CHENNAI: A CAPTAIN'S knock from J Suresh Kumar (58) and a valuable 45 from R Rajkumar helped Trichy Grand Cholas defeat Nellai Royal Kings by 45 runs in the Tamil Nadu Premier League in Dindigul on Tuesday.
Defending a total of 182, Athisayaraj Davidson's took four wickets to fashion Trichy's memorable outing. Sanjay Yadav, who made 17 and took two wickets in Trichy's win gave his assessment of the match. "We started a bit slow with the bat, but Suresh and Rajkumar helped us stabilize the innings on a pitch that was holding up, allowing us to reach a total we felt confident defending. Rajkumar played an outstanding knock when the team needed it most and backed it up with a great performance with the ball, while Davidson was brilliant up front and at the death with his slingy action, taking crucial wickets that halted their momentum," Sanjay said.
With the bat, Nellai disappointed. Santhosh Kumar was castled for a blob by Davidson. The very next ball Davidson accounted for Ajitesh G who was caught in the covers by Antony Das. U Mukilesh came in for Nellai next and not only saved the hat-trick but also made 63. He was the only one who had some pluck to take on the Trichy attack.
Nellai captain Sonu Yadav was disappointed with his team's show.
"We lost too many wickets in the powerplay, which put us on the back foot. With the ball, we conceded 20-25 runs more than we should have at the back end. Losing wickets in the middle overs then made it difficult to accelerate during the chase," Sony said.
Put in to bat earlier, Trichy top order wobbled to some disciplined spin bowling by spinner Sachin Rathi who accounted for K Rajkumar, Bhavan and J Kousik.
Rathi led the charge in the opening phase, where he was unplayable at times. He bowled wicket to wicket subtle variations to test the batters footwork. In fact in the fourth over of the innings he picked up two wickets and the bowled a maiden over.
NS Harish was brought into the attack and he did not disappoint. He first dismissed Jafar Jammal and later had the dangerous Suresh caught and bowled of his own bowling, with a peach of a delivery.
Rajkumar then provided the late impetus, unleashing a flurry of attacking strokes to race to 45 runs with Trichy Grand Cholas ending up with 182 for 8 in 20 overs.
Brief scores: Trichy Grand Cholas 182/8 in 20 ovs (Suresh Kumar 58; Sachin Rathi 3/17) bt Nellai Royal Kings 137 in 18 ovs (Mukilesh 63; Athisayaraj Davidson 4/24).
