Falcon Risers Hyderabad outclassed KVN Bangalore Strikers by seven wickets in their opening match of the Indian Street Premier League (ISPL) T10 on Thursday at the Dadoji Kondadev Stadium in Thane here.
Also, the victory helped Hyderabad go on top of the points table with two points and a net run rate of 4.4.
After electing to bowl first, Falcon Risers Hyderabad got off to a solid start as their pace bowler Anurag Sarshar removed KVN Bangalore Strikers’ Mansoor KL (1) cheaply on just fourth delivery of the match as he edged it to wicket-keeper Varun Kumar while trying to hit a maximum. Moreover, in the very next over, Bangalore lost their second wicket in the form of their wicketkeeper-batter Ashiq Ali Shamsu (1), who was removed by Vicky Bhoir courtesy of a brilliant catch by A Sarshar at mid-off.
Riding high on confidence after two breakthroughs in powerplay, Hyderabad continued their wicket-taking spree as Vivek Mohanan, while bowling with a tape ball, castled Saroj Pramanik (1) with a stupendous inswing delivery, while in thenext over, vice-captain Vishwajit Thakur removed Thomas Dias (11), who was looking in form and had smashed two boundaries before departing.
With Bangalore reeling at 23/4 after four overs, the team’s captain Ankur Singh and all-rounder Rahul Baghel shifted their focus on building a partnership by playing carefully and without taking risks in order to avoid losing anymore wickets. However, the strategy didn’t work for KVN Bangalore Strikers as Ankur lost his wicket to Thakur after scoring just 10 runs, which included a maximum.
The seventh over, which was also a 50-50 over, saw Bhoir picking his second wicket of the match as Ajit Mohite (4) gave an easy catch to Jagat Sarkar off his delivery.