Surat : Banking on Martin Guptill’s quick fire knock and some clinical bowling performances, Southern Superstars maintain their undefeated streak in Legend League 2024. They defeated Manipal Tigers by 42 runs at the Lalabhai Contractor Stadium in Surat on Tuesday.
After the game was reduced to 15 overs per side, Manipal Tigers won the toss and elected to bowl first. Martin Guptill and Shreevats Goswami opened the innings for Southern Superstars. The duo added 41 runs for the first wicket before Goswami (18) was dismissed by Rahul Shukla. Hamilton Masakadza (1) was dismissed cheaply. Chathuranga de Silva scored 26 from 13 balls and Chirag J Gandhi added 36 from 17 balls. Martin Guptil remained the top scorer of the match as he scored 68 from 29 balls. Towards the end, Elton Chigumbura remained unbeaten on 20* from 7 balls and helped his team to post a score of 194/7 in 15 overs.
For Manipal Tigers, Harbhajan Singh was the pick of the bowlers as he took 3/19 in 2 overs. Anureet Singh (1/21), Obus Pienaar (1/30), Rahul Shukla (1/22) and Angelo Perera (1/25) took one wicket in the match.
Chasing a target of 195 on the board, Robin Uthappa and Saurabh Tiwary opened the innings for Manipal Tigers. They were down to 23/3 in 2.2 overs. Uthappa (17) showed some resistance on the crease but was dismissed by Abdur Razzak. Asela Gunaratne scored 22 from 10 balls. Daniel Christian played a quick fire innings of 36 from 14 balls. Thisara Perara managed to add 37 from 15 balls. Towards the end, Anureet Singh scored 10 from 8 balls and Harbhajan Singh made 11 from 9 balls but it was not enough for them to win the match.
For Southern Superstars, Hamid Hassan was the pick of the bowlers who took 3/20 from 3 overs. Abdur Razzak (2/30), Monu Kumar Singh (2/44) and Jesal Karia (2/29) took one wicket each. Pawan Negi took one wicket in the innings.