Match 8: 25th July 2021
Teams: Siechem Madurai Panthers vs Ruby Trichy Warriors
Place: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Time: 3:30 PM IST
Toss: Ruby Trichy Warriors won the toss and elected to bowl first
Lineups:
Madurai Panthers: Arun Karthik (wk), K Rajkumar, B Anirudh Sita Ram, NS Chaturved (C), Jagatheesan Kousik, M Shajahan, R Mithun, Ramalingam Rohit, R Silambarasan, Kiran Akash, Aushik Srinivas
Ruby Trichy Warriors: Amit Sathvik, Adithya Ganesh (wk), Nidhish Rajagopal, Sumant Jain, Antony Dhas, Muhammed Adnan Khan, Sunil Sam, Rahil Shah (C), M Mathivannan, M Poiyamozhi, Saravan Kumar
CONSISTENCY, THE KEY FOR SUCCESS
Ruby Trichy Warriors has been a very busy side playing their second match in the last four days and that they are proving a point of being consistent in all their departments. Their last match against Lyca Kovai Kings saw them lose the match due to a humpty of dropped catches costing them a lot which was capitalised well by GS Raju.
They made two changes to their lineup from the last match which had batter K Mukunth making way for all rounder Muhammad Adnan Khan and Akash Sumra making way for medium pacer M Poiyamozhi. Madurai remained unchanged from their last match.
RTW won the toss and made SMP bat first. Openers KB Arun Karthick and K Rajkumar started for the Madurai franchise and Sunil Sam opened the bowling for RTW. It didn’t take much time before Arun Karthick slashed two fours to the fence off Saravan Kumar’s first over. The duo of KB and Rajkumar cut and slashed at intervals before RTW captain Rahil Shah came into play in the 5th over and dismissed the dangerous Arn Karthick with a wonderful catch by Mathivannan running backwards and reverse cusping it. R Rohit joined Rajkumar in the middle and both tried to build a partnership when spinner Mathivannan struck in the 8th over removing Rajkumar from the equation safely caught by Muhammed Adnan Khan at the deep boundary. Just when one got dismissed and went inside, R Rohit joined his team mate to the pavilion being castled by Mathivannan with a thick edge off his bat in the same over and providing a double dhamaka offer to the RTW spinner and to the team.
SMP captain NS Chaturved joined Anirudh Sita Ram and didn’t last long in the field and was dismissed off the next over by Sunil Sam showcasing his stumps freely to the bowler and offering himself with full devotion. SMP were in real trouble when all rounder J Kousik donned the saviour role and hit a quickfire 44(32) and built a partnership of 79 with Anirudh Sita Ram. Shahjahan too came and returned back to the pavilion in a jiffy when he was out for a golden duck castled by M Poiyamozhi. Madurai finished with 137/6 on board in their quota of 20 overs.
Out came the RTW openers Amit Sathvik and Sumant Jain and R Rohit started the proceedings for the Madurai with his bowling. It didn’t take three balls for R Rohit to dismiss the star batter Amit Sathvik for a duck when Amit edged to keeper Arun Karthick. Nidish Rajagopal joined Sumant Jain in the middle and he too followed the footsteps of Amit Sathvik returning to the pavilion with a golden duck getting dismissed plumb before the stumps. Adithya Ganesh and Sumant Jain were to help the sinking ship of their team restore to normalcy.
But Kiran Akash had other plans. He took just two balls of his first over and dismissed the other opener Sumant Jain plumb before the stumps and the RTW franchise faced the same issue as what SMP faced but with a lower score than them. It was upto Muhammad Adnan Khan and Adithya Ganesh to steady the ship and they did what they had to. Adithya Ganesh took the anchor’s role while Adnan Khan took the destructor’s role. They cut, sweeped, pulled, dispatched every ball which came loose and gave them opportunity to take their team forward and the flurry of boundaries ensured their team wasn’t in a bothering state. Adnan Khan reached his fifty in the final ball of the 11th over and was soon dismissed by the ever dependable J Kousik who made the batsman loft high into the sky only to be comfortably caught by captain NS Chaturved. The destructive Anthony Dhas joined Adithya Ganesh but was soon dismissed by R Silambarasan making the batter nip off to the fielder J Kousik.
RTW batters tried to finish off the game quickly but the Madurai bowlers were constantly troubling them, pocketing the wickets of Mathivannan castled by J Kousik by rattling his stumps and Kiran Akash dismissing the dependable Adithya Ganesh in the 18th over. When everyone thought it was all over for the RTW franchise, Saravan Kumar and Poiyamozhi did it for the team and took them past the finish line. RTW pocketed their second win of the season and stayed atop the table.
Brief Scores: Madurai Panthers 137/6 in 20 overs (J Kousik 44, Anirudh B 36*, Rajkumar K 18, Arun Karthick 17; Saravan Kumar 2-31, Poiyamozhi 1-25, Sunil Sam 1-31) lost to Ruby Trichy Warriors 138/7 in 19 overs (Adnan Khan 53, Adihya Ganesh 41, Saravana Kumar 15*, Poiyamozhi 10*; J Kousik 2-17, Rohit R 2-32, Kiran Akash 2-19, SIlambarasan 1-22) by 3 wickets.
Player of the Match: Muhammad Adnan Khan (RTW)
