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Mysore Warriors captain Karun Nair continued his purple patch in Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 2023 clash against Gulbarga Mystics at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on August 28. Despite walking out to bat in the ninth over, Nair smashed his maiden century of the season in the penultimate over. His century helped the Warriors post a massive total on the board and beat the Mystics by 36 runs.
Mystics skipper Vijaykumar Vyshak won the toss and opted to field first. After a slow start, Warriors openers Ravikumar Samarth and SU Karthik picked up pace. After powerplay overs, the Warriors were 49/0. In the ninth over, Avinash D broke the partnership with the wicket of Karthik who contributed with a 23-ball 41.
Samarth reached his half-century from 36 balls. Nair hit the first six of his knock in the 15th over. He hit two sixes in Avinash's over. He reached his half-century from just 25 balls with a six off Abhilash Shetty. Samarth hit four consecutive fours in the same over. In the next over, Nair won the battle of the captains and hit Vyshak for three sixes. In the 18th over, Nair hit three sixes and a four off Macneil Hadley Noronha.
In the penultimate over bowled by Vyshak, Nair got a boundary via top-edge. He reached his century and raised his bat only to drop it like a mic. Then, he put a finger on his lips in celebration as if he was silencing the critics.
Nair hit another boundary to finish Vyshak's quota of four overs. In the final over, Shetty got the wicket of Samarth. The opener scored 80 runs from 50 balls including 10 fours and two sixes. Nair shared a 148-run partnership for the second wicket with Samarth, the highest for any wicket in the season. Then Manoj Bhandage played a cameo scoring 18 runs from just five balls including a six and two fours. It helped the Warriors post a mammoth total of 248/2 on the board.
In the run chase, Mystics batters were in no mood to lay their weapons. LR Chethan and Aneesh KV got Mystics off to a flier. The top order fell in the powerplay overs but they had 73/3 on the board. Noronha's 34-ball 61 and Abul Hasan Khalid's 29-ball 54 kept Mystics in the hunt but in the end, it was too massive a target to chase down. Mystics managed to post 212/8 on the board and lost the match by 36 runs.
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