Twitterati in shock as Shivam Dube torments Karnataka at the Chinnaswamy

Karnataka managed to continue their winning run in the 2019-20 edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The team, led by Manish Pandey managed to beat Mumbai by nine runs at the venue in a high-scoring encounter. However, they got a massive scare from all-rounder Shivam Dube, who has come up the ranks over the last and a half years.

On an excellent batting strip, Shreyas Iyer’s Mumbai won the toss and elected to field first. The decision backfired as the hosts racked up a massive 312 for the loss of seven wickets in 50 overs. There wasn’t any standout performer for Karnataka as KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal and skipper Pandey scored well-crafted half-centuries and led the charge for the home team.

Mumbai used as many as eight bowlers, but none of them could make a large impact. Chasing the mammoth score, a lot of their batsmen in the top and middle order got starts, but none could go and convert them. Dube came to bat at number six and he had a massive task on hand. He saw three wickets go down and at one point in time, Mumbai needed 106 runs from 92 balls.

Shivam Dube lights up the Chinnaswamy

They only had three wickets in hand and it went without saying that the onus was on Dube to see his team through. To start with, he added 62 runs for the fifth wicket along with the in-form Suryakumar Yadav, who could only notch a 23-ball 26. Shams Mulani perished cheaply as well. Then the swashbuckling Dube stitched together a priceless stand of 70 runs with Shardul Thakur.

Dube did a chunk of the work and even notched his maiden List A century. Shivam ended up scoring 118 runs off 67 balls with seven fours and 10 colossal hits over the ropes. Unfortunately, the left-handed batter perished to Abhimanyu Mithun with Mumbai still needing 36 runs from 53 balls.

Three overs later, Prasidh Krishna trapped Thakur in front. Mithun nipped out Dhawal Kulkarni to inflict Mumbai with a defeat. In the meantime, Dube’s ton went in vain, but that didn’t stop Twitterati to shower appreciation on him. The netizens were all praises for the hard-hitting batter.

Here is how Twitter reacted