Bengaluru, Aug 20 (IANS): K. Gowtham and Stalin Hoover's explosive century-plus partnership stole the show on Saturday afternoon as the Shivamogga Strikers defeated Mangalore United by 8 wickets, in convincing style.

The Strikers, keeping true to the name, struck it out of the park and won with more than 7 overs to spare.

Batting first, Mangalore United had a slow start losing Raghuveer Pavalur (1), before Samarth R. and Nikin Jose steadied the ship. The captain and Nikin had their task cut out against the Shivamogga Strikers, and neither could find the momentum or the shots to get going.

Samarth was dismissed for 12, while Nikin soldiered on with Amit Verma (10) for a bit and then Abhinav Manohar, putting on a standoff 38 runs for the fourth wicket. While Nikin wasn't able to attack as he would have liked, Manohar cut loose after a while, smashing the bowling to all parts of the ground, hitting 3 huge sixes and a couple of boundaries during a quickfire 36 from 25 balls.

Nikin added 38 to the cause before being dismissed by Avinash D, who also packed off Aneeshwar Gautam for a golden duck, but wasn't able to get his hat-trick. The lower order added 50 to the total, with Yashovardhan Parantap getting 16 as Mangalore finished their innings with the score at 136/8 in 20 overs.

In response, the Strikers saw Sharath B.R. depart for 1 before Stallin Hoover and K. Gowtham, first absorbed the pressure, and then cut loose in the second half of the powerplay. The duo were dealing with boundaries and did not hesitate in taking the aerial route either. The mid-wicket and long on boundaries saw the most number of big hits, as the Strikers hurtled along to 68/1 at the end of the powerplay.

Neither Gowtham nor Hoover were in the mood to really slow down and continued to accelerate, scoring 20 runs in the 7th over, making batting look incredibly easy. Gowtham got to his fifty in the 8th over, with the duo bringing up the century stand in the next over. Hoover got to his fifty in the 11th over with the Strikers on the home stretch by then.

Gowtham though could not see the game out and was dismissed for 72, thanks to an excellent catch by Vijaykumar Vyshak. The skipper had hammered 7 fours and 4 sixes during his knock. Soon after, in the 13th over, Hoover put the seal on the win with a single, finishing unbeaten on 53.

On Sunday, first, the Gulbarga Mystics play Mysuru Warriors and th3b Hubli Tigers take on Bengaluru Blasters.