Dindigul Dragons beat Madurai Panthers to reach maiden TNPL final
Dindigul Dragons beat Siechem Madurai Panthers to reach their maiden TNPL final. After being put into bat, Dragons posted the highest total at Dindigul in TNPL history and only the third 200+ plus total in the competition's history. That was always going to be a tough task for the Panthers who never quite got going and remain winless against Dindigul in the TNPL.
Chasing 204 for victory, Madurai needed to get off to a flyer. Although KB Arun Karthik hit a six off the first ball of the innings, he got out soon after that. A difficult task quickly became impossible as they lost their top three inside four overs.
They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and it was only thanks to some late hits from Abhishek Tanwar that they crossed 100. Eventually, they were bowled out for 128 as the Dragons comfortably got over the line by 75 runs to qualify for the TNPL 2018 final in style.
After being put into bat, Dindigul openers Hari Nishaanth and captain N Jagadeesan took it upon themselves to ensure that Madurai made the wrong call at the toss. They already put on 67 inside the power play and the partnership was eventually broken on 90 off the first ball of the 10th over.
But not before Hari Nishaanth scored a fifty and set the ideal platform for Vivek, who came in at No.3. Although the Dragons skipper fell nine short of a fifty, Vivek got his after muscling several balls out of the park and getting to the mark in just 24 balls.
No matter who got out, the Dindigul batsmen merely kept on clearing the ropes at will. The penultimate over that saw three wickets fall for nine runs looked to have changed that but the innings ended with three successive boundaries from Rohit R as Dindigul became the first team to cross 200 in this year's TNPL.
That eventually proved to be too much for Madurai, who will have another bite at the cherry as they face the winner of the clash between Kovai and Karaikudi for a spot in the final.
Brief Scores: Dindigul Dragons 203/6 in 20 overs (Hari Nishaanth 57, R Vivek 54, N Jagadeesan 43, Jaganath Sinivas 3/42) beat Siechem Madurai Panthers 128 all out in 19.3 overs ( Abhishek Tanwar 28, M Mohammed 3/16, Trilok Nag 2/17, M Abhinav 2/26) by 75 runs.
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