Dindigul Dragons Made a Splendid Entry in Third Edition of TNPL

One couldn’t have asked a better kickoff as it happened in the ongoing Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). In the inaugural match of season third, it was Ruby Tirchy Kerela and Dindigul Dragons who locked horns with each other.

Both teams had their fair share of chances but it was Ruby Tirchy at the end who held the nerves and defeated the Kerela on the penultimate ball of the match.

Star performers:

The partnership between Suresh Kumar and Sonu Yadav totally shifted momentum towards Kerela.

The former joined the crease when his team was nowhere. Suresh’s side had lost four wickets in just four overs and the dire requirement was to bat sensibly throughout.

The crucial moment of the match:

The partnership between Suresh and Sonu steadied the ship of Kerela towards the victory lap. After losing four wickets, in the beginning, the 60-run stand for the sixth wicket turned out to be totally a game-changer.

From the Dragon’s point, all the blame of the match goes to their poor fielding and their untimely execution in the death overs.

Stats and Numbers:

Dindigul Dragons while batting first put 173 runs on board in their 20 allotted overs. Hari Nishant, Ramalingam Rohit, and the skipper Ravichandran Ashwin were the star performers for Dragons.

Nishant scored 41, Rohit with 46 whereas captain Ashwin scored 42.

From Ruby Kerela, it was Kumar and Yadav who scored 45 and 30 respectively as Kerela won the game by four wickets in hand. Kerela finished the match in a thrilling way.

Who said what:

Ashwin at the post-match presentation reiterated: “We were looking at 185-190. It was difficult to score once the ball got soft, but we still had enough runs. We had to bowl better. We put down a few simple ones, but it is the start and hope the boys can turn it around. It is easy to be critical but we lost it by a close margin. Most of these boys have not been in such situations – defending in the final overs. There were a lot of positives in the game and we have to take them and move on.”

Indrajith believes his side has to give their best in the upcoming fixtures:

“Any team wants to win their first game. It was a perfect opener. It is important to pick wickets, they dominated the first 10 overs but we came back by picking wickets. I think 170 was a par score. With wickets in hand, we knew we had a chance. In the middle, we lost too many wickets, but Sonu and Kumar took him through. Lot of areas to improve. We can’t take things lightly just because we won.”