BENGALURU: Manish Pandey reached Visakhapatnam on Monday night to join Karnataka’s Mushtaq Ali Trophy squad, after the India-Bangladesh T20I series got over the previous day in Nagpur. And against Services on Tuesday, the 30-year-old impressed one and all with his magnificent unbeaten hundred, which helped them win the contest by 80 runs. It was their third victory of the tournament.
Devdutt Padikkal (75) and Shreyas Gopal (5/19) too made useful contributions but the duo’s performances were overshadowed by Pandey’s brilliance.
Karnataka got off to a poor start, losing Rohan Kadam in the first over. Pandey walked in at number three and what followed next was absolute carnage. Pandey and Padikkal are their in-form players and the duo was involved in a second-wicket partnership of 167 runs, which included 14 sixes. After Padikkal departed, Krishnappa Gowtham was promoted higher up the order and he scored 15-ball 23, helping Karnataka reach a mammoth 250/3, third-highest total in the tournament.
Pandey remained not out on 129 from 54 balls. He hit 12 fours and 10 sixes in his blistering knock. Pandey’s 129 was the second-highest T20 individual score by an Indian behind Shreyas Iyer’s 147 against Sikkim the previous season.Brief scores: Karnataka 250/3 in 20 ovs (Pandey 129 n.o, Padikkal 75) bt Services 170/7 in 20 ovs (Chauhan 54, Paliwal 46, Gopal 5/19).
Chahar claims 4 in over
In Thiruvananthapuram, Deepak Chahar followed up his hat-trick in the final India-Bangladesh T20I with another rich haul of wickets, for Rajasthan against Vidarbha in a Group B match. However, his four wickets in an over went in vain as Rajasthan lost by one run following the VJD Method in a game to reduced to 13 overs due to rain. He claimed three wickets off the last three legitimate balls of his last over, but he had bowled a wide after the fourth ball, which meant he missed out on taking a hat-trick. Brief scores: Vidarbha 99/9 in 13 ovs (Chahar 4/18) bt Rajasthan 105/8 in 13 ovs (target revised to 107, Manender 44, Wakhare 3/15).