Published: Aug 05, 2024, 12:40 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 05, 2024, 04:03 PM (IST)
After defeating Lyca Kovai Kings six wickets to one on Sunday, Dindigul Dragons won their first-ever Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) championship thanks in large part to a captain’s knock from India’s Ravichandran Ashwin.
In the title match, Dindigul Dragons faced up against the reigning champions Lyca Kovai Kings and succeeded in chasing 130 runs after Ashwin scored 52 off 46 balls.
In addition to sharing a 65-run partnership for the third wicket with Baba Indrajith (32 off 35 balls), Ashwin smashed three sixes and a four.
After scoring 46 runs in the powerplay for two wickets lost, the middle-order for Dindigul looked to the composed Ashwin to finish the job with ten deliveries remaining.
Lyca’s bowlers Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Manimaran Siddharth, Valliappan Yudheeswaran, and Shahrukh each claimed a wicket.
Previously, Dindigul consistently took wickets to put the Lyca hitters on the back foot. Sandeep Warrier (11 off 9 balls), who had elected to field, made the initial breakthrough in the third over by getting rid of Suresh Kumar.
Varun Chakravarthy’s two wickets in the sixth over and P Vignesh’s dismissal of Sai Sudharsan (14 off 14 balls) turned the tide significantly in Dindigul’s advantage.
After Atheeq Ur Rahman (25 off 17 balls) and Ram Arvindh (27 off 26 balls) combined for 36 runs for the fifth wicket, the reigning champions’ chances of a rally were dashed when Subodh Bhati dismissed the former.
Vignesh continued to bother Lyca, eventually dismissing captain Shahrukh Khan (3 off 7 balls).
Reeling at 105/6, Arvindh was unable to hold on either and gave Sandeep Warrier a catch before late-inning heroics from the tail-enders saw them reach 129/7.
For Dindigul, Ashwin finished with a score of 0/13, but the two players who performed the best were Vignesh (2/15) and Chakravarthy (2/26).
