CHENNAI: Former India U-19 players S Lokeshwar's 66 and S Radakrishnan's 48 came in handy for Vida Kovai Kings to post 183 for 5 in 20 overs against Trichy Grand Cholas in the Qualifier 2 of the TNPL played at Chepauk here on Wednesday.
Set a stiff target of 184 to win in a knock-out game, Trichy had a disastrous start with K Deeban Lingesh taking a hat-trick in the very first over. This was the eighth instance where a bowler took a hat-trick in the TNPL. The poor start meant Trichy were bowled out for 99 thus losing the match by 84 runs.
Deeban accounted for K Rajkumar the very first ball as he was caught behind by Lokeshwar. Next Deeban induced Shyam Sundar to play a false shot towards Sachin at first slip. His third victim was J Kousik. Deceived by the pace, Kousik was castled as Trichy lost their third wicket without even opening their account.
After Deeban, it was M Siddarth's turn to trouble Trichy batters. He made both Sanjay Yadav and Jaffer Jamal dance to his tune. Sanjay edged Siddharth to Lokeshwar behind the stumps, while attempting to cut the ball. Jaffer then was bowled by a peach of a delivery. The wicket also saw Trichy getting reduced to 6 for 5 in 3.3 overs.
Earlier, opting to bat, Kovai got off to an excellent start with S Radhakrishnan and Lokeshwar striking the ball well. Sensing that weather could play spoilsport in the game, both Kovai openers scored boundaries in turns at regular intervals.
Radhakrishnan and Lokeshwar used the pace of the ball to score freely off Athisayaraj Davidson, Saravana Kumar and Antony Dhas.
While Radhakrishnan was resolute at one end, Lokeshwar enjoyed every minute of his stay. Lokeshwar was harsh on Trichy spinners. He once carted N Selva Kumaran over extra cover for a boundary showing his sense of timing. Later he lofted Sanjay Yadav over long on for a six.
Both Radhakrishnan and Lokeshwar were competing with each other to score the fifty first and the die-hard fans of TNPL, who were at the ground, enjoyed every moment of it. While on 48, Radhakrishan missed a quicker one from R Rajkumar to edge to Suresh Kumar behind the stumps. By then he had added 104 for the first wicket in 62 balls.
Kovai then lost B Sachin and Andre Siddharth quickly and Lokeshwar also lost his wicket. However, Shahrukh Khan put the long handle to effective use scoring 34 off just 18 balls, helping his team breach the 180-run mark.
Brief scores: Kovai Kings 183/5 in 20 ovs (Radhakrishnan 48, Suresh Lokeshwar 66; R Rajkumar 3/29) bt Trichy Grand Cholas 99 in 15.4 ovs (Suresh Kumar 48; K Deeban Lingesh 3/14, Manimaran Siddharth 4/11).