Shivamogga Yodhas have now progressed to the final in their maiden Maharaja T20 Trophy season. They have displayed a clinical performance against the Coastal Kings Mangaluru and have clinched a four-wicket victory. Mangaluru finished above Yodhas in the league stage but on the all-important day, it was the latter who tasted success. Yodhas will now meet Bengaluru Blasters in the final on Sunday. Notably, Blasters have lost only one game this season and they defeated Yodhas twice in the league stage.
That's it from our live coverage of Qualifier 2. This is Mohammad Anab signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Saptak Sanyal and our scorer/analyst Ashok Dayma. Stay tuned to CREX for the live coverage of cricket games around the globe. Till then, it's a goodbye from us.
Luvnith Sisodia (Shivamogga Yodhas Captain): "(On the win) Of course. At the start of every tournament, our goal is to play the last game, which is the final. Now that we're there, we're all really happy.
(On advancing to the final) Yes, it's the first season for the franchise, so reaching the final in our very first year is a wonderful feeling.
(On the team's plans) We focus a lot on keeping things simple and executing the plans we've discussed before the game. We stuck to those plans throughout, and I think keeping things simple has really helped us.
(Saving Dhanush Gowda for the death overs) Yes, that's part of our team plan. Along with the support staff and Aneesh, we sit down and discuss which bowler is best suited to bowl at different stages of the game. We felt Dhanush was the right option for that phase, and he executed his role really well.
(Any jitters in the dug out when Yodhas lost three wickets inside the powerplay) Not even for a second. We have complete faith in all our batters. We know they can deliver, so nothing really changed in terms of our belief.
(On Aneesh's knock) Absolutely. At the start of the tournament, there were a lot of questions about Aneesh—whether he should be playing and the way he was getting out. But today he's won the game for us and taken us into the final. I'm extremely happy for him, both as a player and as a person. Most importantly, he stayed there and finished the game for us.
(On playing the final against Blasters) We've had a very good tournament ourselves. Our approach won't change. Just like I said before the last game, we'll treat the final as just another match and won't add any extra pressure to ourselves."
Player of the Match: Dhanush Gowda
Luvnith Sisodia receives the orange cap as he is currently the highest run getter of the tournament for his 378 runs.
Time for the post-match presentations.
Karun Nair (Coastal Kings Mangaluru Captain): "(Were you 15-20 runs short on the board?) I think not good enough on the day. It was not that tough a wicket to get 145 (143) on the board. Again the same mistakes creeping in again and again. We need to go back and figure out how we can get better. If at the start of the season, you told me that we would be playing playoffs, we would have taken it with both arms. As a team we did really well in this tournament. As individuals and players we could have done a lot better in this tournament. New franchise, new team and we are happy with the way we conducted ourselves and got the support from the franchise. All of us need to go back and try to get better.
(On his innings) I think it was pretty clear about what I was looking to do. We did the same mistakes of not having set batters throughout the innings. My focus was to play whole innings, no matter if I take some balls to settle. I think we didn't create enough partnerships unfortunately. I also got out at the wrong time. Not really happy with that.
(What are the positives in your camp?) Lot of guys have got the opportunities. Some of them have made use of it, some of them have not. Siddharth Akhil looks like he got something in him and I hope he continues to get better. There's some talented guys in every team putting up their hands but I can only speak for our team. We need these guys to come and show their skills. We need to give the guys enough space to breathe and the opportunity they need to work on themselves. We are really looking forward to see how these guys level up and waiting to see if they come as better players."
5:50 PM IST, Local Time: Despite losing a couple of quick wickets at the fag-end of the game, Shivamogga Yodhas have managed to book their place in the Maharaja T20 Trophy final with a composed four-wicket victory over Coastal Kings Mangaluru in Qualifier 2. The side has managed to chase down 144 with more than an over to spare on the back of an unbeaten half-century from Aneesh KV.
Pursuing a modest target of 144 runs, Shivamogga made a brisk start before suffering a flurry of wickets. Captain Luvnith Sisodia struck two boundaries in his 14 off 13 before slicing Santokh Singh to Nishchith Pai with the score on 25 in the fourth over.
Santokh struck again, three balls later, when Tushar Singh, after making a quick 14 off 10 with three fours, feathered another catch in the deep to leave the Yodhas at 30/2.
Coastal tightened the screws further when Prithviraj Shekhawat trapped Naveen MG lbw for a seven-ball 12, reducing Shivamogga to 41/3 inside six overs. The pressure intensified after Harshil Dharmani's run-a-ball 13 ended at the hands of Shekhawat, with Nikin Jose taking the catch as the Yodhas slipped to 72/4 in the 10th over.
From there, Aneesh KV and Sujay Sateri wrested control of the chase with a 70-run stand for the fifth wicket. Aneesh anchored the innings superbly, remaining unbeaten on 55 off 39 balls, peppering his knock with four towering sixes while rotating the strike expertly. Interestingly, Aneesh didn't hit a single four in his knock.
At the other end, Sujay Sater provided the finishing touches with 31 from 25 deliveries before being dismissed by Santokh Singh, thanks to a brilliant catch by Siddharth Akhil, when just two more runs were needed.
After that, impact substitute Younus Ali Baig walked in to bat and he got dismissed for a silver duck while trying to hit the winning runs. Then came in Yashovardhan Parantap, who picked up a single to ensure that Yodhas don't suffer any more losses and register a four-wicket win.
For Coastal Kings, Santokh Singh (3/30) was the pick of the bowlers while spinner Prithviraj Shekhawat also impressed with figures of 2/33.
Shivamogga Yodhas will be playing their first-ever final on Sunday evening, where they will meet the Bengaluru Blasters.