Bijapur Bulls beat Namma Shivamogga off last ball

R Samarth in action on upbeat 78 with 60 balls for Bijapur Bulls to win

Hubballi, September 9: A last-ball six from Suneel Raju sealed victory for Bijapur Bulls as R Samarth (78 N.O.) carried his bat through the innings in the Karbonn Smart KPL 2015 against Namma Shivamogga here on Wednesday.

The seven wicket victory saw the Bulls heading the points table with seven points from three wins and one point from a washed out contest.

Chasing Shivamogga’s 161, the Bulls were in control of the chase with openers Samarth and Rajoo Bhatkal (36) knitting together 81 runs for the opening wicket.

Robin Uthappa hammered a 24-ball 36 to further push the Bulls closer to victory and with one run required for victory off the last ball, Suneel Raju got under the ball and hoisted it over the mid-wicket ropes to start celebrations in the team dugout.

Man of the Match, R Samarth said, "It was a good game and we bowled very well on this wicket. Probably gave away 15 to 20 runs extra but we knew we could cover it up with your batting. Personally, I thought I played too many dot balls at the end but we did manage to hold our nerve to a clinical finish."

Earlier, a 90-run partnership for the second wicket between Sadiq Kirmani (61) and Kaunain Abbas (58) was the only highlight of Namma Shivamogga’s batting display.

The fall of Sadiq at 94 saw three quick wickets fall that also pulled down the run-rate. Sadiq was once again in fine form hammering the Bijapur bowlers at will. His presence at the wicket with Abbas was the most productive period for Shivamogga, who opted to bat first.

Sadiq’s entertaining knock was studded with five sixes and four fours while Abbas’ contained three sixes and two fours.

Skipper Stuart Binny fell to an edge behind trying to hook Vyshak and the rest of the batsmen struggled thereafter to maintain the run-rate as the team finished at 161.

SCOREBOARD

Namma Shivamogga:

Sadiq Kirmani c B Akhil b KP Appanna 61 (43b, 4 x 4, 5 xx6); Samarth Ooty c Robin b Vyshak 3; Kaunain Abbas c R Samarth b Cariappa 58 (42b, 2 x 4, 3 x 6); Stuart Binny c Uthappa b Vyshak 1; Aditya B Sagar (run out) 2; Shreyas Gopal (not out) 17; KV Siddarth c Appanna b Abhimanyu Mithun; Dinesh Bowrankar b Vyshak 12. Extras: (b-1, w-1 lb-2, nb-2) 5.

Total: (For seven wickets, 20 overs) 161.

Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Ooty); 2-94 (Kirmani); 3-96 (Binny); 4-106 (Sagar); 5-139 (Abbas); 6-143 (Siddarth); 7-161 (Borwankar).

Bowling: Abhimanyu Mithun 4-1-31-1; Vyshak Vijay Kumar 4-0-20-3; Rajoo Bhatkal 2-0-23-0; R Samarth 1-0-10-0; KP Appanna 4-0-32-1; KC Cariappa 4-0-27-1; B Akhil 1-0-16-0.

Bijapur Bulls:

R Samarth (not out) 78 (60b, 8 x 4, 1 x 6); Rajoo Bhatkal S Ooty b S Gopal 39 (40b, 5 x 4); Robin Uthappa c Shreyas G b Bhavesh Gulecha 36 (24b, 3 x 4, 1 x 6); Nidesh (run out) 0; Suneel Raju (not out) 12 (5b, 1 x 4, 1 x 6). Extras: (w-2) 2.

Total: (For three wickets, 20 overs) 167.

Fall of wickets: 1-81 (Bhatkal); 2-149 (Uthappa); 3-149 (Nidesh).

Bowling: Bhavesh Gulecha 4-0-41-1; Aditya B Sagar 4-0-38-0; Shreyas Gopal 4-0-35-1; Sinan Abdul Khader 4-0-25-0; Raghavendra D 4-0-28-0.

Toss: Won by Namma Shivamogga; opted to Bat

Result: Bijapur Bulls won by seven wickets.