CHENNAI: Veteran left-arm spinner Rahil Shah's three-wicket haul and Karthik Manikandan's 57 came in handy for Salem Spartans to defeat Tiruppur Tamizhans by 45 runs in the TNPL at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Saturday. This is Salem's first win of the season, as they remain bottom of the points table.
Rahil, who will turn 41 in two months rolled back the years with his left-arm bowling. He managed to crack open Tiruppur's top order by accounting for Wafar K, the dangerous Pradosh Ranjan Paul and S Mohamed Ali.
Chasing 170, Tiruppur with its batting depth began confidently with its openers Amit Sathvik and Tushar Raheja scoring runs at a brisk pace. A momentary lapse of concentration saw Amit fall to a quicker one from M Poyyamozhi.
After that one expected Wafar to support Tushar. But that was not to be, Tiruppur lost three wickets in a cluster and Tushar (75) fought a lone battle to help his team get near the target. But he could not get as far to help his team win, as he was caught by Sunny Sandhu at long-off off Mohammed M.
Earlier, opting to bat, Salem Spartans began well. Openers Abishiek and Boopathi Vaishna Kumar added 47 off 26 balls. After that, Mathivanan 3/18 put the brakes on Salem's march. Later Eshwar and Karthick Manikandan rebuilt the innings with a 59-run stand. Karthick's maiden TNPL fifty helped Salem reach 169/8 in 20 overs.
"I'm taking the result as it is. We deserve the criticism, but we'll come back stronger next year. Our biggest learning is that we need to build stronger partnerships in the batting department," Salem skipper Abishiek said.
Brief scores: Salem 169/8 in 20 ovs (K Manikandan 57; M Mathivanan 3/18) bt iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans 124/9 in 20 ovs (T Raheja 75, R Shah 3/23); Madurai Panthers 198/5 in 20 ovs (Shoaib Mohammed 65, Atheeq Ur Rahman 50 n.o., Emmanuel Cherian 3/40) bt Nellai Royal Kings 126 in 19.1 ovs (Ajitesh G 56).
Teams in Play-offs: Madurai, Trichy, Kovai, Tiruppur.