‘Giant’ Parthiv hopes to tame Tigers again

Khel Today Bureau

New Delhi: Over the years, Parthiv Patel has proved to be a great asset to his teams. Be it for the Indian team or a T20 franchise, the wicket-keeper batter has been a force to be reckoned with. He is showing the same mettle for his current team Gujarat Giants in the Legends League Cricket (LLC), which is being held in India for the first time.

On Monday, the former India wicket-keeper played a scintillating and quickfire 34 against Manipal Tigers which helped his team notch up their second win in the tournament. Patel took the attack to the opposition by playing shots all over the park.

He didn’t spare any bowler as he hit six boundaries and a six during his 17-ball innings.
The southpaw will be expected to continue in the same vein again on Thursday when Gujarat Giants face Manipal Tigers for the second time in the league.

While the first encounter was played at the BRSABV Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, Thursday’s match will be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.

Besides Patel, Kevin O’ Brien has also been in good form for the Giants. The Irishman has already hit a century and has been among the highest run scorers in the tournament. However, the team will be hoping that their captain Virender Sehwag returns to form soon because Manipal Tigers will be out for revenge after losing the first-leg encounter to Giants.

The likes of legendary off-spinners Harbhajan Singh and Muttiah Muralidharan will be aiming to trouble the Giants’ batters and stop the run-flow if Manipal wants to win the match. They will be aided by medium-pacers Ryan Sidebottom and Parvinder Awana in their quest to keep a lid on the Giants batters.

The Tigers also need to come together as a batting unit. Mohammed Kaif has shown some consistency in the middle but others need to follow suit too if the Tigers want to put up a big total on the board.