Match 7: 25th July 2021
Teams: IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans vs Salem Spartans
Place: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Toss: Salem Spartans won the toss and elected to bat first
Lineups:
IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans: S Dinesh, Tushar Raheja, N Mohammed Ashik (wk), R Rajkumar, S Aravind, Maan Bafna, P Francis Rokins, M Mohammed (c), S Mohan Prasath, K Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Aswin Crist
Salem Spartans: Gopinath, Akshay Srinivasan, S Abhishek, Umashankar Sushil (wk), Daryl Ferrario (c), Vijay Shankar, B Praanesh, Ravi Karthikeyan, M Ganesh Moorthi, Murugan Ashwin, G Periyaswamy
EXPERIENCE OVERHAULS TALENT
When you go through the CSK lineups in the past few players, there would be more experienced stars than raw young talents. Experience makes a better person and it came true in yesterday’s second clash between Salem Spartans and IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans. The last few night games saw targets being chased and yesterday’s was a different game.
Salem won the toss and elected to bat first. Out came the openers, the versatile KH Gopinath and the young S Abhishiek. R Rajkumar opened the bowling for IDream Tiruppur. Both of them started their innings with a bang on shot to the fence for four off the balls of Rajkumar and Gowtham Thamarai Kannan. Captain M Mohammed was also tamed with a lofted shot to the stands and the score read 28/0 in 3 overs. Gowtham Thamarai Kannan had his prey caught with precision when he dismissed KH Gopinath by rattling his stumps with the “You miss, I hit” ball! A second chance came for Thamarai Kannan to fetch his second wicket when he had almost Abhishiek loft to the boundary in the leg side only to be dropped by the keeper Mohammed Ashik.
Both Akshay Srinivasan and Abhishiek had the scoreboard ticking with boundaries at regular intervals until Abhishiek was run out in the most embarrassing manner when he had the ball beside him only to be smartly taken by Aswin Crist and the bails dislodged .A 49 run partnership came to an end and it was up to the experienced trio of Darull Ferrario, Vijay Shankar and Murugan Ashwin to take the team to a respectable total. M Mohammed dismissed R Rajkumar with a neat catch offered by the batter to keeper Mohammed Ashik.
A respectable and a very much needed calm partnership of 52 was stitched between captain Daryll Ferrario and Vijay Shankar with boundaries hit aplomb. R Rajukumar struck again by dismissing Vijay Shankar with a full toss which was planned to be dispatched to the stands by Shankar only to be caught by Maan Baafna. Then a quick 17 run partnership between M Ashwin and Daryll Ferrario brought things back to the fore before Daryll Ferrario was dismissed by Aswin Crist comfortably caught by captain M Mohammed. M Ashwin struck the last ball of the innings to a four ending the innings with 164/5 on board.
In came S Dinesh and Mohammed Ashik to chase the target of 166 and pocket the 2 points to their franchise. Spinner M Ganesh Moorthi was introduced by cap Daryll Ferrario in the very first over of second innings and he reaped rich reward by dismissing S Dinesh who hit a first ball four only to be caught by Akshay Srinivasan off the third ball. Vijay Shankar choked the opposition with his medium pace and bowled a maiden over in the 4th over of the second innings.Just when Mohammed Ashik and S Aravind were trying to build a partnership, the slingy Periyaswamy struck in his first over with a slow off cutter and removed S Aravind caught by Gopinath.
Murugan Ashwin soon came into the scene and weaved his web and knocked down Mohammed Ashik with a wonderful googly that rattled the stumps. Francis Rokins joined Maan Baafna in the middle and it was their job to save the sinking ship of their team. Both batted with patience and built a partnership of 57 before M Ashwin again struck, taking out Maan Baafna with a stunner of a controlled catch at the boundary by S Abhishiek.
Tushar Raheja tried to propel the innings along with Francis Rokins but soon fell to G Periyaswamy caught by B Praanesh. Vijay Shankar too joined the party with Periyaswamy and dismissed ITT captain M Mohammed caught by KH Gopinath. Francis Rokins on the other side was converting the loose balls into boundaries and reached his half century off Vijay Shankar bowling. He soon got dismissed by B Praanesh caught by Ravi Karthikeyan. Praanesh struck again in the same over dismissing Rajkumar caught by Vijay Shankar.
Salem won very comfortably over ITT by 16 runs and pocketed two points to themselves to be at the top in the points table.
Brief Scores: Salem Spartans 164/5 in 20 overs (Daryll Ferrario 40, Abhishiek 38, Vijay Shankar 26, Akshay Srinivasan 23; Aswin Crist 1-26, Gowtham Thamarai Kannan 1-30, R Rajkumar 1-31, M Mohammed 1-35) beat IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans 148/8 in 20 overs (Francis Rokins 58, Maan Baafna 20; G Periyaswamy 2-22, M Ashwin 2-27, B Praneesh 2-26) by 16 runs.
Player of the Match: Daryll Ferrario (Salem Spartans)
