Maharaja Trophy 2022, Mysuru vs Gulbarga: Padikkal powers Mystics to maiden final
The Gulbarga Mystics made their maiden Maharaja Trophy 2022 final courtesy of Devdutt Padikkal's belligerent 96*, after registering a six-wicket win against the Mysuru Warriors at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday (August 25).
They will now look to even things against the Bengaluru Blasters — the side they lost to in Qualifier 1. They will now face Mayank Agarwal & Co. at the same venue on Friday (Aug 26) in the Maharaja Trophy final.
Padikkal's 64-ball-96* (8x4, 5x6) helped Gulbarga weather a rather tough patch with the side losing an in-form Rohan Patil (1) and Jeshwath Acharya (4). KL Srijith (9) failed to make a dent as well.
Manish Pandey (10) didn't do much with the bat either. He hung around long enough to see Padikkal notch up his fifty but was cleaned up by Monish Reddy.
Deshpande may have had a scratchy run with the bat, but he made up for it with his handy off-break, picking up the key wickets of Patil and Shrijith to finish with 2/16.
The onus was on Padikkal to see Gulbarga cross the finish line and he did so by keeping the scoreboard ticking. The southpaw combined with Manoj Bhandage for an 89-run stand for the fifth wicket.
Karun Nair deployed four spinners that also saw him send down four overs after Shubhang Hegde was taken for runs in his two. While Padikkal continued on the offensive, Bhandage was equally aggressive, finding the fence whenever the opportunity presented itself.
His 23-ball-35* was pivotal for Gulbarga after their top order were dented early on. In the end, it was a last-over finish as Pandey's side booked a date in the Maharaja Trophy final.
Maharaja Trophy 2022: Karun Nair, Naga Bharath give Mysuru a modest total to defend
Earlier, skipper Karun Nair set the tone for Mysuru with a stroke-filled 32-ball-42, while Pavan Deshpande played a rather uncharacteristic 42-ball-38. However, their death-overs assault came from Naga Bharath (27* off 12; 1x4, 3x6) propelled the side to a modest 157/7 in their 20 overs.
After what was a rather dismal outing by the bowling unit against Bengaluru Blasters, Gulbarga made amends this time around with Kushal Wadhwani (2/17) and Pranav Bhatia (1/18) hamstrung the Mysuru batting attack. Vidwath Kaverappa was expensive for his two wickets, leaking 52 runs from his four overs.