DINDIGUL : It rained at NPR College ground in Natham on Thursday night.Even as the rain gods finally showed some benevolence to these water-starved lands, Kovai Kings were rubbing their hands in glee. Even if they had only three overs each against Tuti Patriots, their pace trio of Krishnamoorthy Vignesh, Thangarasu Natarajan and W Antony Dhas were the most potent on paper in this edition of the TNPL. A green pitch. A spell of rain that turned this clash into a 13-over-per-side affair. Abhinav Mukund opted to have a go at Tuti’s batsmen.
But, it rained again.
But this one didn’t quench the thirst of the land, it quenched the thirst of the fans, throughout both innings. Fate had decided that there would be two six-hitting heroes for the night, one from each team.
Tuti were left reeling off their second ball, with Vignesh hurrying opener S Senthil Nathan with a skidder. You may expect a scoring lull in such a situation, but skipper Subramania Siva and Akshay Srinivasan had other plans: blast their way out of trouble.
Siva was the brawn in this combination, clearing his leg and golf-swinging any ball that dared to trespass his arc. Tuti’s song of fire and ice saw them blaze their way to the second-fastest team fifty (19 balls) in the history of the tournament. Skipper Siva’s fire kept stoking his team’s flaming run. No bowler was accorded respect by the 35-year-old right-hander, as he kept throwing at least one kitchen sink in every over. Tuti had six-ered (15) their way to an intimidating total, but the night wasn’t over in Natham.
Dhas decided that after taking three wickets, he had to do a star turn with the bat as well.
Tamil Kumaran had skewed their already-difficult odds more, with Kovai left reeling at 13/3 inside two overs. N Mohammed Ashik and Akkil Srinaath had just about kept their run-rate worm within a sniffing distance of the target.
After the former too trundled back to the dugout, it was the turn of the second hero of the night. 6, 6, 0, 1, 6, 6, 6, 0, 0, 1, 6. In 11 balls, Dhas had turned this one-sided game into a cliffhanger. Five new balls were required by the time he was done, a murderous 26-ball 63 was registered. The record for most number of sixes (30) in a TNPL match had been written.
Though it was Tuti who squeaked through in the end, Siva and Dhas also ended up as winners in their own right.Brief scores: Tuti Patriots in 155/5 in 13 ovs (Akshay Srinivasan 31, Subramania Siva 44; Krishnamoorthy Vignesh 2/27, Antony Dhas 3/41) bt Kovai Kings 149/7 in 13 ovs (W Antony Dhas 63, Akkil Srinaath 32; DT Kumaran 2/18, V Athisayaraj Davidson 32).