Kaushik Gandhi’s unbeaten 52 (32b, 3x4, 3x6) helped Salem Spartans chase down 139 and post a five-wicket win over Ba11sy Trichy in the Tamil Nadu Premier League at the NPR College cricket ground in Natham on Sunday.
Kaushik hit three successive sixes in the 15th over off Antony Dhas to hasten the chase.
It had drizzled, was cloudy, and there was a bit of moisture on the pitch. So, it was surprising when Ba11sy Trichy captain V. Ganga Sridhar Raju won the toss and opted to bat on seemingly bowling-friendly conditions.
There was a bit of swing and seam movement, and good bounce throughout the match. And Trichy’s R. Rajkumar and Salem’s Amith Sathvik who opened the match concurred that the pitch was slow throughout.
Rajkumar pointed out post-match that batting was hard and they failed to stitch together partnerships, which was the main cause for the loss.
Salem’s new-ball bowlers Abhishek Tanwar and Sunny Sandhu effectively used the conditions as Trichy could manage only 22 for two in its Power Play.
Off-spinner Rajendran Karthikeyan was exceptional with his use of the carrom ball, which also led to the dismissal of Antony Dhas.
The day match here in Dindigul (1.5 degree) saw better average swing than in the day matches in Coimbatore (0.8 degree).
In the other match, B. Indrajith smashed an unbeaten 78 (48b, 7x4, 4x6) as Dindigul Dragons beat Siechem Madurai Panthers by seven wickets with 35 balls to spare.
At 32 for three in 3.4 overs, Dindigul looked in a spot of bother when an unbeaten 92-run fourth-wicket stand was stitched between Indrajith and Adithya Ganesh (22, 22b, 1x4, 1x6).
The highlight was the 26 runs that Indrajith took off Washington’s only over of the match in the 12th over. Indrajith struck three sixes in that over - one over deep midwicket, one straight-hit, and one over deep cover.
There were two spectacular catches in the match - Dindigul’s Shivam Singh diving to his right at the slip, Madurai’s M. Ashwin running back and completing a diving catch.
The scores: Ba11sy Trichy 139/9 in 20 overs (Mani Bharathi 40, Daryl Ferrario 29, Abhishek Tanwar 3/9, Sunny Sandhu 2/27, Rajendran Karthikeyan 2/27) lost to Salem Spartans 143/5 in 15.2 overs (Kaushik Gandhi 52 n.o., K. Easwaran 2/22, G. Godson 3/34).
Siechem Madurai Panthers 123 in 19.3 overs (J. Kousik 45, Saravana Kumar 3/22, Suboth Bhati 3/19, Varun Chakravarthy 2/23) lost to Dindigul Dragons 124/3 in 14.1 overs (Indrajith 78 n.o., Gurjapneet Singh 3/18).
