TNPL 2016, Live Updates: Dindigul Dragons vs TUTI Patriots, Match 13 at Tirunelveli

Welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of Match 13 of the ongoing TNPL 2016, between Dindigul Dragons and TUTI Patriots in Thirunelveli on Sunday.

Good Evening, Mālai Vaṇakkam! Hello and Welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of Match 13 of the ongoing Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2016, between Dindigul Dragons and TUTI Patriots, at the Indian Cement Company Ground in Tirunelveli on Sunday. The Dragons are currently placed at the top of the table, having played three games, and winning all the three, while the Patriots are placed fifth in the table, also having played three games, with a win and a couple of losses. A win here for Patriots could push them to number two, while the dragons will be aiming for a win here to cement their spot in the top place. TNPL 2016 Points Table & Team Standings

With the tournament living up to its standard of a cracker one, TNPL has got the whole nation buzzing. A scenic flood-lit ground, fun loving fans, celebrity commentators, star cricketers as coaches and competitive cricket at the center is what TNPL has been all about since its start. Earlier, Aswin Crist of Tuti Patriots spoke on their loss to Karaikudi Kaalai.

“The wicket seemed slow compared to the other matches and the ball was not coming on to the bat. Most shots were mistimed and both teams struggled to score runs. It was a top-class innings because on this wicket it’s not easy to score runs. You need to stay on the wicket for some time to score runs and he did that. If you look at Badrinath’s innings he didn’t lose his wicket. Same should have been done by our batsmen which would have helped us to win. Losing two to three wickets in the death overs cost us the game,” he said.

“That target is always tricky on this sort of wicket. The bowling team always has a chance to bounce back. We have to forget about this game and look ahead. We have to see how the wicket is on Sunday and react accordingly. We just have to play the wicket on its merit,” he added.

JR Madanagopal, head coach of Patriots said, “In the last two games our batting hasn’t come along well. So we will make strategies based on the slow wickets we are going to face. We hope to deliver in the next game and it may be noted that these are still early days in the tournament. Only three games have finished and there is still lot of time. We hope to get a win in the next and wrest back momentum.”

“Stroke play was a little difficult throughout the game so we just wanted to have a closer look at the surface and see what the soil content is.  Also, the pitch was a little slow. People thought that this was a good batting wicket thanks to the fact that the last day-night game was a high-scoring one. The pitch was a different strip and there were notions that it will aide batting in this match. But then the side that played better won!” he added.

“We have evolved strategies for every game and apart from our left arm spinners even others are having a good time. You could see how our skipper (Abhinav Mukund) was juggling them between the power-play and the middle overs. We bowled well but then could not muster that one hit needed to win in the end!” he concluded.

While Akash Sumra of Patriots too added by saying, “It was a slow pitch and we were only one hit away (from a win). It was not easy to hit sixes or fours which forced us to take ones and twos. It was slow but not difficult to bat on this wicket. It is tough to fight back after two losses but then we are not thinking of winning or losing. Our strategy will be the same and we will fight back and think positive.”

Squads:

Dindigul Dragons: Subramania Siva (c), Murugan Ashwin, Ganga Sridhar Raju, T Natarajan, Sunny Kumar Singh, R Vivek (wk), Ashwin Venkataraman, Wilkins Victor, S Abishiek, Adithya Arun, S Dinesh, VRS Guru Kedarnath, N Jagadeesan, D Prashanth Prabhu, MS Sanjay, S Shyam Sundar, M Silambarasan, ME Yazh Arun Mozhi, K Mukunth, Ravichandran Ashwin.

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