Published: Sep 16, 2016, 05:28 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 16, 2016, 10:05 PM (IST)
Good Evening, Mālai Vaṇakkam! Hello and Welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of the first semifinal between Albert Tuti Patriots and Dindigul Dragons, of the ongoing Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2016, at the Indian Cement Company Ground in Tirunelveli. We will be bringing to you the live updates from this cracking tie. Both the teams qualified for the play offs quite comfortably as they continued with their good form throughout the tournament. We have seen a cracker of a group stage in the tournament so far as we witnessed super overs, centuries, hattricks in the group stage clashes. The situation is quite clear now as whichever team will win this clash today will be the first ever finalist of the first edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League 2016.
The Dragons have suffered huge setback just before the semi final as their captain Ravichandran Ashwin won’t be playing any further in this tournament as Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has blocked the player from participating. Ashwin who is the part of India team for their series against New Zealand has not been given the permission to play in any of the matches of the TNPL 2016 even if the qualify for the finals after winning today. On the other hand, TUTI Patriots have received a boost after their captain Dinesh Karthik has joined the team for the remaining of the tournament. Karthik played just one match in TNPL this season after he went on to play in Duleep Trophy for India Blue under Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy. Karthik was in a splendid form in Duleep Trophy for his team as he scored 211 runs in the three matches he played. READ: TNPL 2016 Points Table
The Patriots would be hoping for the same kind of performance from their skipper in today’s match too as he played a one sided knock for Patriots in their very first match of the TNPL. Karthik scored 67 against Chepauk Super Gillies which the Patriots easily won by 45 runs.
The last time these two teams played against each other was in this very same ground where The TUTI Patriots batting first scored 120. The Dragons while chasing ended up at the same score thanks a brilliant knock from Murugan Ashwin who scored an unbeaten knock of 61 runs. The result of the match was later decided on a Super Over, which the Dragons won thanks to T Natarajan’s superb yorkers. READ:BCCI stops Ravichandran Ashwin from playing in TNPL semi-final
The Dragons have had a super group stage so far as they were the first team out of the lot to get qualified for the play offs. Out of the total seven matches the Dragons played in the group stage, the Dragons won five and lost two while the Patriots out of seven, won four matches and lost three.
Bowling department has been the spearhead for both the teams, Dragons being the forerunners. They have consistently restricted their opponents to low totals throughout the tournament and have also and have also delivered when it mattered most.
T Natarajan has been the spearhead of the bowling for Dragons and much will depend on him on today’s fixture as well. Meanwhile for the Patriots will be a confident bunch, as they notched up three consecutive wins to on their way to reach the semifinals. Lakshmipathy Balaji will have to shine and rise for his team as he has not been influential at all in the group stages. He needs to get in all his international experience together and put to use in the today’s clash if they have to win this match and enter the first ever finals of the Tamil Nadu Premier League 2016.
Batting has been on the inconsistent side for The Patriots and they will have to improve their batting standards if they want the semi-final to be a competitive one. Washington Sundar has shown glimpses of good start for his team but has not always capitalised on his good start. It is expected that spin will play a big part in today’s format as the wickets seems to be spin-friendly. Aswin Crist will have to be bang on target today as he has the ability to turn the games in no-time
Speaking before the match, Dragons coach Venkataramana has stated that he believes his team has the necessary batting strength to counter spin while Patriots opener Kaushik Gandhi believes that his team can continue with the momentum that they have received after winning three matches in a row.
In all today’s fixture looks all but poised as both these teams will battle out their best to win the first ever semi-final of the Tamil Nadu Premier League 2016 and secure their place in the finals to be the first finalist of the TNPL 2016 which will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on September 18.
Considering the previous match between these teams have ended up in a tie, this time they will want to averse the same results and will want to end their respective campaigns on positive note. Knowing Balaji has retired from First-Class cricket, Patriots will look to end their series with pride for Balaji’s sake. Dragons will miss the services of R Ashwin and also he celebrates his birthday tomorrow. Dragons who have always batted first will want to carry the same momentum this time as well.
Patriots have skipper Dinesh Karthik back afterservicing Duleep Trophy, who were unable to reach the final spot in the tournament. Now with Karthik back, he will want to utilise his T20 skills back into action in TNPL.
Squads:
TUTI Patriots: Kaushik Gandhi, Umashankar Sushil (wk), Maaruthi Raghav, Washington Sundar, SP Nathan, Akash Sumra, Subramanian Anand, Aswin Crist, M Ganesh Moorthi, Lakshmipathy Balaji (c), Aushik Srinivas, Dinesh Karthik, Siddarth Ahuja, V Athisayaraj Davidson, V Lakshman, Abhinav Mukund, G Nicul Anand, R Sathyanarayan, R Vishaal
Dindigul Dragons: N Jagadeesan (wk), Ganga Sridhar Raju, S Abishiek, Subramania Siva (c), S Raghunath, Murugan Ashwin, Adithya Arun, Wilkins Victor, D Prashanth Prabhu, ME Yazh Arun Mozhi, M Silambarasan, T Natarajan, Sunny Kumar Singh, Ashwin Venkataraman, S Dinesh, VRS Guru Kedarnath, MS Sanjay, S Shyam Sundar, R Vivek, K Mukunth, Ravichandran Ashwin
