Match 17: 31st July 2021
Teams: Siechem Madurai Panthers vs Nellai Royal Kings
Place: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Toss: Nellai Royal Kings won the toss and elected to bowl first
Lineups:
Siechem Madurai Panthers: Arun Karthik, P Praveen Kumar (wk), B Anirudh Sita Ram, NS Chaturved (c), Jagatheesan Kousik, Sugenthiran, R Mithun, Kiran Akash, V Gowtham, R Silambarasan, Aushik Srinivas
Nellai Royal Kings: Baba Aparajith (c), Laxmesha Suryaprakash, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Baba Indrajith (wk), Sanjay Yadav, Arjun Murthy, Sri Neranjan, NS Harish, Mohan Abhinav, Ashwath Mukunthan, V Athisayaraj Davidson
RAIN HAS THE LAST LAUGH
If anything which upsets any cricket fan other than a heartbreaking defeat from a team they love, it will be the rains which plays spoilsport in an interesting match. Yesterday’s rubber between the table bottom rankers Madurai Panthers and Nellai Royal Kings had the rain play spoilsport, an unusual event which happens in Chennai and TN during the July - October window.
Nellai Royal Kings won the toss and elected to field first. They had one change in Ashwath Mukunthan coming in for Sharun Kumar and Sri Neranjan coming back to the squad replacing T Ajith Kumar. Madurai Panthers had quite a few changes in debutants P Praveen Kumar, Sugenthiran, V Gowtham coming in for M Shahjahan, R Rohit and K Rajkumar.
Openers KB Arun Karthick and Praveen Kumar started for Madurai, while the Malinga of TN A Davidson started the proceedings for Nellai. Athisayaraj took just four balls to dismiss the debutant Praveen Kumar off 1 neatly caught by keeper Baba Indrajith. Anirudh Sita ram joined KB Arun Karthick in the middle and the duo did what they had been instructed, strike at regular intervals for boundaries and keep the scoreboard ticking. Just after the powerplay got over, KB Arun Karthick was dismissed by spinner NS Harish when his stumps were rattled by the spinner off a slog sweep. Captain NS Chaturved joined Anirudh SIta Ram in the middle and the right-left combination worked wonders with both of them whacking spinner M Abhinav for runs and making him search for answers to his flighted deliveries. NS Chaturved first took on Abhinav blasting him for 3 consecutive hits to the fence off his first over. Then, the duo took on him in his third over with one four and two sixes making him gift about 28 runs off his 41 runs via boundaries. Just when the partnership reached 50+, Sanjay Yadav came and took control of the Madurai side. He took the decisive NS Chaturved with a nice slower ball making Chaturved to offer it open heartedly to Nellai captain Aparajith.
Experienced all rounder J Kousik joined Anirudh Sita Ram in the middle and soon walked back to the pavilion when he was dismissed by B Aparajith caught by NS Harish. R Mithun joined Anirudh Sita Ram in the middle and followed suit to the pavilion when a close run out was effected by keeper Indrajith albeit a distraction from the batter. Sugenthiran joined Anirudh Sita Ram in the middle. Meanwhile, while the wickets were falling at one side, Anirudh strongly held the fort and reached his fifty off a single from Athisayaraj Davidson’s third over. Athisayaraj struck back dismissing Sugenthiran once he hit a four off his delivery easily caught by Indrajith. Kiran Akash joined Anirudh Sita Ram and blew one into the stands off A Mukunthan before Mukunthan returned the gift by dismissing Kiran Akash caught by Sanjay Yadav. Athisayaraj came back for the final over and dismissed Anirudh Sita Ram albeit a direct run out from Indrajith when rain gods entered the arena.
There was a cut off for a 5-overs game at 10:45 PM IST, but the puddles formed didn’t show signs of continuation and the points were shared equally between the teams.
Brief Scores: Siechem Madurai Panthers 144/8 in 19.2 overs (B Anirudh 51, NS Chaturved 37; KB Arun Karthick 26; Athisayaraj 2-17, B Aparajith 1-7, Sanjay Yadav 1-23, NS Harish 1-12) vs Nellai Royal Kings.Match abandoned due to rain.
