Syed Mushtaq Ali T20: Shrijith stars in Karnataka's victory

BENGALURU: Powered by debutant KL Shrijith's 31-ball 48, defending champions Karnataka began their Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament campaign on a winning note here on Sunday. At the KSCA Alur stadium, they registered a facile 43-run victory over Jammu Kashmir. Replying to Karnataka's total of 150, J&K were bowled out for 107.
Put into bat by J&K skipper Parvez Rasool, Karnataka were off to a brisk start.Southpaw Devdutt Padikkal (18) and skipper Karun Nair, who was promoted as opener, put together 37 runs in 29 balls before Padikkal, one of IPL's finds of the season, was caught by Shubham Pundir off spinner Rasool (2/18).
This triggered a mini-collapse as Rohan Kadam (1) and Karun followed soon after with Rasool getting rid of Kadam and J&K's alert wicketkeeper Suryansh Raina had Karun stumped off Abid Mushtaq's bowling.
Joining Pavan Deshpande (21) at the crease following Karun's dismissal, Shrijith made the most of the opportunity. Showing no nervousness of a newcomer, the 24-year-old left-hand batsman upped Karnataka's scoring with a quickfire unbeaten 48 (1x4; 3x6) to take Karnataka's total to 150.
He found support in Aniruddha Joshi (29, 26b), and the duo put together a 65-run association for the fifth wicket, which turned out to be crucial for the home side.
In reply, seasoned pacer Abhimanyu Mithun (2/24) gave Karnataka the breakthrough in the fourth over with Deshpande latching on to an offering from opener Qamran Iqbal. Coming in as the first-change bowler, Prasidh Krishna struck, removing the other opener Ahmad Banday (18). J&K didn't quite recover from the early setback as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
Prasidh, who initially went for some runs, picked up three for 34 and cleaned up the last wicket in the 19th over. The spin duo of J Suchith and K Gowtham had the best economy rate, while picking up two wickets apiece.
SCOREBOARD
Karnataka: Devdutt Padikkal c Pundir b Rasool 18, Karun Nair st Raina b Mushtaq 27, Rohan Kadam c Khajuria b Rasool 1, Pavan Deshpande b Nabi 21, KL Shrijith (not out) 48, Aniruddha Joshi c Mushtaq b Nabi 29, K Gowtham (not out) 1. Extras (W-3, B-1, LB-1) 5. Total (for 5 wkts; 20 overs) 150.
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-44, 3-56, 4-73, 5-138.
Bowling: Ram Dayal 3-0-38-0, Umar Nazir 4-0-36-0, Parvez Rasool 4-018-2, Abid Mushtaq 4-0-24-1, Abdul Samad 1-0-12-0, Auqib Nabi 4-0-30-2.
Jammu & Kashmir: Ahmad Banday c Gowtham b Prasidh 18, Qamran Iqbal c Deshpande b Mithun 12, Shubham Khajuria c & b Suchith 9, Shubham Pundir c Padikkal b More 20, Parvez Rassol c Shrijith b Suchith 5, Abdul Samad c Joshi b Prasidh 30, Suryansh Raina c Gowtham b Mithun 2, Auqib Nabi c Suchith b Gowtham 6, Abid Mushtaq c Deshpande b Gowtham 0, Ram Dayal (not out) 2, Umar Nazi b Prasidh 0. Extras (W-2, LB-1) 3.
Total (all out; 18.4 overs) 107.
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-35, 3-50, 4-60, 5-69, 6-80, 7-91, 8-91, 9-107.
Bowling: Abhimanyu Mithun 4-0-24-2, Ronit More 3-0-18-1, Prasidh Krishna 3.4-0-34-3, Suchith J 4-0-17-2, Gowtham K 4-0-13-2.