Belagavi Panthers vs Hubli Tigers, 2nd Qualifier Match Prediction 30 Aug 2019

Bellary Tuskers awaits the winner of this qualifier 2 between Belagavi Panthers and Hubli Tigers to meet in a dream final of KPL 2019.

Belagavi Panthers were beaten comfortably by the Tuskers by 37 runs. Tuskers opting to bat were off to a flyer as they raced to 35 before Avinash struck to remove Reddy. They slipped to 35/2 when Hoover removed the dangerous Gowtham for a duck, the only wrong move from the Tuskers side. Tuskers skipper found his touch finally, scored 96 0ff 63 and he was a constant member as their middle order stitched partnerships with him. But it was Karthik and Sayeed’s blitzkrieg which propelled them past 200. Panthers took three wickets in the final over, but the damage has already been done. Farooqui and Avinash took 2 wickets each but their economy of more than 12 did not help their team. Chase started miserably as Gowtham picked Abbas cheaply for 4.

Panthers found themselves caught in a web of the spin quartet as they lost 6 wickets to them. Abhinav Manohar was the only one batsman who played spin well for his 39-ball 62 as other batsman fell for the single-digit score. Avinash’ s 17-ball 37 showed he had additional skills. The decision to bowl backfired lions as they continued to miss their mark once again. Barring Sisodia all the Tigers batsman cashed in. Taha made full use of the powerplay with a 22-ball 41 with the company of their new number 3, their skipper Vinay Kumar. Pawan’s 39-ball 56 kept meant that Tigers were on course of a decent score. But it was the cameo again from Praveen Dubey, 8 balls 23 pushed them to a total of 190. In no time Tigers removed the Lions top order as Hoysala, Ullal, and Gowda returned to their dugout for single-digit scores. Lions had a brief partnership of 64 runs between Deshpande and Pawan before Mitrakanth came back to struck twice removing Deshpande for 38 and Prithviraj for 1. Tigers panicked a bit when Mithun smashed a 19 ball 40 and supported well by Sharath’s 16-ball 25. But they managed to hold their nerve and sealed the game by a margin of 20 runs.

There was a very short spell of rain the previous night, but the weather has stayed clear for the most part. The track looks a belter and the teams batting first have set up big totals in the knockouts. There is some purchase for the spinners too.

Clearly the team winning the toss will bat first and post totals rather than chasing them in these crunch matches.