Hubli Tigers win thriller after three Super Overs in Maharaja T20

Hubli Tigers 164 (Pandey 33, Taha 31, Kaushal 5-17) tied with Bengaluru Blasters 164 (Agarwal 54, Manvanth 4-33, Kaverappa 2-35)
Tigers won via three Super Overs

Hubli Tigers won a supremely thrilling Maharaja T20 Trophy game that required three Super Overs to separate the two sides at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.

The drama peaked when Bengaluru Blasters, who required six runs off the last six balls – with three wickets in hand – to beat Tigers in regulation time, fell one short and tied the scores on 164. Gneshwar Naveen had hit a boundary off the first ball of 20th over of the chase, bowled by LR Kumar, but was dismissed off the next delivery. New batter Lavish Kaushal then played out two dots, before potentially tactically retiring out on the fifth ball, even as he and his partner Kranthi Kumar ran a bye. With a single required to win off the final delivery, Kranthi was run-out, taking the game into a Super Over.

Seamer LR Kumar again had the ball in his hand again and started the Super Over by getting Mayank Agarwal first ball. Blasters scored 10, helped by a last-ball six from Aniruddha Joshi over long-off.

In reply, Manish Pandey also crashed a six when Tigers needed eight off the last three balls. But he was dropped off the last delivery, off which Tigers required two. It was the bowler, Kaushal, who let the ball, and as it later turned out, the match, slip through his fingers. Pandey ran a single and the game was tied again.

Then it was Tigers’ turn to bat first in what was the second Super Over. Once again, they had Pandey and 20-year-old allrounder Manvanth Kumar at the crease. Manvanth excelled in normal time, picking up 4 for 33 and forcing the game into a tie. But here, he and his captain could only make eight runs. They needed help from the bowlers to pull them out of the fire, again.

Vidwath Kaverappa answered his team’s call. India’s selectors had seen fit to give him a fast-bowling contract earlier this year and he showcased the potential they see in him with an over where, even though it started with a boundary, only four further runs were possible. It was another tie.

Now the game was in its third Super Over and it was the Blasters’ turn to set a total. Joshi fell first ball to Manvanth. It took a last-ball six over deep backward point from Shubhang Hegde to push Blasters up to 12 in the tie-breaker. In pursuit of the target, Tigers sent out Manvanth and Pandey, again. Manvanth lofted a boundary over the bowler’s head off the second ball of the chase. But Kranthi came back strongly to give up only three runs off the next three balls (one of them was an extra)

The game was poised to be tied for a fourth time with Tigers needing four to win off the last ball. But Manvanth broke the tension, heaving a full toss over deep backward square leg and finally, there was something to separate the sides.