CHENNAI: An unbeaten 65 by Pradosh Ranjan Paul and a captain’s knock of 48 by Tushar Raheja propelled Tiruppur Tamizhans to defeat Madurai Panthers by four wickets in the Tamil Nadu Premier League on Thursday evening. Later, Salem Spartans lost to Nellai Royals Kings by five wickets with both openers D Santhosh Kumar (50) and Athish SR (50) hitting fifties. Rahil Shah took three wickets but it was not enough to stop Nellai from getting over the line.
Earlier, Pradosh added 47 runs for the third wicket with Tushar. Then, he added 38 runs with S Ganesh for the sixth wicket which came in handy for Tiruppur. Finally with Mathivanan, who was struggling to play the Madurai bowlers, Pradosh managed an unbeaten stand worth 31 runs off 17 balls. When four runs were needed for a win, Pradosh hooked a short one from D Deepesh to fine leg for a six and win the match in style.
Put into bat, Madurai Panthers, who were the table-toppers had a disastrous start. Siddharth Mahadevan, NS Chaturved and B Anirudh fell in quick succession. Tushar Raheja, skipper of Tiruppur's ploy of opening with T Natarajan and R Silambarasan worked. The left-right new ball pair of Tiruppur tested the footwork of Madurai openers Ramkumar and Siddharth.
Soon, spinners Mohan Prashanth (2/27) and Mathivannan (3/18) called the shots and Madurai were in dire straits at 76/7in 12.1 overs. Atheeq Ur Rahman (43) and Rohan Bhutra (36) combined admirably and raised 73 runs for the eighth wicket in 42 balls. This helped Madurai post a respectable score.
In the second match, having restricted Salem to 140/7, where Hari Nishaanth was the top-scorer (36), Nellai cruised past them to end up on top of the table. Salem, on the other hand, linger in the bottom with six losses in as many matches this season.
Brief scores: Madurai Panthers 157 for 9 in 20 ovs (R Ramkumar 25, Atheeq Ur Rahman 43, Rohan Bhutra 36, M Mathivanan 3/18) lost to Tiruppur Thamizhans 160 for 6 in 17.4 ovs (Tushar Raheja 48, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 65 n.o., Shoaib Md Kham 4/21); Salem Spartans 140/7 in 20 ovs (Hari Nishanth 36, R Vivek 29, M Eshwar 31, Emmanuel Cherian 3/22) lost to Nellai Royal Kings 146/5 in 16.1 ovs (D Santhosh Kumar 50, Athish SR 50, Rahil Shah 3/13).
