Match 10: 26th July 2021
Teams: Nellai Royal Kings vs IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans
Place: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Toss: IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans won the toss and elected to bowl first
Lineups:
Nellai Royal Kings: Baba Aparajith (c), Laxmesha Suryaprakash, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Baba Indrajith (wk), Sanjay Yadav, NS Harish, Mohan Abhinav, Arjun Murthy, Sharun Kumar, T Ajith Kumar, V Athisayaraj Davidson
IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans: S Siddharth, N Mohammed Ashik (wk), S Aravind, Maan Bafna, P Francis Rokins, Tushar Raheja, M Mohammed (c), R Rajkumar, Aswin Crist, S Mohan Prasath, K Gowtham Thamarai Kannan
YOUNGSTERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
Cricket is a gentleman’s game, say many. More than that, it is all about being patient and responding to the situation with utmost patience and concentration. The person who attains the utmost patience wins the battle both physically and mentallly in the game of cricket. The same was reflected in the game yesterday between the Nellai Royal Kings and IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans.
IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans won the toss and opted to field against the Nellai Royal Kings. They had just one change in S Dinesh making way for S Siddharth. The Nellai side remained unchanged and were piped up to pocket another win to their team from the previous win against Chepauk Super Gillies. Captain Baba Aparajith and L Suryaprakash opened the batting for Nellai while Thamarai Kanna opened the bowling for ITT. The Nellai side opened their boundary count through Aparajith off Aswin Crist’s first ball of his first over. The boundary saw captain Aparajith reach the 1000 run mark in TNPL and it was a proud moment for him and his brother Indrajith to cherish this milestone in TNPL. Suryaprakash too followed suite of his captain and hit his first boundary in Thamrai Kannan’s second over.
Both Suryaprakash and Aparajith tamed Thamarai Kannan off his 3rd over with two towering sixes and a four to yield 16 runs of his over to their team. As the duo was progressing well in the partnership, spinner Mohan Prasath came and applied brakes on their partnership dismissing captain Aparajith in the final over of the powerplay easily caught by Maan Bafna. Scores at the end of the powerplay for Nellai was 39/1. The star of the previous match Pradosh Ranjan Paul joined Suryaprakash in the middle and he too contributed by hitting some to the fence with aplomb before he was dismissed by Rajkumar caught comfortably by ITT captain M Mohammed.
Indrajith joined Suryaprakash in the middle and looked a bit rustic before hoisting a six over the deep mid wicket off Mohammed bowling. Suryaprakash too joined Indrajith in the party and hit the boundaries whenever he found the loose balls coming and dealt them with the right treatment they needed. Just when the duo was settling, Rakumar came again to disturb them and wave them goodbye to their contribution dismissing Indrajith caught by Aswin Crist. Suryaprakash followed Indrajith to the pavilion offering himself to the same Aswin Crist off Rajkumar bowling and the Nellai franchise were further troubled when all-rounder Sanjay Yadav offered an easy return catch to cap Mohammed off his own bowling making the scorecard read 107/5 in 15.2 overs.
Arjun P Murthy of Nellai Royal Kings
Courtesy: TNPL Website
The most prolific youngster and who is being touted as the next big thing in the TN circuit, Arjun Murthy stepped up to the situation and ensured the Nellai side doesn't have to face the humiliation of posting the lowest total again. He breezed through the gaps and hit a blistering innings which had 7 fours hit to the fence and the score bounced from 107 to 140’s. But when Arjun Murthy got out on 35(16) dismissed by Awin Crist rattling his stumps, the Nellai side folded up and posted a total of 148, their last three wickets going for just 3 runs.
The ITT side came for batting with the openers S Siddharth and keeper Mohd Ashik with A Davidson taking the ball for Nellai. The ITT openers struggled for a start and soon Ashik was out for 1(9) caught by NS Harish off Ajith Kumar bowling. Tushar Raheja joined Siddharth and the momentum slightly started for the team with Siddharth taking charge for the team dispatching the ball into the stands and sailing it to the fence. Tushar too took charge and dismantled two fours to the fence off Ajith Kumar before Ajith took Tushar out from the equation by making him edge to the keeper Indrajith. Maan Bafna joined Siddharth in the middle and the duo ensured that they would try to match the VJD score in case rain played spoilsport in their innings. Both ensured the gaps were used with ease and hit the boundaries with such grace that it was a treat to the eyes. The duo raised their 50 run partnership but were struck immediately with cap Indrajith dismissing Siddharth with a nicely judged catch behind the stumps by Indrajith.
Rajkumar joined Maan Bafna in the middle and played second fiddle with Maan Bafna taking charge and proving to his franchise that his retention was worthy as a diamond. Rajkumar was soon dismissed by Sanjay Yadav caught by Aparajith. Captain M Mohammed joined Maan Bafna in the middle and played the anchor’s role while Maan Bafna swept, struck, cut, hoisted and pulled off all the balls of the Nellai bowlers. Maan Bafna specially made Nellai’s lead bowler and TN’s Malinga A Davidson look off colour with his full tosses dispatched to the place it has to and bombarding the stadium with sixes. He relieved the pressure off the ITT team with the target well within reach. Sanjay Yadav dismissed the onlooker Mohammed with a quick ball rattling his stumps and S Aravind dispatched the last ball of Sanjay Yadav to the fence.
Nellai captain Aparajith didn't lose steam and he struck back with two wickets dismissing S Aravind and Francis Rokins in consecutive balls and trying to create pressure for the ITT franchise but they cruised comfortably and pocketed two points to their points table.
Brief Scores: Nellai Royal Kings 148 in 20 overs (L Suryaprakash 43, Arjun Murthy 35, B Indrajith 26, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 20; M Mohammed 3-23, R Rajkumar 3-42, Aswin Crist 2-31, S Mohan Prasath 1-16) lost to Idream Tiruppur Tamizhans 149/7 in 19.5 overs (Maan Bafna 72*, S Siddharth 41; B Aparajith 3-9, Sanjay Yadav 2-29, T Ajith Kumar 2-37) by 3 wickets.
Player of the Match: Maan K Bafna (ITT)
