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On Friday, September 20, Irfan Pathan, the captain of Konark Suryas Odisha, took a stunning catch to dismiss Saurabh Tiwary of Manipal Tigers in the opening match of the Legends League Cricket (LLC) 2024 season. After scoring only 104/9 total in their allotted overs, Konark Suryas Odisha needed to pick a few early wickets, and Irfan Pathan’s effort in the field was enough to reduce Manipal Tigers to 14/4 after seven overs in the run chase at the Barkatullah Khan Stadium in Jodhpur.
In their defence of the 105-run target, Konark Suryas Odisha started their bowling innings in the best possible manner, picking up the key wicket of Robin Uthappa and Solomon Mire, the openers of Manipal Tigers, who didn’t trouble the scorers. After Manoj Tiwary was dismissed for two runs in nine balls, Saurabh Tiwary was the next wicket to fall for Manipal Tigers, who had found themselves in a hole early in their innings.
Manipal Tigers got reduced to 14/4 in seven overs in pursuit of 105-run target against Konark Suryas Odisha
Saurabh Tiwary, the left-handed batter, tried to hit a slog sweep over the mid-wicket boundary off the bowling of Dilshan Munaweera, but he only managed to top edge the ball before it ballooned towards the short fine leg region. Irfan Pathan, who was stationed there, ran a good 15-20 metres turning backwards before stretching himself to grab hold of the ball, sending Saurabh Tiwary packing for 5 off 17 without a boundary in his innings.
With that, Manipal Tigers, the defending champions of LLC, found themselves in deep trouble, losing four of their top batters for just 14 runs on the board. Although the required run rate was just around the six at this stage of the contest, the difficult nature of hitting boundaries on the pitch at the Barkatullah Khan Stadium in Jodhpur, put Konark Suryas Odisha in a strong position.
Moreover, in their batting innings, the top order of Konark Suryas Odisha had struggled massively as well, only for the likes of Vinay Kumar and Navin Stewart to provide the late impetus, to propel their score beyond 100 runs.
