In an electrifying start to the seventh season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) cricket tournament, Lyca Kovai Kings emerged triumphant with a commanding 70-run victory over iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans. The action-packed match took place on Monday at Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts in Coimbatore.
Winning the toss, iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans elected to field first, hoping to restrict Lyca Kovai Kings’ batting prowess. However, their decision was met with a formidable challenge as the Kovai Kings posted a formidable total of 179 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in their allotted 20 overs.
The early stages of the Kings’ innings witnessed the departure of opener Suresh Kumar, who fell for a modest 11 runs. Subsequently, B. Sachin and Ram Aravind were both dismissed for a duck, leaving the team struggling at 3 wickets for 14 runs.
Resilience was displayed by Sai Sudarshan, who arrived at the crease and built a crucial partnership with Mukilesh. Mukilesh contributed 33 runs before his departure, while Captain Shahrukh Khan chipped in with a valuable 25 runs. However, it was Sai Sudarshan who stole the limelight with remarkable innings, scoring 86 runs off just 45 balls, which included 4 sixes and 8 fours. Unfortunately, he was run out on the last ball of the innings.
For iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans, Vijay Shankar showcased his bowling prowess by taking 3 wickets, while Sai Kishore and Bhuvaneswaran claimed 2 and 1 wicket respectively.
Chasing a target of 180 runs, iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans suffered an early setback in the very first over as Chaturvedi was dismissed for just 4 runs. The batting lineup struggled to find stability as wickets fell at regular intervals.
Vishal Vaidhya managed to score 16 runs before being dismissed, but the rest of the lineup failed to make a significant impact. Vijay Shankar and captain Sai Kishore, along with Ganesh, Balchander Anirudh, Vivek, and Manigandan, were all dismissed with quite minimum runs. Opener Tushar Raheja showed some resistance with a top score of 33 runs before being run out.
Shahrukh Khan led the Lyca Kovai Kings’ bowling attack with an impressive performance, claiming 3 wickets. Mohammed picked up 2 wickets, while Gowtham, Kiran Akash, Mukilesh, and Jhathavedh Subramaniyan each contributed with a wicket.