So that marks the end of our coverage from the 12th match of the Legends League T20 2023 between Urbanrisers Hyderabad and Bhilwara Kings. This is your commentator Saptak Sanyal, signing off on the behalf of my co-commentator Ninaad Dixit and our scorer/analyst Paras Yadav. Don' go anywhere, switch the tabs to follow our live coverage of the India vs Australia 4th T20I and the Pakistan T20 Cup.
Suresh Raina(Urbanrisers Hyderabad Captain)-"Thanks to the groundsmen, they worked hard since the start and made the game possible.
We promoted Rikki Clarke at number 3 as he can hit big. Jakati bowled well also. We were 44 for 2 when Rikki and Mann went on to bat and we just wanted to take the game forward to deep.
We have a good dressing room environment and I think we have a good balanced side. We have good batters, bowlers and also the all-rounders who can contribute."
Irfan Pathan- "The bowling has been a headache. We didn't bowl at the right areas. In every game, if you give 50-60 at the powerplay you are not in the tournament. We tried at our best.
We played some bad shots at crucial times and we didn't bat well as a group in the tournament. The biggest headache was powerplay., be it with the bat or bowl. It's a game at the end of the day.
We give our best but sometimes the result is not in our favour. Hopefully we will be back with some positivity next time."
Rikki Clarke-"It is nice to play and I am gland that I contributed. The wicket was low at times and I just wanted to clear the ropes and that's what I did today. I had done the preparations while I was on the bench."
Legend of the Match- Rikki Clarke
18:38 IST and Local Time | The Bhilwara Kings are eliminated from the Legends League Cricket season 2 after a crushing 7 wicket defeat against Urbanrisers Hyderabad who now have their place at the top of the points table.
Kings won the toss and elected to bat first on a slow, low and sluggish surface. The batters, led by Tillakaratne Dilshan's 53 and Yusuf Pathan's attacking 34 added 144/6 in their 20 overs. Pawan Suyal picked up 2 wickets for the Urbanrisers.
In response, the Hyderabad openers Dwayne Smith (25) and Martin Guptill (18 off 11) started off in attacking fashion but early wickets from Chris Barnwell and Rahul Sharma pushed the momentum towards the Kings for a bit.
Rikki Clarke and Gurkeerat Singh Mann stabilized the innings with a 60-run partnership. Barnwell in his new spell dismissed Mann but captain Suresh Raina stuck with the attacking Clarke (73* off 44) and finished the game with 15 balls to spare.
Barnwell picked up 2 wickets but was expensive conceding 46 runs. Rahul Sharma bowled a beautiful spell of 1/15 but didn't have any support from the other end. Urbanrisers are at the top of the table and still have one game to play in the league stage.
17.3 J Karia to R Clarke
4 Clarke finishes the game in style with a boundary!! Good length ball outside off. Rikki Clarke cuts the ball through the vacant deep point region and the ball races away to the fence. With that, The Urbanrisers Hyderabad are into the play off of the Legends League Cricket 2023!