Mushtaq Ali T20: Karnataka maul Mumbai by 9 wickets

INDORE: Karnataka lived up to the reputation of being the favourites while Vidarbha stunned defending champions Delhi on the opening day of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League. A decent crowd gathered at the Holkar Stadium to watch the T20 action returned discontented on Friday. The Group 'B' matches produced two low scoring affairs at the venue.
In the first match, Vidarbha wrapped up Delhi for paltry 83 and registered a crushing 9-wicket victory.In the second match, Karnataka restricted Mumbai to a lowly 97 for 9 and went on to post a big 9-wicket win. With the victory, Karnataka extended their unbeaten streak in this edition to eight matches.
Mumbai faltered big time after opting to bat. Unheralded medium pacer Manoj Bhandage triggered a Mumbai middle-order collapse from which the Vijay Hazare Trophy champion never recovered.
In-form opener Rohan Kadam led the Karnataka chase as they romped home in 13.2 overs. The left-hand bat scored a brisk 62 (45b;4x8;1x6). Wicketkeeper-batsman BR Sharath (25) played the perfect supporting role to help Karnataka post a big win in their opener. Mumbai's downward spiral began in the very first over. Vinay Kumar gave Karnataka the breakthrough on the second ball of the match.
Prithvi Shaw followed an away going delivery from Vinay Kumar and Mayanak Agarwal in the slips did the rest as Mumbai lost first wicket with the score on zero.
Other Mumbai opener Suryakumar Yadav and Siddhesh Lad played their shots but never looked comfortable against the Karnataka attack. Lad hit Vasuki Koushik's short ball for a six over the point region. Few overs later, he perished trying to execute a similar same shot, this time to Prasidh Krishna.
Brief Scores: Mumbai 97-9 in 20 overs (Akash Parkar 22, Shubham Ranjane 15; Manoj Bhadange 2-11, R Vinay Kumar 2-15) lost to Karnataka 98-1 in 13.2 overs (Rohan Kadam 62 not out, BR Sharath 25) by 9 wickets.