Vizag, 13th July: Rayalaseema Kings lost by 7 runs to Vizag Warriors in Qualifier 2 of the Andhra Premier League today at the Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vizag today and bowed out of the tournament.

The Vizag Warriors were put into bat earlier in the day. Munish Varma was dismissed for 12 early in the innings, costing the Warriors an early blow inside 4 overs.

Then KS Bharat and Ashwin Hebbar, the two in-form duo batted together and combined to score 83 runs off 49 balls. The cameo at the end from Muvvala Yuvan helped the Warriors post up a big total on the board.

191 in a knockout game was never going to be easy. In Reply, the Kings lost the wicket of Thanneru Vamsi Krishna cheaply for 7 inside the 3rd over. The Warriors bowled really well as Ashwin Hebbar, the stand-in skipper marshalled his troops really well.

The Kings kept losing wickets at regular intervals as they were unable to get going at the middle as the Required Run Rate was increasing. Then the 5th wicket partnership between the Rayalaseema Kings Skipper Girinath Reddy and Gutta Rohit added 59 runs off just 36 balls which brought the Kings back in the game.

The Partnership was broken by the leading wicket taker in the tournament, Kodavandla Sudharsan. The game went right down to the wire as Shaik Kamaruddin’s quick fire knock of 22 off 7 balls went in vain.