DINDIGUL: In some ways, Kanchi Veerans can be considered the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) analogs of Delhi Capitals; they love to bank on young blood, results notwithstanding. Even if they may have moved away from that trend a bit this season, Kanchi’s ranks are still home to a few young guns. That their skipper Baba Aparajith just turned 25 last week paints that picture in itself.
At NPR College grounds in Natham on Sunday, Kanchi were up against a mountain in Kovai Kings. In Thangarasu Natarajan, Krishnamoorthy Vignesh and Antony Dhas, they boast of the best pace triumvirate in TNPL. The first two speedsters are easily a yard quicker than any other from all teams. Just seven balls into the Kanchi innings, Vignesh and Natarajan had lived up to their billing, reducing them to 1/2. A mountain, indeed.
The onus of rebuilding fell on Aparajith’s and his non-striker partner’s shoulders, one who is just a foot or so taller than the stumps. At 21, S Lokeshwar is among the youngest in the Kanchi contingent. When he dons the keeping gloves, or gets into a huddle with his team, he looks like a boy who’s been accidentally left in a man’s world.
But for all the Lilliputian vibes his build gives off, Lokeshwar comes armed with the spunk of a fighter. Even Tamil Nadu Cricket Association seemed to think the same when he was named as one among the squad for the team’s final Ranji Trophy match last season. That, and the fact that he’d made a touring England U-19 side toil in Nagpur, two years ago, scoring a gritty, unbeaten 92 after coming in at No 7 to help India save that Youth Test.
So here he was, Kanchi’s young stumper, up against two quicks who were breathing fire on a pitch that was just two shades away from looking like the outfield itself. But with a confident stance, a compact technique, and a very evident proclivity for using his bat in as vertical a manner as possible, Lokeshwar began digging his team out of their hole, with Aparajith for company.
Even when his skipper fell, Lokeshwar was the watchful sentinel of his end; no high-percentage shots, his surprisingly-quick pair of legs keeping his strike rate in check.
That doesn’t go to say that the right-hander can’t floor the pedal. He ticked that box with the shot of the day: a gentle lift over covers that kept going and going till the press box. A 51 off 40 isn’t a score that’ll make jaws drop, but it was Lokeshwar’s grit that made an improbable total of 150 achievable for Kanchi on Sunday night.
Though Kovai’s batsmen made a joke of the chase, it was Kanchi who’d ended up finding a silver lining in the dark clouds that hovered over them. Brief scores: Kanchi Veerans 150/6 in 20 ovs (Lokeshwar 51; Manigandan 3/40) lost to Kovai Kings 151/2 in 15.2 ovs (Mukund 70 n.o)