Gulbarga Mystics notched up a comfortable seven-wicket win over Shivamogga Lions in the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 at the Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Stadium. Their spinners, Shashikumar Kamble 2/20 and Prithviraj Shekhawat 2/22, applied the squeeze to hold the Lions at 133/7 before Smaran R 53 off 30 and Nikin Jose 40 off 42 conquered the chase with three overs to spare.
In the second innings, Dhruv Prabhakaran gave the Lions the early breakthrough with the wicket of Luvnith Sisodia 7 off 3 as early as the second over. Nikin Jose and Prajwal Pavan 20 off 25 steadied the ship to finish the powerplay at 45/1.
Prajwal's stay ended in the eighth over with a soft dismissal, returning a catch to Hardik Raj to make it 49/2. From there, Jose and Smaran kept the chase on course, stitching together a 74-run partnership in 51 balls to put the Mystics in control.