Match 5: 23rd July 2021
Teams: Ruby Trichy Warriors vs Lyca Kovai Kings
Place: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Toss: Ruby Trichy Warriors won the toss and elected to bat first
Lineups:
Ruby Trichy Warriors: Adithya Ganesh (wk), K Mukunth, Sumant Jain, Amit Sathvik, Antony Dhas, Nidhish Rajagopal, M Mathivannan, Sunil Sam, Rahil Shah (c), Akash Sumra, Saravan Kumar
Lyca Kovai Kings: Ganga Sridhar Raju, R Kavin (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Ashwin Venkataraman, Shahrukh Khan (c), U Mukilesh, Abhishek Tanwar, N Selva Kumaran, S Ajith Ram, Krishnamoorthy Vignesh, Elangovan Srinivasan
DROPPED CATCHES INCREASE LEAD
“Catches win matches” is a common saying in the cricket circuit and it has been proven a lot of times in the past. Yesterday’s match was no equal to that but worse than that. Ruby has already a very poor H2H record against Lyca with Lyca leading 3-0 against them and the franchise themselves rub salt to their wounds with a hefty amount of dropped chances.
After winning the toss, Ruby elected to bat. The electrifying young kid Amit Sathvik opened with K Mukunth who fell cheaply in the last match and both had their instincts and idea clear; clear the boundaries at intervals and rotate the strike to keep the scoreboard ticking.
As usual, Amith Sathvik played the dominant role whereas K Mukunth supported him by playing the anchor role. The pair notched up the first 50-run opening partnership in this edition of TNPL and were cruising swiftly until N Selva Kumaran came and dismissed K Mukunth (14 of 20 balls) with a fumbled stumping from Kavin. Nidish Rajagopal joined Amit Sathvik but their partnership didn’t last longer before Ajith Ram tricked and tested and dismissed the other opener Amit Sathvik (42 of 30 balls). Sumant Jain joined Nidish Rajagopal in the middle and the mindset of both the batsmen was to build partnership and take the score to a defendable one. The duo raised a partnership of 74 before N Selvakumaran struck again dismissing Nidish Rajagopal (45 of 28 balls).
The destructive Anthony Dhas joined Sumant Jain and hit a cameo of 20 of 11 balls before K Vignesh and took two important wickets in Sumant Jain and Akash Sumra in consecutive balls in the 19th over. Abhishek Tanwar too followed the same way of K Vignesh and picked the wickets of Anthony Dhas and Saravan Kumar and RTW posted 171/7 in 20 overs.
In reply, Lyca came for batting with Ganga Sridhar Raju and keeper R Kavin opening. The intention of GS Raju was very clear, tonk the bowlers all around the park and create pressure on RTW and panic every bowler bowling to him. The duo started picking the momentum when RTW captain Rahil Shah picked the wicket of R Kavin plum before the stumps within the powerplay. Sai Sudarshan joined GS Raju in the middle and the party started in the pitch of Chepauk with both the southpaws dancing to their own tunes. Sai Sudarshan picked from where he left, packing another half century to his kitty bag. Both GS Raju and Sai Sudarshan targeted every single pacer, Sunil Sam and Anthony Dhas being tamed lambastly by GS Raju with towering sixes into the stands and Sai SUdarshan cutting through the fielders to make the ball sail to the fence. Adding salt to the wounds of the RTW bowlers was the poor fielding display, dropping about 4 chances of GS Raju in various intervals of his score in the middle. Sunil Sam finally broke the partnership between the southpaws dismissing GS Raju caught neatly by Akash Sumra after scoring 74 of 52 balls. Lyca captain Shahrukh Khan joined Sai Sudarshan and finished the proceedings with a six off a no ball into the stands and sealed the 2 points to his franchise in the points table.
Brief Scores: Ruby Trichy Warriors 171/7 in 20 overs (Nidish Rajagopal 45, Amit Sathvik 42, Sumant Jain 29, Anthony Dhas 20; Abhishek Tanwar 2-32, K Vignesh 2-30, N Selvakumaran 2-26, S Ajith Ram 1-20) lost to Lyca Kovai Kings 175-2 in 18.1 overs (Ganga Sridhar Raju 74, Sai Sudarshan 57*, Shahrukh Khan 18*; Rahil Shah 1-32, Sunil Sam 1-42) by 8 wickets.
Player of the Match: Ganga Sridhar Raju (Lyca Kovai Kings)
