Tigers, Warriors in final

Bengaluru: Table-toppers Hubli Tigers face Mysuru Warriors for the Maharaja Trophy T20 title at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday. In the semifinals on Monday, the two teams put up dominant shows to brush aside their opponents. While the Tigers put out Shivamogga Lions, Warriors drubbed defending champions Gulbarga Mystics.Warriors' skipper Karun Nair stole the show with an unbeaten 42-ball 107 (7x4; 9x6), sending the Mystics bowlers on a leather hunt during his 148-run, second-wicket association with opener R Samarth (80; 50b; 10x4; 2x6).The big-hitting Manoj Bhandage scored a five-ball 18 in the final over to take Warriors to a commanding 248/2. In reply, rookies Macneil Noronha (61) and Abdul Khalid (54) offered some resistance before Mystics finished at 212/8 in 20 overs.Earlier, while the bowlers kept it tight for the Tigers, the Lions’ batters did themselves no favour with an uninspiring batting performance. Shreyas Gopal and his men, who were invited to bat, were restricted to 149/7 with Rohan Kadam’s half-century (54) being the only noteworthy performance. For the winning side, Lavish Kaushal and Manvanth Kumar claimed two wickets each.Tigers rode on the back of a 114-run partnership between Mohammed Taha (69) and KL Shrijith (61) to complete the chase with six overs to spare. Tigers were in no mood to waste time as the opening over, bowled by leggie Shreyas, went for 19 runs. They went on to score 77 runs in the powerplay for the loss of one wicket. Brief scores: Shivamogga Lions: 149/7 in 20 overs (Rohan Kadam 54; Lavish Kaushal 2-32, Manvanth Kumar 2-29) lost to Hubli Tigers: 153/2 in 14 overs (Mohammed Taha 69, K Shrijith 61).Mysuru Warriors: 248/2 in 20 overs (SU Karthik 41, R Samarth 80, Karun Nair 107 n.o) bt Gulbarga Mystics: 212/8 in 20 overs (LR Chethan 28, Macneil Noronha 61, Abdul Khalid 54; Monish Reddy 2-42, Gautam Mishra 2-50, J Suchith 2-26, Kushal Wadhwani 2-45).