Belagavi Panthers and Shivamogga Lions faced each other in the 16th match of Karnataka Premier League (KPL) 2019 at Srikantadatta Narasimha Raja Wadiyar Ground, Mysore on Sunday (August 25).

Sent into bat first, Lions rode on Arjun Hoysala’s 58-ball 77 and Pavan Deshpande’s 35-ball 59 to post 175/4 on the board. Captain Abhimanyu Mithun also played a cameo of 22 in 17 balls.

For Panthers, D Avinash was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3 for 32 in his 4 overs. MB Darshan also chipped in with a wicket.

In reply, Panthers got off to a quick-fire start as the duo of Ravikumar Samarth and Stallin Hoover added 44 runs for the opening wicket in 4 overs. Prithviraj Shekawat broke the partnership by dismissing Samarth on 14.

Afterwards, the story was all about the utter domination of Hoover and skipper Manish Pandey. The pair made the mockery of Lions’ bowling attack as they stitched an unbeaten 136-run partnership to guide Belagavi Panthers home with 9 wickets in hand and 32 balls to spare.

While Hoover remained unbeaten on 108 off 50 balls (11 fours and 6 sixes), Pandey finished with 53 not out off 26 deliveries, including 4 fours and as many sixes.

Brief Scores:

Shivamogga Lions – 175/4 in 20 overs (Arjun Hoysala 77; D Avinash 3/32) lost to Belagavi Panthers – 180/1 in 14.4 overs (Stallin Hoover 108*; Prithviraj Shekawat 1/46) by 9 wickets