What a game of cricket we have just witnessed. Gulbarga Mystics take the top spot after this victory! The game was gone, but Praveen Dubey pulled a victory out of the jaws of defeat. That's Maharaja T20 for you, and the action is far from over today. Switch tabs for the evening game!
Till then, this is Arjun Bhalla, signing off on behalf of my colleagues, Mohammad Anab, Deepak Prakash and Ashok Dayma! Bye bye!!!
Vyshak Vijaykumar (Gulbarga Mystics): "It is going to take some time (to believe what has just happened), but there was a believe in the dressing room. The boys said that we will chase whatever we get.
What can I say about him (Praveen Dubey), he has played such knocks early too. Only he can do such things.
Bowlers are doing their jobs, but see what our batters are doing. Hopefully, we have got a day's break. We need to take a breather.
Man of the Match: Praveen Dubey
Trusted Player of the Match: Krishnamurthy Siddharth
Super Sixes of the Match: Praveen Dubey
Catch of the Match: Harshil Dharmani
Time for the post-match presentation!
7:28 PM IST & Local Time: What a victory it has been for the Gulbarga Mystics! Praveen Dubey had the honour of finishing the game with a maximum, as he amassed a 19-ball 53*.
Krishnamurthy Siddharth and Smaran Ravichandran also contributed to this chase. So did the 52-run stand between openers Luvnith Sisodia and Nikin Jose!
Gulbarga Mystics asked Mysore Warriors to bat first, who didn't have a great start and lost both their openers, Karthik SU (1) and Codanda Karthik (17), early in the innings. Harshil Dharmani, promoted up in the batting order, never looked comfortable and got out for 11 runs.
Skipper Manish Pandey was looking good and scored a quick 29 before the rush of blood kicked in, and he went for a slog on a ball, which was not meant to be hit.
Their innings were struggling at 110/4 until Muralidhara Venkatesh (93*) and Yashovardhan Parantap (48) decided to take the baton into their own hands.
The duo stitched a 91-run stand in just 45 balls for the fifth wicket.
Venkatesh stayed till the end to ensure that the Warriors crossed the 200-run mark for the first time in this year's Maharaja Trophy.
In the process, Venkatesh also made his highest score in this year's tournament. For Mystics, every bowler except left-arm seamer Lavish Kaushal gave more than 10 runs an over. Kaushal bowled very well and gave only 25 runs in his four overs, and even took two wickets.
In reply, Mystics started with a bang with Sisodia hitting Krishnappa Gowtham for four consecutive sixes in the first four balls of the second innings.
Sisodia was on a carnage until he got out for 37 off 13 balls, which included five sixes. On getting out, he had a heated exchange of words with the Warriors' bowler Gautam Mishra.
Jose had to retire hurt after he was struggling to run between the wickets due to the pain in his right leg.
After that, Ravichandran (38) and Siddharth (49*) took it into their own hands to carry the innings forward. The duo stitched a wonderful 66-run partnership for the third wicket until Ravichandran got out because of an exceptional catch from Dharmani.
At that moment, Mystics still needed 70 off 31 balls, however, Dubey had other plans. He had an unbeaten match-winning partnership with Siddharth of 73 off 33 balls.
On the last ball, three runs were needed and Dubey sliced it on the off side for a six and winning the game for his team by seven wickets.
Every Mysore bowler was taken to the cleaners except left-arm spinner Shikhar Shetty (to some extent) who gave 32 runs in his four overs and took a wicket as well.
With this win, Gulbarga have moved to the top of the points table with five wins from seven games while Warriors are at the lower end of the table with just two wins.