Hubli Tigers win thriller after three Super Overs in Maharaja T20

Hubli Tigers won a supremely thrilling Maharaja T20 Trophy game that required three Super Overs to separate the two sides at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.

With three wickets standing, Bengaluru Blasters could manage to score just five of the six runs remaining to beat Hubli in regulation time.

Gneshwar Naveen put Blasters in front with a boundary off the very first ball off the 20th over, but fell off the next delivery.

LR Kumar then bowled two dot balls before Lavish Kaushal was tactically retired out on the fifth ball, even as he and his partner Kranthi Kumar sneaked in a bye. Having to defend one off the last ball, Kranthi was run out to force the game into a Super Over.

Mayank Agarwal, the Bengaluru Blasters captain, was out first ball, but they recovered to score 10, courtesy a last-ball six from Aniruddha Joshi.

Manish Pandey unlocked a big hit with Tigers needing eight of three. But with the equation down to 2 off 1, Pandey was dropped by Kaushal, the bowler, who let the ball slip through his fingers. Tigers sneaked a single to tie the Super Over.

Pandey walked out to open this time with 20-year-old allrounder Manvanth Kumar. Manvanth had played an influential role in the game until then; picking up 4 for 33 while defending 164, which incidentally had been achieved on the back of his late 15-ball 28. But in the second Super Over, he and Pandey could manage just eight.

Having to defend a modest score, seamer Vidwath Kaverappa answered his team's call. India's selectors had seen fit to give him a fast-bowling contract earlier this year and he showcased the potential.

Despite conceding a boundary early on, he held his nerve to concede just four more to force the game into a third Super Over.

Joshi fell first ball to Manvanth to put Blasters in front, but it took a last-ball six over backward point by Shubhang Hegde to push Blasters up to 12 in the tie-breaker.

Having failed to close out the game first in regulation time and then in the second Super Over, Manvanth had a third opportunity, and he set the ball rolling by lofting a boundary off the second ball. But Kranthi came back strongly to give up only three runs off the next three balls (one of them an extra).

The Tigers now needed four off the final ball, and Manvanth broke the deadlock by heaving a full toss into the vacant square leg region to clinch a thriller as there was finally something to separate the sides.