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Former Indian cricket star Shikhar Dhawan scored a valiant fifty but it went in vain as Gujarat Greats lost to Southern Superstars by 26 runs in the LLC 2024 game played on Monday evening.
Former Indian under-19 star bowler Manan Sharma was the best bowler for Gujarat Greats. The left-arm spinner bowled four overs and picked 6/17 to help his side restrict the opposition to 144. With this win, the Southern side have made a great start to the campaign and sits top of the table.
Gujarat Greats on the other hand have lost their first game of the season. Despite the fifty from Dhawan, Gujarat could score only 118/9 from their 20 overs. The game on Monday also saw the debut of Dinesh Karthik in the league.
Manan Sharma’s heroics with the ball also go in vain
Southern Super Stars batted first and saw Parthiv Patel and Martin Guptill open the batting. Liam Plunkett got the first wicket when he had the former Indian wicketkeeper caught by Morne Wan Vyk for 4.
From there it was the Manan Sharma show as the former Delhi player took 6 wickets. His 1st wicket was that of Martin Guptill stumped for 22, followed by Kedar Jadhav caught by Dhawan for 1. The third wicket was that of Hamilton Masakadza for 1 caught by Van Wyk.
Pawan Negi was the next man out for 1 caught by Lendl Simmons off Sekkuge Prasanna for 1. Sharma’s 4th scalp was that of skipper Dinesh Karthik for 18 caught by Simmons. The next two wickets of Gandhi and Bhati gave the 33-year-old his 5th and 6th wicket of the day. Chaturanga De Silva was the best batter for the southern side with 53 not out from 28 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes.
Chasing 145 to win, Gujarat got off to a good start as Van Wyk and Dhawan added 63 for the 1st wicket. The former Indian opener scored 52 off 48 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes. None of the other batters could put up a good score on the board as Southern Super Stars won by 26 runs. Pawan was the best bowler with 3 scalps while Abdur Razzak took 2 wickets.