K.B. Arun Karthick (32, 12b, 4x4, 2x6) and Nidhish Rajagopal (42, 26b, 1x4, 4x6) steered Nellai Royal Kings to a six-wicket win over Siechem Madurai Panthers in the TNPL at the Sri Ramakrishna CAS grounds here on Wednesday.
Earlier, Panthers chose to bat. But, it failed to go according to its plan as the Kings had opener S. Karthick and Deeban Lingesh inside the first six overs.
But skipper C. Hari Nishaanth, who watched it all happen, first forged a bond with Washington Sundar and later went on the hunt.
He knew it was his responsibility to steady the ship and he did that with an assured knock of 64 (51b, 4x4, 3x6).
Nishaanth demonstrated the sort of confidence that one often sees him play on this surface here. He stitched a 49-run stand for the third wicket with Sundar and continued to lead the fight with a 30-run partnership with J. Kousik which came off 25 balls to lead the recovery.
However, when Nishaanth fell to left-arm spinner S. Mohan Prasath (three for 26), the best of the bowlers, the sparkle was lost and the team managed a meagre 126 for eight.
It was not enough as the Kings’ openers Arun Karthick and Impact Player R. Sri Neranjan scored faster as usual in the PowerPlay. After they fell in quick succession, Nidhish took over and saw the team cross the line with comfort.
No sweat
In the second match of the day, Dindigul Dragons defeated Ba11sy Trichy by six wickets. Dragons, which boasts of a star-studded line-up, had no problems in overcoming a target of 121 set by the Trichy team.
Though Dragons lost an early wicket, Shivam Singh (46, 30b, 6x4, 3x6) and B. Indrajith mixed caution with aggression and added 60 for the second wicket to set up the platform for the win.
Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy (three for 21) was the pick of the bowlers for Dragons.
The scores:
Siechem Madurai Panthers 126/8 in 20 overs (C. Hari Nishaanth 64, Mohan Prasath 3/26, Sonu Yadav 2/26, M. Poiyamozhi 2/17) lost to Nellai Royal Kings 129/4 in 13.4 overs (K.B. Arun Karthick 32, Nidhish S. Rajagopal 42 n.o.).
Ba11sy Trichy 120 in 19.1 overs (Ganga Sridhar Raju 48, R. Rajkumar 39, Saravana Kumar 2/17, R. Ashwin 2/26, Subodh Bhati 2/8, Varun Chakravarthy 3/21) lost to Dindigul Dragons 122/4 in 14.5 overs (Shivam Singh 46).
