Natham: Tuti Patriots withstood a belligerent charge from Anthony Dhas to upstage Lyca Kovai Kings by six runs in a rain-affected Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) match at the NPR College ground, here on Thursday.
After Tuti Patriots rained a record number of sixes to post 155-5 in 13 overs, LKK lost three wickets in the first 10 balls. But Dhas made a bold bid for victory and between 7th and 12th over, clobbered seven sixes and two fours in a 26-ball blitz of 63 runs.
LKK, who were struggling at 62-4 in 6.1 overs, needing another 94 runs in 41 balls saw their hopes being ignited by Dhas\92 attacking strokeplay. The 31-year-old did not waste any time and went after Sivagnanan Senthilnathan\92s gentle medium-pace bowling by smacking two back-to-back sixes in the 8thover and followed it up by a hat-trick of sixes in the next over bowled Tuti Patriots’s captain Siva Subramania’s military medium pace. LKK\92s best bowler, pacer Tamil Kumaran (2-18) was also not spared as Dhas hit him for a six off the first ball but the bowler kept him quiet for the rest of the over.
After 10 overs, LKK’s score read 112-4, which was at par as Tuti Patriots (112-5) at that stage. Medium-pacer Athisayaraj Davidson was hit for two fours and a six off successive balls as Dhas completed his maiden fifty in TNPL off just 19 balls. Needing another 25 runs off 12 balls, the seasoned veteran S Vasantha Saravanan got the 2016 champions back into the match by inducing an edge off the dangerous Dhas to wicketkeeper M Kamalesh.
Tuti Patriots were in control of the proceedings once again with 20 needed for LKK to win and were assured of victory as 19 runs were needed off the last two balls but Jaganath Srinivas clouted two sixes to end the match in a flourish. It meant both teams had smacked 15 sixes each to set a pair of new records in TNPL history. The 30 sixes in the match was also a new record surpassing the 22 sixes hit in the game between VB Thiruvallur Veerans and Lyca Kovai Kings in 2017.
Brief scores:Tuti Patriots155-5 in 13 overs(Akshay V Srinivasan 31, V Subramania Siva 44, S Abishiek 20, Vasanth Saravanan 29 not out; Krishnamoorthy Vignesh 2-27, Anthony Dhas 3-42) beat Lyca Kovai Kings 149-7 in 13 overs (N Mohammed Ashik 19, Akkil Srinaath 32, W Antony Dhas 63; V Athisayaraj Davidson 2-32, D Tamil Kumaran 2-18, S Vasanth Saravanan 1-5) by six runs.