KPL 2019: Krishnappa Gowtham hits a ton, picks up a record 8-wicket haul against Shivamogga Lions

What's the story?

Ballari Tuskers' Krishnappa Gowtham grabbed the headlines with his mind-boggling performance in the ongoing 2019 Karnataka Premier League as he first notched up a 56-ball unbeaten 134 and then registered record figures of 8/15 from his four overs against the Shivamogga Lions.

The background

The 8th edition of Karnataka Premier League is currently underway as the first leg of the edition culminated at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The seven teams in the fray will battle it out in the final stretch of the season from 25th August till the final on 31st August at the Srikantadatta Narasimha Raja Wodeyar Ground in Mysuru.

Manish Pandey, Krishnappa Gowtham, Vinay Kumar and various other recognized faces are a part of the ongoing tournament. Bijapur Bulls are the defending champions from the league and are also the only franchise to have won the tournament from two different seasons.

The heart of the matter

134* (56) and a world record 8 wickets!! 🔥🔥🔥It's officially the Krishnappa Premier League! 🙌📸: @KPLKSCA pic.twitter.com/DwMZGPzm5F

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) August 23, 2019

Plying his trade for the Ballari Tuskers this season, the ace all-rounder came in to bat at the fall of the first wicket and the onus was on him to lead his side to a big score on the board.

After getting a reprieve when he was on just 14 and from then on, smashed the Shivamogga Lions bowlers all over the park. Although it took Gowtham 24-balls to get to his fifty, he took only 15 more deliveries to notch up a scintillating hundred.

Courtesy of his 39-ball century, Gowtham registered the fastest ever KPL century and remained unbeaten on 134, smashing 13 sixes in the knock as he also earned the record of most sixes in a single inning in KPL history.

The Rajasthan Royals player also earned the record of smashing the most runs through fours and sixes in a KPL innings as he smashed 7 fours and 13 sixes, making a total of 106 runs from just boundaries. Yet, he was not done as he caused a nightmare for the opposition with the ball in hand.

Sharing the new ball with Prasidh Krishna, Gowtham struck off his second delivery, getting Arjun Hoysala to chase a wide ball as he lobbed it straight down the throat of Rohit K, who was stationed at mid-off.

Surprisingly taken out of the attack, the Lions' pair of Abhishek Reddy and Pavan Deshpande put on a 94-run stand before Gowtham returned in the 12th over to wreak havoc. In the second ball of the over, Gowtham castled Akshay Ballal before in the next ball, he had Rohit K tempted into skying the ball towards long-on where Devdutt Padikkal held on.

On a hat-trick, Gowtham darted the ball for a wide before he had Abhimanyu Mithun yet again offer a catch to Padikkal, as he now had three wickets from four balls. In his third over, Gowtham added three more wickets to his name as he single-handedly derailed the Lions' batting unit and set up a memorable 70-run win for the Tuskers.

What's next?

Gowtham's all-round brilliance helped his team grab the top position on the points table with eight points from five games that has also helped them to qualify for the playoffs this season. In their final league stage game, the Tuskers will face off against the Mysuru Warriors in the 19th match of KPL 2019.

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