CHENNAI: B Sachin's 42-ball 77 and Deeban Lingesh's three wicket haul came in handy for Vida Kovai Kings to defeat SKM Salem Spartans by 34 runs in the TNPL in Dindigul on Thursday.
The Salem top order failed to come to terms with some disciplined bowling from Deeban. The 26-year old hit the deck in the right areas and did not give room for the Salem players to play the shots.
Nidhish Rajagopal (69) was the pick of Salem batters. He put his experience to effective use. He maintained composure in his game, even when wickets kept falling at the other end. However, he holed M Siddharth to Abhinav Kannan in the deep. His effort helped Salem delay the inevitable and reduce the margin of defeat.
Put into bat, The Kings had a good start with both openers Abhinav K and S Lokeshwar showing intent.
Lokeshwar was aggressive of the duo and after settling down well, he fell to the guile of Ajith Ram. However B Sachin joined Abhinav and they went all-guns blazing. Sachin used his feet well against spinners like Ajith and medium-pacer Harish Kumar. He was able to pick the length early and his off Harish Kumar where the ball went sailing over the bowler's head.
Abhinav rotated the strike at the other and chipped in runs here and there. When well set for a 50 he fell for 32 to a slower one from Ajith, to be caught in the deep by Harish. By then he had added 85 runs for the second wicket with Sachin to set up a good platform for the middle order to exploit. Sachin was precise in his shot selection and played all the bowlers with effortless ease and confidence. However, Sachin’s wicket by M Poiyamozhi upset the rhythm of Kovai.
Shahrukh Khan struggled a bit initially, but later gained composure to make a valuable 27.
Brief scores: Kovai Kings: 194/8 in 20 ovs (Sachin B 77; M Poiyamozhi 3/35) bt Salem Spartans 160 in 19.4 ovs (Nidhish Rajagopal 69; K Deeban 3/14)
