Match 23: 5th August 2021
Teams: Nellai Royal Kings vs Salem Spartans
Place: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Toss: Salem Spartans won the toss and elected to bat first
Lineups:
Salem Spartans: Akshay Srinivasan, S Abishiek, Umashankar Sushil (wk), Vijay Shankar, Gopinath (c), Murugan Ashwin, M Ganesh Moorthi, Lokesh Raj, B Praanesh, G Periyaswamy, S Boopalan
Nellai Royal Kings: Baba Aparajith (c), Laxmesha Suryaprakash, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Baba Indrajith (wk), Sanjay Yadav, Arjun Murthy, Sri Neranjan, NS Harish, T Veeramani, V Athisayaraj Davidson, Trilok Nag
DOMINANCE OF THE SPIN IN CHEPAUK
Chepauk is known for its slow mature and spinners dominant area and can even be said to be the fort of spinners. The same was displayed yesterday in the match between Nellai Royal Kings and Salem Spartans where the Nellai spinners literally tormented the Salem players. The interesting part of the match was that it was the 150th TNPL Match across all editions and the match was literally a cracker of a contest.
Salem Spartans won the toss and elected to bat first. They had one change in B Praanesh and S Boopalan in for Daryll Ferrario and AVR Rathnam. Nellai got in T Veeramani for Jithendra Kumar. Salem was newly captained by KH Gopinath. Openers KH Gopinath and Akshay Srinivasan started for Salem while A Davidson opened the bowling for Nellai.
NS Harish was introduced in the 2nd over and he dismissed A Srinivasan off an alert stumping by keeper B Indrajith in an unusual manner. Davidson soon came back and took the big fish KH Gopinath caught by Sanjay Yadav at covers. Vijay Shankar and S Abhishiek were the two new batters in the middle. The duo took time in rotating the strike and also hit boundaries at intervals, slashing to the fence and hosting it over the stands. The duo registered their 50 run partnership before Sanjay Yadav came and castled Abhishiek rattling his stumps and bowled a WICKET MAIDEN!!! T Veeramani, the debutant was introduced and Vijay Shankar lofted him for six in his very first ball but was dismissed in the next ball caught by NS Harish at deep mid wicket.
Ganesh Moorthi and M Ashwin tried to up the ante but the Nellai spinners kept tight control over the flow of runs from the blades of the Salem batters. Ganesh Moorthi started with two boundaries off Veeramani but soon perished by getting dismissed to Nellai captain Aparajith caught by NS Harish.B Praanesh joined M Ashwin in the middle and walked back to the pavilion soon dismissed by NS Harish caught by Arjun Murthy. Salem wicket-keeper Sushil joined M Ashwin and the duo tapped some runs before Aparajith returned back dismissing M Ashwin, caught comfortably by Sanjay Yadav. Lokesh Raj joined Sushil in the middle and hit a few blows to the fence before being dismissed by A Davidson in his second spell. Salem Spartans ended their innings on 120/8.
Next came the Nellai openers, B Aparajith and L Suryaprakash for batting and M Ganesh Moorthi opened the bowling for Salem. Aparajith continued his form from his last match and notched up valuable runs to the team topping with boundaries at intervals and rotating strike and kept the scoreboard ticking. Suryaprakash too contributed with his willow and added few runs before M Ashwin came and rattled the stumps of Suryaprakash. Pradosh Ranjan Paul joined Aparajith in the middle and also gave some valuable runs to the team from his blade. Aparajith was finally dismissed by Ganesh Moorthi, caught stunningly by Vijay Shankar. Sanjay Yadav joined Pradosh Ranjan Paul in the middle.The duo tapped some runs before Sanjay Yadav sent some balls to the stands and ensured the team went past the finish line and stay atop the points table.
Brief Scores: Salem Spartans 120/8 in 20 overs (Vijay Shankar 41, Abhishiek S 25, Lokesh Raj 15; NS Harish 2-12, B Aparajith 2-23, A Davidson 2-24) lost to Nellai Royal Kings 121/2 in 18.3 overs (B Aparajith 38, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 23*, Sanjay Yadav 41*; M Ganesh Moorthi 1-22, M Ashwin 1-23) by 8 wickets.
Player of the Match: Baba Aparajith (NRK)
