A knock of 31 runs by Thisara Perera towards the end of the second innings helped Manipal Tigers to overcome a huge total of 186 and defeat the India Capitals by 4 wickets with a ball to spare in the second edition of Legends League Cricket (LLC) at the Dr. Y S. Rajasekhara Reddy Cricket Stadium here on Saturday.

With this win, the Manipal Tigers are back on the top of the points table with six points from four matches and with a better NRR from Urbanrisers Hyderabad. India Capitals are placed in fourth position with three points from five matches.

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Earlier in the match, after winning the toss Manipal Tigers chose to bowl first. Ricardo Powell (14) and captain Gautam Gambhir (17) opened the innings for India Capitals. After a short stay on the crease, both the openers were dismissed at the team score of 31 and 41 respectively. They were then reduced to 73/4 at the end of the seventh over. Kirk Edwards (8) and Kevin Pietersen (6) were the next two batsmen to get dismissed.

Bharath Chipli’s valiant knock of 65 of 51 balls supported by Ben Dunk’s 33 runs of 19 balls helped India Capitals to post a total of 186/9 at the end of the 20th over. Ashley Nurse (26) also contributed towards the end of the innings.

For Manipal Tigers, Pankaj Singh, Praveen Gupta and Imran Khan picked two wickets each. Mitchell McClenaghan and Harbhajan Singh also contributed with the ball by picking one wicket each.

Chasing a target of 183, openers Kyle Coetzer (10) and Chadwick Walton (23) started the innings for the Manipal Tigers with some good-looking shots.

They were then reduced to 58/2 at the end of the seventh over when Amit Verma (48) joined the well-set Collin de Grandhomme (58) on the crease.

The duo added 62 runs for the third wicket till Grandhomme was dismissed by Ashley Nurse at the score of 120. The team again faced a setback as they lost two more wickets and were reduced to 134/5 in the sixteenth over.

Then at the score of 154 Amit was dismissed by Hamish Bennet. Thisara Perera was the lone warrior at the end of the innings who played a quickfire knock of 31 runs from just 16 balls which helped Manipal Tigers to win the match by four wickets with a ball to spare.

For India Capitals, Hamish Bennett, KP Appanna, Pravin Tambe, Isuru Udana and Ashley Nurse picked one wicket each.