That's a wrap up on the proceedings of the 9th game of the Legends League Cricket 2023 where the Southern Super Stars prevailed over Manipal Tigers by a close margin. We will be back tomorrow with more cricketing actions from across the world and across formats in our network.
For now, this is Ayan Chatterjee signing off on behalf of my co-commentator AkshayaKrishna Polya alongside scorer/analyst Paras Yadav. Stay safe, happy, and cool. Goodnight and CHEERS!
Ross Taylor (Southern Super Stars Captain): "I mean, I am happy to get the win after getting a slow start to the tournament. It was a slow and tough wicket, but the boys did well to hang on, and Negi did well in the end and deserved the Man of the Match.
We wanted to have more wickets in hand, but Negi and Goswami saw us home in the end. It was getting tricky, but yeah, that is how it goes. We wanted to bat first, but they (Manipal Tigers) won the toss (chuckles).
We are playing back-to-back games, and I think the next one for us is here in a couple of days time. Hope that the wicket gets better and plays well. Dhanyawad! (Thank you)."
HarbhajanSingh(Manipal Tigers Captain): "I think we were 10 runs short. I think we fought well. They played better cricket and Negi played better cricket. Lots of learnings for us and we will get better in the coming games.
I am not one of those captains to say how to play. They must have spoken how to play on that pitch. I think we could have got to 140 by playing smartly, but that happens.
This is cricket and anything can happen. I am happy with the effort that the boys put on. Thank You."
Pawan Negi: "I was just trying to get the job done. It was all about the hope. The dugout had the belief, and so did I. There was a lot of help for the spinners, and it was a tough wicket to bat on. I just tried to stick to my basics. Just tried to attack the stumps and keep wicket-to-wicket as it was keeping low as well as spinning. While batting, just thought to go all out. The shots were delightful as well. Ahhh... The victory came a bit late I feel because we could have won one of the first two games. Thank you."
Legend of the Match Award: Pawan Negi
9:59 PM IST and Local Time: It's time for the post-match presentations.