Though he may not be getting opportunities in international cricket, veteran Indian batsman Manish Pandey still has fire in his bat. Playing after a long break, he showed no signs of rust and dominated the bowlers. Returning to the Maharaja Trophy after nearly two and a half months since the IPL 2025 season, Manish Pandey unleashed his batting prowess, leaving the bowlers with nowhere to hide. The experienced batsman scored a half-century in just 25 balls in his first match of the tournament.
T20 leagues are being played in several states of India these days, and the new season of the Maharaja Trophy, the T20 league of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, started on Monday, August 11. In the second match of the season, Mysore Warriors and Bengaluru Blasters faced each other. With this match, Mysore captain Manish Pandey was also making a comeback, having played his last match 77 days earlier on May 25 in IPL 2025.
In his first match of the season, captain Pandey set the foundation for victory with his superb batting. In this match, Manish’s team batted first and scored 180 runs losing 5 wickets in 20 overs. However, at one point, the team’s situation was not good and 5 wickets had fallen for only 94 runs in 12 overs. In such a situation, captain Manish Pandey took charge of the innings and smashed a half-century in just 25 balls. The 35-year-old Manish, along with Sumit Kumar, put together an 86-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Manish scored an unbeaten 58 runs off just 29 balls at a tremendous strike rate of 200, which included 4 fours and 4 long sixes.
In response, Bengaluru struggled from the beginning and kept losing wickets. At one point, the team had lost 7 wickets for just 82 runs. In such a situation, like Manish Pandey, Bengaluru captain Mayank Agarwal (66) also took charge and kept the team’s hopes alive. But he did not get support from the other end and the entire team was bundled out for just 141 runs in 19.2 overs. Mysore won this match by a big margin of 39 runs.