KPL: Bellary Tuskers stun Belagavi Panthers to keep play-offs hopes alive

Mysuru, Sep 14: Aided by a well planned innings by captain Bharat Chipli (63) and his 111-run partnership with Amit Verma (58 not out), Bellary Tuskers stunned table-toppers Belagavi Panthers to keep their hopes of making it to the qualifiers alive in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL) 2015 here on Monday.

Chasing the Panthers' modest 136, the Tuskers lost opener Pawan (2) and No 3 bat Karthik CA (11) early. But Chipli held his end up while rotating strike to a nicety and hammering the loose deliveries away for boundaries.

Chipli and Verma eschewed fancy play for a sensible approach and steadily guided the team to the threshold of victory when Chipli fell to a catch taken on the second attempt. The 111-run association came of 84 deliveries, squashing the hopes of the Panthers hopes of saving their blushes.

Amit Verma claimed his 3rd Man-of-the-match and Bellary have now posted 3 consecutive victories after being at the receiving end for the first half of their journey in this edition.

Earlier opting to bat, the Panthers dished out an under par performance from their batters. The team certainly performed below standards in comparison to what has been exhibited so far in the League.

There were four players who scored 20 or more, but they too did not look comfortable in the middle and seemed unable to get going despite lasting at the wicket for a while, the team crawling to 131 for seven from their 20 overs, after the openers had put on 46 runs in 5.3 overs.

Having qualified, the Panthers can perhaps be excused for a bad day at office. However, other teams would have taken notice of the shortcomings of the last year's finalists in this contest.

Credit cannot be taken away from the Tuskers who showed purpose when bowling as well. Most of their bowlers returned appreciative figures to restrict the renowned opposition.

"The wicket was damp and we wanted to bat first. Unfortunately the toss is not in anyone's hand. Our aim was to score at six per over and not lose too many wickets. Initially when the match started, they (Panthers) began well putting up 50 in six overs. But we came back strongly and managed to restrict the opposition", said Verma after the victory, adding, "the partnership with Chipli sealed the game for us".

FULL SCORECARD

Belagavi Panthers

Abhishek Reddy c A Joshi b P Deshpande 35 (34b, 4x4); Stalin Hoover c SP Manjunath b P Patil 23 (15b, 5x4); Pushtak Nag (run out) 3; Chiranjeevi st D Patil b P Patil 20 (20b, 1x4); R Vinay Kumar c A Verma b P Patil 5; R Jonathan c P Patil b NC Aiyappa 20 (19b, 1x4); Praveen Dubey (not out) 16; Zeeshan Ali c A Verma b Anil IG 9; Vinu Prasad (not out) 0

Extras: (b-1, w-4) 5

Total: (For 7 wickets, 20 overs) 136

Fall of wickets: 1-46 (Hoover); 2-52 (Nag); 3-77 (Reddy); 4-85 (Chiranjeevi); 5-94 (Kumar); 6-118 (Jonathan); 7-131 (Zeeshan)

Bowling: NC Aiyappa 4-0-40-1; CA Karthik 2-0-16-0; Anil IG 4-0-28-1; Prasanna Patil 4-0-20-3; Amit Verma 4-0-23-0; Pawan Deshpandey 2-0-8-1

Bellary Tuskers

Pawan Deshpande c Vinay b HS Sharath 2; Bharat Chipli c S Hoover b HS Sharath 63 (54b, 3 x 4, 3 x 6); Karthik CA c K Bharath b P Dubey 11; Amit Verma (not out) 58 (48b, 4x4, 2x6); SP Manjunath (not out) 2

Extras: (w-1) 1

Total: (For 3 wickets, 19.2 overs) 137

Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Deshpande); 2-21 (Karthik); 3-132 (Chipli)

Bowling: Vinay Kumar 4-0-25-0; HS Sharath 4-0-23-2; Praveen Dubey 4-0-21-1: KN Bharath 3.2-0-21-0; Vinu Prasad 1-0-9-0; Zeeshan Ali Sayyed 2-0-20-0; Abhishek Reddy 1-0-18-0.

Toss: Won by Belagavi Panthers; opted to bat

Result: Bellary Tuskers won by 7 wickets with 4 balls to spare

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