TNPL 2024: Dindigul wins maiden TNPL championship

CHENNAI: Dindigul Dragons thwarted the plans of Lyca Kovai Kings going for a three-peat and managed to pull-off a sensational win to lift its maiden TNPL trophy here at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.

The match had a 40-minute delayed start from the usual timings pertaining to rain, but that didn’t deter the plans of Dindigul bowlers who dominated the first innings.

After winning the toss, Dindigul opted to bowl first. And Kovai started off pretty decently, with openers S Sujay and Suresh Kumar smacking a few boundaries at the start of the powerplay.

But Sandeep Warrier got Dindigul its first breakthrough by picking the wicket of Suresh Kumar, who tried to play a pull but fell agonisingly short and Sarath Kumar tracked the ball going behind him over square and took his first catch. He went on to take three more in the game.

It was an all-round show from the Dindigul bowlers. Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy bowled a crucial final over of the powerplay, scalping the wicket of Sujay and U Mukilesh. And it was followed by the 19-year-old P Vignesh, dismissing the in-form Sai Sudharsan, who scored a century in the previous game and looked in good touch.

Ashwin was mindful in terms of rotating the bowlers and brought back Vignesh just in time to take the wicket of power hitter Shahrukh Khan in the 13th over.

Nobody scored 30 plus runs from Kovai, and the small 20-odd run contributions from Ram Arvindh and Atheeq Ur Raham help Kovai manage 129 runs on the board.

In return, Dindigul sent impact sub Shivam Singh to partner up with Vimal Khumar for the chase. But it didn’t work as they would’ve hoped as both of them got out within the span of the first three overs.

The batting duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Baba Indrajith were not in a rush and took their time in the middle of the crease to build a partnership of 65 runs before Indrajith fell to Shahrukh.

Ashwin scored his third consecutive half-century to help his team cross the line with six wickets and 10 balls to spare.

Brief scores: Lyca Kovai Kings 129/7 in 20 overs lost to Dindigul Dragons 131/4 in 18.2 overs (R Ashwin 52, B Indrajith 32)