Actor Upendra’s team, the Vijayanagara Patriots, led by Pradeep Bogadi, had a long day, playing two qualifying matches and the final.
Pradeep’s team had successfully chased and won earlier today, but they were unable to set an intimidating target for J Karthik’s Rashtrakuta Panthers. Interestingly, the game’s rules were written in such a way that even though the Patriots failed to defend their total of 99, they qualified for the championship game against Daali Dhananjaya’s Ganga Warriors due to a higher run rate.
Darling Krishna’s team is the only one to have won both of their qualifying matches in this year’s tournament.
The Vijayanagara Patriots struggled from the start, as the Ganga Warriors used great bowling and fielding to limit the former to only 81 runs in 10 overs, making the final the lowest scoring match of the tournament.
Suresh Raina, who bowled one over, took two wickets, and was involved in two other dismissals in the Patriots innings, and skipper Darling Krishna led the chase. Raina began the game with four consecutive boundaries off Pradeep Bogadi’s bowling, determined to end the game quickly. Krishna was not about to be left behind, despite the fact that he came with a runner, and scored 11 runs off the first three balls he faced. The partnership was broken when Krishna was bowled in the fourth over, with the score at 42. But that didn’t stop Raina from leading the charge. Raina scored 54 points, assisted by Karan Aaryan (13 of 9), to give the Ganga Warriors a well-deserved victory.
