegged them back substantially.Stuck in by Deepak Chougule, the Maharaajas rode on small but handy contributions to prime themselves for a final assault, having reached 98 for three after 15 overs on the back of Nitin Bhille’s 27 (28b, 2x4) and skipper Chetan William, whose 37 (33b, 3x4) earned him the man of the match award.
Mansur Ali Khan, back in the eleven after missing the previous game, then played a lead role with ball and in the field, taking two wickets, holding two catches and contributing to one run-out as the Maharaajas sensationally lost their way.
They lost five for seven in 11 deliveries to squander the advantage, panicky shot-selection and helter-skelter running between the wickets bringing the Brigadiers back into the contest, if only for a brief while.
Brigadiers have no choice but to win their remaining four games if they are to make the semis, a tall order given the fare they have dished out so far.
SCORE BOARD
MYSORE MAHARAAJAS: KB Pawan c Ananth b Faroqui 6, HT Sudhir Rao c Mansur b Vinod 16, Nitin Bhille (run out) 27, Chetan William c Mansur b Faroqui 37, Shoaib Manager c Rahul b Mansur 21, SP Manjunath (run out) 1, Aditya Sagar c Vinod b Mansur 2, C Raghu (run out) 0, Abrar Kazi (not out) 8, C Raghavendra (not out) 3. Extras (W-9) 9. Total (for 8 wkts, 20 overs) 130.
Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Pawan), 2-34 (Sudhir), 3-70 (Bhille), 4-112 (William), 5-113 (Manjunath), 6-117 (Sagar), 7-117 (Manager), 8-119 (Raghu).
Bowling: Zahour Faroqui 4-0-23-2 (w-3), Mansur Ali Khan 3-0-20-2, M Vinod 3-0-15-1, TK Ananth 4-0-24-0 (w-1), Nikhil Kashyap 4-0-28-0, Vinu Prasad Narayanan 2-0-20-0 (w-5).
BANGALORE BRIGADIERS: KL Rahul b Muthanna 21, Syed Ibrez c Sagar b Raghu 12, Deepak Chougule st Bhille b Kazi 35, Vinu Prasad Narayanan st Bhille b Raghu 4, Nishanth Singh Shekhawat c & b Raghavendra 16, M Vinod c Raghu b Sagar 24, Nikhil Kashyap (run out) 3, Sadiq Kirmani (not out) 0, TK Ananth (not out) 0. Extras (LB-2, W-6, NB-2) 10. Total (for 7 wkts, 20 overs) 125.
Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Ibrez), 2-56 (Rahul), 3-76 (Narayanan), 4-83 (Chougule), 5-97 (Shekhawat), 6-123 (Vinod), 7-125 (Kashyap).
Bowling: C Raghu 3-0-14-2 (w-1), C Raghavendra 3-0-26-1, Aditya Sagar 4-0-12-1 (w-1, nb-1), Chetan William 4-0-24-0 (w-1), Tarun Muthanna 4-0-33-1 (w-1, nb-1), Abrar Kazi 2-0-14-1 (w-2).
