Agarwal, Reddy turn it on as Hubli jump atop KPL 2017 table
Mysuru, 8 September 2017: Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Reddy turned on the style against Namma Shivamogga on Friday (8 September) as Hubli Tigers cantered to their third win of the Karbonn Smartphones Karnataka Premier League 2017, powered by Cycle Pure Agarbathies, at the S.D.N.R Wadiyar ground in Mysuru. Agarwal (92 not out off 58 balls) and Reddy (67 off 67) put on a stand of 152 as Hubli toppled Shivamogga’s 166 for 6 in 19.2 overs, finishing at 169 for 3.
Shivamogga had set Hubli a tricky target, but the start provided by Agarwal and Reddy ensured the job was much easier that it could have been. Agarwal made a statement in the very first delivery of the innings with a cracking cover drive off Pradeep T, the paceman. Abhishek Reddy made his intentions clear in the next over, with a heave for four off Somanna. The two never really eased off thereafter – no bowler was spared, and both pace and spin were treated with equal disdain.
There were three fours in Akhil Balachandra’s fifth over, which yielded 16 runs. Agarwal found the fence in three consecutive deliveries, including a six, in the next over off Abrar Kazi as well. As the onslaught went on, the Shivamogga players’ shoulders drooped. It was a show of dominance from Agarwal, in particular, and he soon brought up his half-century off 31 balls with another cracking drive through the covers off Anirudh Joshi.
Reddy, to his credit, kept pace with Agarwal for the most part, executing the cut repeatedly and beautifully. He soon brought up his own half-century off 34 balls with a drive to extra cover. Reddy was stumped off Balachandran late in the day, Ritesh Bhatkal (3) and Praveen Dubey (1) followed suit, but that only served to delay Hubli’s inevitable victory, Mayank finishing things off with a six over backward square leg.
Earlier, Shivamogga got off to a decent start, despite the early dismissal of Sadiq Kirmani (2), who holed out off Ishfaq Nazir Bhat. Liyan Khan, one of the stars for Shivamogga in their clash against Bijapur, seemed in good nick again and he stitched a fine 38-run partnership with Jonathan that worried Hubli considerably.
Jonathan executed a lovely cut off R Vinay Kumar, while Liyan charged Ishfaq Nazir down the ground for six. The stand was going well when Hubli got a somewhat fortunate breakthrough after Liyan (21), attempting to step back in his crease to a short delivery, was out hit-wicket. Shoaib Manager, another one of Shivamogga’s heroes against Bijapur, was once again aggressive, so much so that Jonathan decided he would leave the big-hitting to Manager. He picked Ishfaq Nazir for consecutive boundaries, one of them a six, before giving Kranthi Kumar similar treatment.
Having scored an 18-ball 26, however, Manager pinged one off Kranthi Kumar straight to the fielder at third man, bringing an end to the 44-run stand for the third wicket. Joshi, the big-hitter, came in next and immediately went about taking the attack to the bowlers, picking a six and a four off an Aman Khan over. Similar treatment was meted out to Praveen Dubey as well.
All the while, Jonathan anchored the innings, finding the gaps, doing the running and keeping the scorecard moving. Joshi looked good for a big inning, but a quicker delivering from Dubey pushed him onto the backfoot and had him bowled through the gates for a 31-ball 31.
In the penultimate over, Jonathan stepped on the gas, with back-to-back boundaries off Kranthi Kumar, including a six. He hit a maximum in the final delivery of the innings as well, off Abhishek Sakuja, to help Shivamogga post a seemingly tricky target for Hubli.
But the form Agarwal and Reddy were in today, it proved insufficient.