CHENNAI: Anirudha Srikkanth's valuable 32 and his handling of spinners Mohan Prasath and S Aravind enabled IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans to beat Salem Spartans by 32 runs in the Tamil Nadu Premier League match played in Coimbatore on Wednesday.
Chasing a modest 136 for a win, Salem Spartans began their task on a poor note. They lost openers Gopinath and R Kavin in the powerplay. Soon, Salem lost Ganesh and Jaffer Jamal who fell to the guile of Aravind and Mohan Prasath, respectively. A lot depended upon Ferrario, who has played for India Under-19 in the past. However, Ferrario, too, caved in to pressure and was stumped by Tushar off Aravind. Thus Salem has reduced to 60 for 5 and from then the task was uphill. Ravi Karthikeyan's 36 went in vain as he had little support at the other end.
Earlier, Anirudha Srikkanth's 32-off 22-balls and 57-run opening partnership with S Aravind gave IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans a solid start. Having come back after an injury, Anirudha showed a lot of intent and looked well set for long innings. But he fell to Daryl Ferrario and the Tiruppur middle-order crumbled. Barring Maan Bafna's unbeaten 29, no other batter showed the willpower to fight till the end and try to post a challenging total.
Brief scores: Tiruppur Tamizhans 135/5 in 20 overs (Aniruda 32, Maan 29 n.o; Ferrario 2/21, Karthikeyan 1/22) bt Salem Spartans 103 all out in 19.2 overs (Karthikeyan 36; Mohan Prasath 3/11).