Match 15: 30th July 2021
Teams: Dindigul Dragons vs Salem Spartans
Place: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Toss: Salem Spartans won the toss and elected to bowl first
Lineups:
Dindigul Dragons: Hari Nishanth (c), S Arun, R Vivek, Mani Bharathi (wk), Rajhamany Srinivasan, RS Mokit Hariharan, S Swaminathan, Gurjapneet Singh, Rangaraj Suthesh, Lakshminarayanan Vignesh, M Silambarasan
Salem Spartans: S Abishiek, Ravi Karthikeyan, Vijay Shankar, Daryl Ferrario (c), Akshay Srinivasan, Umashankar Sushil (wk), Murugan Ashwin, Lokesh Raj, M Ganesh Moorthi, M Suganesh, G Periyaswamy
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!! OHOH CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!!
The famous poem written by Walt Whitman reflects on the death of US President Abraham Lincoln when he was shot mercilessly while in an event. The phrase is just for a catchy purpose and is in no way related to the event the poet refers to. But wonder why this when it makes no meaning? Head to the post match review of Match 15 between Salem Spartans and Dindigul Dragons.
Salem Spartans won the toss and elected to field first. They had two changes in M Suganesh coming in for KH Gopinath and Lokesh Raj coming in for B Praanesh. Dindigul had only one change in R Srinivasan coming in for S Lokeshwar. Hari Nishaanth continued to captain the side despite their regular skipper R Srinivasan back in the fold.
peners S Arun and Hari Nishaanth started for Dindigul while spinner Ganesh Moorthi started the proceedings for Salem. Hari Nishanth started the boundary count in the 4th ball of the innings with a nice cut to the fence. The other opener S Arun struggled before getting stumped by keeper Sushil off Ganesh Moorthi’s second over. The destructive all rounder R Vivek came out at 3 and he was all guns blazing for the team. He did not spare any bowler from the Salem side and smashed everyone to the fence and also over the stands. The duo of Hari Nishanth and Vivek reached their 50 run partnership in 21 balls with Vivek having the upper hand blazing 90% of the runs. Hari Nishaanth was playing the anchor role, rotating the strike and giving it to Vivek to take charge. Vivek soon reached his half century of 36 balls.
There was a chance to dismiss Vivek once he reached his half century with a catch being dropped by Periyaswamy at the boundary and letting it touch the fence off Lokesh Raj bowling in the 12th over. But Lokesh Raj soon struck in balls where Vivek was dismissed in the same manner, this time Periyaswamy clutching it safely. Mani Bharathy joined Hari Nishanth in the middle and walked back in the same way when he was dismissed by Lokesh Raj caught by Ganesh Moorthi. Some war of words happened between Mani Bharathy and Lokesh Raj before the umpires and the Salem team mates had to come and separate them.
R Srinivasan joined Hari Nishanth in the middle and the duo kept the scoreboard ticking by rotating the strike. However, R Srinivasan got dismissed by M Ashwin, caught smartly by keeper Sushil.
Mokit Hariharan, star of the DD side, two matches back, broke the shackles by hitting his first ball to the fence off Vijay SHankar. On the other side, Hari Nishaanth finally broke his defensive mindset and got into the attacking mindset and hoisted some into the stands and made some rocket to the fence. Periyaswamy came for his second spell and he was treated with utmost respect for bashing all around the park. Periyaswamy bowled a no-ball wherein he pitched the ball outside the main wicket causing a free hit to the opponent and Mokit accepted it with full heart and made it run to the fence. Lokesh Raj came to bowl his last over and he also bowled a similar kind of no-ball wherein his backfoot touched the outside line of the bowling area causing another free hit to the batting team and Hari Nishaanth dispatched it with ease to the stands. The duo of Hari Nishaanth and Mokit raised their 50 run partnership in 21 balls, both contributing equally. Hari Nishanth reached his 50 and soon got dismissed by Lokesh Raj caught and bowled. Swaminathan joined Mokit in the middle and he smashed his first ball to the fence. He was finally dismissed by Periyaswamy by uprooting his middle stump and Mokit finished the last ball of the innings with a six ending DD score on the board on 185/6 in 20 overs.
Next came the Salem openers S Abhishiek and Akshay Srinivasan. L Vignesh opened the bowling for DD. Abhishiek opened the boundary count for the Salem side, smashing Vignesh and Sutesh to the fence. But soon, he was dismissed by Sutesh who rattled his stumps. The experienced Vijay Shankar joined Akshay Srinivasan and he took on L Vignesh and hit one over to the stands. But soon, he caused confusion by running out Akshay Srinivasan off Sutesh’s second over. The next ball, Vijay SHankar was dismissed caught by keeper Mani Bharathy and Vijay Shankar looked in disbelief as he thought that the ball didn’t touch his bat. The Salem side was tarnished into pieces by DD bowling and they couldn;t do anything to restore something for their team. Captain Daryl Ferrario, R Karthikeyan were dismissed cheaply by M Silambarsan when Daryl got caught by the first ball of Silambarasan and Karthikeyan was run out by Swaminathan. M Ashwin joined R Suganesh in the middle and it was upto the duo to restore some pride for the team. But that battle was fought lonely by M Ashwin who contributed 47 (38), almost close to half of the total team score. He couldn’t find able partners to steer along with him and take the team home. The day totally belonged to the Dindigul Dragons and they deserved every bit of the win.
Brief Scores: Dindigul Dragons 185/6 in 20 overs (Vivek Raj 59, Hari Nishaanth 52, Mokit Hariharan 32*; Lokesh Raj 3-33, M Ganesh Moorthi 1-28, G Periyaswamy 1-36, M Ashwin 1-40) beat Salem Spartans 109 in 18.4 overs (M Ashwin 47, U Sushil 15; S Swaminathan 2-8, R Sutesh 2-7, Gurjapneet Singh 1-32, M Silambarasan 1-24) by 76 runs.
Player of the Match: R Vivek (DD)
