Match 13: 28th July 2021
Teams: Siechem Madurai Panthers vs Lyca Kovai Kings
Place: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Toss: Madurai Panthers won the toss and elected to bowl first
Lineups:
Madurai Panthers: Arun Karthik (wk), K Rajkumar, B Anirudh Sita Ram, NS Chaturved (c), Jagatheesan Kousik, M Shajahan, R Mithun, Ramalingam Rohit, R Silambarasan, Kiran Akash, Aushik Srinivas
Lyca Kovai Kings: Ganga Sridhar Raju, J Suresh Kumar (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Ashwin Venkataraman, U Mukilesh, Shahrukh Khan (c), Abhishek Tanwar, N Selva Kumaran, Krishnamoorthy Vignesh, S Ajith Ram, R Divakar
BATTLE OF THE CAPTAINS
Two strong teams in the circuit, Lyca Kovai Kings and Madurai Panthers locked horns in the second game of the day in Chepauk stadium and were ready to prove their worth after a loss in their last matches respectively. Madurai Panthers won the toss and elected to field first with an unchanged squad whereas Kovai had one change in R Divakar replacing E Srinivasan.
GS Raju and Suresh Kumar opened the batting for the Lyca side while R Silambarasan opened the bowling for Madurai. It didn’t take much time for the team from Madurai to dismiss the dangerman and leading run-scorer of the tournament, GS Raju with a neat catch by R Mithun. Kiran Akash came in the next over and dismissed Suresh Kumar by rattling off his stumps and Lyca were in danger at 7/2 in 3 overs. New batters A Venkatraman and Sai Sudarshan were daunted with the heavy task of saving the sinking ship of their team. Sai Sudarshan took the major charge of smashing boundaries to the fence off the overs of R Rohit and Kiran Akash. At the end of Power Play, LKK were 30/2.
The duo of Vekatraman and Sai Sudarshan were ensuring to keep the scoreboard ticking by rotating the strike and crashing the fielders to the boundaries and keep the run rate high and post a decent total on board. The partnership of Venkatraman and Sudarshan reached 55 (46) when R Silambarsan came back and dismissed Venkatraman easily caught by keeper KB Arun Karthick. Sai Sudarshan was now joined by captain Shahrukh Khan and the duo blasted some into the stands and into the fence. Both Sudarshan and Shahrukh reached their half centuries off a six before Sudarshan was dismissed by Kiran Akash caught by Aushik Srinivas ending their 67 run partnership. The dismissal didn’t dent Shahrukh who still dominated the Madurai bowlers alongside his all rounder partner Abhishek Tanwar. The duo cut, drove, slashed, and hit over the fence off Kiran Akash, R Rohit and J Kousik, bruising them too much with their approach. J Kousik finally dismissed A Tanwar in the last over, caught comfortably by K Rajkumar while Shahrukh remained not out on 58. LKK posted a total of 172/5 in their quota of 20 overs.
Next came the Madurai franchise to chase the target and pocket two points to their side and move up the ladder in the points table. Openers KB Arun Karthick and K Rajkumar upped the ante for the Madurai team by scoring briskly in the first three overs shattering the confidence of the LKK bowlers. A Tanwar opened the bowling for Lyca and he was dealt with two boundaries to the fence treated aptly by the openers and he went for 14 runs in the starting over. He was even not spared in his second over and was brutally trashed by KB Arun Karthick before Tanwar struck back with the wicket of Rajkumar caught stunningly by Ajith Ram. There was a war of words between A Tanwar and KB Arun Karthick when Rajkumar was dismissed and both got friendly soon with a hug. KB Arun Karthick didn't lose his momentum and continued his work of basing the LKK bowlers, He swept spinner Ajith Ram to the fence before he was cleaned up by the same bowler rattling his stumps. At the end of powerplay, SMP were 56/2.
Anirudh Sita Ram and captain NS Chaturved were the new batters in the middle and once they came in, the team lost momentum in the chase. The duo cut some balls off R Divakar and N Selvakumaran before Anirudh Sita Ram was dismissed by Divakar off a stunning forward catch by Abhishek Tanwar. Shahjahan joined Chaturved in the middle and the duo were entitled to save the chase. Chaturved was trying to score boundaries whereas Shahjahan played literally a test knock, not able to connect the balls and unable to rotate the strike. Chaturved took on both the pacers and spinners of LKK and contributed a well hit 39 before getting dismissed to spinner Ajith Ram caught by Sai Sudarshan. Shahjahan soon followed his captain getting dismissed to Ajith Ram caught by A Venkatraman and the score for Madurai looked 107/5 in 14.1 overs. It was up to the new batters, Puli J Kousik and R Mithun to save the sinking ship and they built a quick partnership of 33 with some lethal blows to the fence and over the stands before R Divakar struck back dismissing R Mithun caught by sub fielder Atheeq Ur Rahman. Thereafter, the chase lost real steam and wickets fell at regular steam before the final result came that Lyca Kovai Kings defeated Madurai Panthers by 19 runs.
Brief Scores: Lyca Kovai Kings 172/5 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 61, Shahrukh Khan 58*, Abhishek Tanwar 22; Kiran Akash 2-40, R Rohit 1-17, J Kousik 1-32, R Silambarasan 1-37) beat Siechem Madurai Panthers 153/8 in 20 overs ( NS Chaturved 39, J Kousik 29, Arun Karthick 21; R Divakar 2-18, Ajith Ram 3-24, Abhishek Tanwar 2-43) by 19 runs.
Player of the Match: Shahrukh Khan (LKK)
