Dindigul: Lyca Kovai Kings defeated iDream Karaikudi Kaalai by 24 runs in a low-scoring Eliminator at the NPR College ground in Natham (Dindigul) on Thursday, and will meet Siechem Madurai Panthers in Qualifier 2 at the same venue on Friday, 10 August, in the 2018 Sankar Cement-TNPL.
The winner of Qualifier 2 will travel to Chennai for the final against Dindigul Dragons to be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, 12 August.
Chasing 138 to win, Karaikudi Kaalai lost their captain and batting mainstay S Anirudha for 11 (10b, 2×4) in the third over that triggered off a collapse as the side went from 14/0 to 23/4.
Maan K Bafna 40 (38b,2×4,2×6) tried his best to keep Karaikudi Kaalai alive but failed to get sufficient support.
For Kovai Kings, medium-pacers T Natarajan (4-24) and K Vignesh (3-19) excelled. Earlier, put in to bat, Kovai Kings began with an opening-wicket stand of 34 runs. Captain Abhinav Mukund 51 (46b, 4×4, 1×6) waged a lone battle while the middle-order capitulated. Medium-pacer R Rajkumar picked up 4-30 for Karaikudi Kaalai before Kovai Kings, with useful contributions from the lower middle-order, reached 137/8 in 20 overs.
“I thought it was a really good pitch but the scores don’t say so. That is the beauty of a playoff. I was looking for something around 150-160 as we were losing wickets. Today our bowlers stood up and picking up four wickets in the powerplay was the key. Vignesh is taking the load of bowling with the new ball and that gives us an option to use Natarajan later. Sleep, recover and back tomorrow,” said Man of the match and captain of Kovai Kings, Abhinav Mukund.
Losing captain Anirudha felt that for the first time in the tournament, his side’s middle order was exposed. “we were found wanting. It was definitely not a 137 wicket. We just batted poorly, one shot after the other,” he said.
In the other playoff, Dindigul Dragons routed Madurai to advance to the finals for the first time. I am very happy about playing in the final because in the last two seasons we failed to qualify for the final and this year we have a very good team with many talented players and playing extremely well. We have great support also, so we are very happy,” said R Vivek.
Dindigul’s fast bowler M Mohammed said “R Ashwin messaged the team management asking us to play motivated in Qualifier 1 and we did. We will look at repeating the performance in the final.”