Verma, Akhil star for Bangalore Provident

Bangalore Provident (Rural) notched up their second successive win of the KPL Cup, beating Shamanoor Davangere Diamonds comfortably by 28 runs in a truncated fixture at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Bangalore opted to bat in the 10-over game and faltered at he start, losing their first three wickets for 28. But Amit Verma got things back on track with a swift 38 off just 20 balls, and added 57 in five overs with Sunil Kumar Jain, who chipped with an important cameo, scoring an unbeaten 23. Bangalore finished with a challenging 98, which proved more than adequate in the end.

Davangere were shut out fairly early into their innings, as Sunil Kumar (2 for 11) and Balachandra Akhil (3 for 11) blew away the top and middle orders to leave them reeling at 35 for 7 in the seventh over. Only one batsman, Mohanram Nidesh, reached double-figures, as Davangere mustered just 62, and slipped to their second defeat of the tournament.

A composed, unbeaten 44-ball 47 from Raju Bhatkal steered Malnad Gladiators to a closely-fought five-wicket win over Bangalore Brigadiers (Urban).

In pursuit of Bangalore's 123, Malnad had stumbled to 40 for 3 but Bhatlak received good support from Ganesh Satish, with whom he added 45 for the fourth wicket. He stayed firm after Satish's departure in the 14th over and knocked off the remaining runs with the lower order with five balls to spare. Mansur Ali Khan grabbed three wickets, but his effort was in vain.

Robin Uthappa had earlier given the Bangalore innings great impetus with a quickfire 44, and at 76 for 1 it seemed they were on course for a much bigger total. But K Gowtham, who also contributed 24 with the bat, was miserly and bagged 3 for 15 in four overs to hand Malnad the advantage, and set up their first win of the competition.

Captain Jagadeesh Arunkumar and allrounder R Vinay Kumar starred for Belagavi Panthers against Mysore Maharaajas to hand them their first win of the KPL Cup.

The Panthers justified their decision to bat, as openers Arunkumar and Shyam Ponnappa added 99 in just over eleven overs. Arunkumar blazed away with a 56-ball 95, including 12 fours and five sixes, and followed up his opening stand by adding 52 for the second wicket with Manish Pandey, who made a 15-ball 30. The Panthers were within striking distance of 200, but C Raghu struck with three wickets to restrict them to a still formidable 181.

Mysore were pushed on the back foot at the outset as Vinay Kumar(4 for 11) and David Johnson (3 for 13) combined to bag the first four wickets for just seven runs. Opener HT Sudhir Rao (55) and Abrar Kazi (34) revived the innings with a 70-run stand for the sixth wicket, and No.9 batsman Adithya Sagar threatened to snatch an unlikely win, smashing 35 in just 12 balls. But he fell to Vinay Kumar in the penultimate over and the bowler ended the resistance by way of a run out to consign Mysore to their second defeat in the competition.