That will be all from our side as we come to the end of this APL 2024 game between the Uttarandhra Lions and the Godavari Titans. For now, it's the commentary pair of Soumarya and Ayan signing off on behalf of Ghanendra Singh Thakur. See you soon!
Gulfram Saleh - We were really tensed at that point of time. Satvik was able to deal with the pressure and play a good knock. Hat's off to him. We wanted to carry our performance from the previous game into this one but it's a funny game and the Titans started off really well. They took their catches really well and when they took two back to back wickets, they were in the game big time. Sasikanth followed the spirit of cricket and it was absolutely amazing to see that in a close game. It was a mixed wicket as for some bowlers it was holding on the wicket and for others it was coming on to the bat. It was not easy to come back. We were prepared for almost anything and we are glad that it went our way.
Player of the Match: Yarra Prithviraj.
Super Striker of the Match: M Hemanth Reddy.
Game Changer of the Match: B Satvik.
Time for the presentations.
22:18 IST and Local time - Bandaru Ayyappa holds his nerve and he scores the winning runs. The Uttarandhra Lions continue their winning run and they win this low scoring thriller by 2 wickets. They were looking down and out and several stages as the game ebbed and flowed but Dheeraj Kumar stayed till the end and saw his team through. He remains unbeaten on 26 from 22 balls.
The Lions had a terrible start in the powerplay losing three wickets. Tarun and skipper Saleh fell quickly. Tapaswi also didn't last long. The bowlers were on top at that stage but pair of Rahul and Satvik came together to stabilize the innings. They took 18 runs from Sasikanth's final over to end the powerplay on a solid note.
The partnership got through the troubled times and once the batters had their eyes in, they started to bring out the big shots once every over, in the process reducing the required rate. The pair put on 62 runs for the fourth wicket before Chiranjeevi got Satvik and Vijay got rid of Rahul soon after. The pressure was on the Lions at that stage and the game seemed to going down the wire.
The Titans bowlers fought incredibly hard with what they had and it was Sasikanth who was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets. Tripurana Vijay bowled a good spell up front and picked up a wicket. Also it was the pair of Chiranjeevi and Varma who bowled seven crucial overs towards the back end of the innings and the former picked up one wicket while the latter got two wickets.
19.5 K Sasikanth to B Ayyappa
2 Full toss around off, Ayyappa goes over the top as he goes inside out over mid-off and they come back for a couple of runs. Ayyappa holds his nerve and hits the winning runs and wins it for the Lions. What a game we have had here in Vizag as the Lions win this game by 2 wickets with one ball to spare to make it 2 wins out of 2 games.
Bandaru Ayyappa, comes to the crease. 2 runs to win from two balls. Can the Titans hold their nerve? The bowler attempts the mankad but he pulls out at the final moment.