Published: Sep 05, 2016, 06:07 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 05, 2016, 06:44 PM (IST)
A brilliant knock by Baba Aparajith helped VB Thiruvallur Veerans (VTV) to post a 42-run win against Ruby Kanchi Warriors in Match 14 of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2016. The team revived from an early loss of wicket and went on to register the highest total so far in the tournament. The VTV were earlier at No. 4 of the points table but with the win, they have now climbed up two positions to claim the second position. Kanchi Warriors will remain at the No. 6 position and will have to win a few matches from here to keep the hopes for play-offs alive. FULL CRICKET UPDATES: TNPL 2016, VB Thiruvallur Veerans vs Ruby Kanchi Warriors, Match 14 at Tirunelveli
The start of the batting innings did not go in favour of VTV. Murthy Prabhu pulled off a clever job, bowling a fuller ball outside the off-stump. Opener D Govindaraj tried it hit it big and straight but edged it to the wicketkeeper R Nilesh Subramanian. An early wicket could have turned the match around and turn it in favour of Ruby Kanchi Warriors. But the fall of wicket did not seem to affect the next man in, Baba Aparajith. The batsman started hitting fearlessly right from the very beginning and built up a good partnership with NS Chaturved and took the innings towards the total.
By the end of sixth over of their batting, VTV had 59 runs on the board, which, after losing a wicket in the very first over, is not an easy job to do. VTV played just a single over without hitting a boundary which was their ninth over bowled by Jagatheesan Kousik. Baba Aparajith scored his half-century off 30 balls. Chaturved served as the perfect partner at the other end, scoring his half-century off 31 deliveries. His innings came to and end soon after with 53 runs off 34 balls. The player hit 3 fours and 3 sixes but was dismissed as he looked for yet another maximum off an Akkil Srinaath delivery, going down the track and was caught by Shahrukh Khan at long-off.
Baba Aparajith was the next man to depart. Alagh Pratibhan removed the danger-man as he bowled a wide delivery. Baba Aparajith went for a failed attempt to link bat and ball but was stumped instead. Baba Aparajith remained unlucky not to get his hundred and departed scoring 91 off 54 deliveries with the help of 9 fours and 4 sixes.
VTV lost their second wicket after 14 overs from the first and those overs went on to become very crucial. When Baba Aparajith departed, the team had 150 runs from 15 overs and had lost just 3 wickets. The situation hinted in resulting in a big total and the next few batsmen took things further.
R Sanjay Yadav played a brief yet crucial knock, which contributed in taking the team total post 200. Yadav scored 24 off 13 with the help of a couple of fours and sixes each. Malolan Rangarajan also played a similar innings of 27 runs off 14 balls hitting 2 fours and a six. He remained unbeaten along with Abhishek Tanwar as the team posted a total of 206 with the loss of 4 wickets in their batting innings. This is the biggest total so far in the tournament as well as the first to go past 200.
The Warriors bowlers could not do much. Alagh Prathiban remained the most economical bowler with an economy of 7.50 and also got a wicket. Murthy Prabhu was the highest wicket-taker for the side with his two wickets while Akkil Srinaath got one.
The Warriors’ batsmen also failed to do anything special like Baba Aparajith. His Brother Baba Indrajith failed to replicate his performance, scoring only 21. The highest scorer of the innings was R Nilesh Subramanian with 38 runs while the other one is opener Bharath Shankar with his 26.
Though the Warriors had a positive stat to their innings with boundaries in every over and not losing a single wicket, they failed to continue with it. Bharath Shankar looked in good touch and was hitting boundaries frequently but was run out. Nilesh Subramanian and Baba Indrajit looked to settle things down from there a bit but the runrate dropped significantly.
Warriors failed to revive from their first fall of wicket and the pressure of the huge target made the batsmen make one mistake after another and throw their wickets. Indrajith and Subramanian departed in quick succession and had used up many deliveries not scoring much runs. The middle-order batsmen failed to make that lag up and all Warriors did was lost more wickets as the game proceeded. Only three batsmen could score more than 20 runs while just one went past 30.
The bowlers matched up to the level of the batting performance of the team. S Samuel was successful in putting extra pressure on the opponents as he removed the top-order early and made sure they do not chase down the required runs. Samuel got 3 wickets for 27. It was Ramalingam Rohit who took care of the rest. He also took 3 wickets trading 24 runs and ended as the joint highest wicket-taker of the innings along with Samuel. Rahil Shah and Malolan Rangarajan were the other two successful bowlers and got one wicket each.
The Warriors lost their last match to Chepauk Super Gillies (CSG). With rain affecting the match, each side was allotted four overs of power-play while three bowlers were allowed to bowl a maximum of three overs each. Warriors made two changes to the side with S Siddharth and R Suthesh replacing AC Prathiban and J Kaushik, as reported by TNPL. Warriors struggled to build partnerships as wickets kept tumbling on a regular basis. The innings consisted of five sixes and seven fours in all and totaled to 97. CSG got to the required runs determined by Jayadevan’s system in 11.5 overs to clinch the victory.
The Dindigul Dragons are at the top of the table currently with 8 points from four matches followed by VTV who have 6 points from their four matches.
Brief Scores
VB Thiruvallur Veerans 206 for 4 in 20 overs (NS Chaturved 53, Baba Aparajith 91; Murthy Prabhu 2 for 42, Alagh Pratibhan 1 for 30) won against Ruby Kanchi Warrior 164 for 9 in 20 overs (R Nilesh Subramanian 38, Ramalingam Rohit 3 for 24, S Samuel 3 for 27) by 42 runs.
