Patriots off to a winning start

After posting an imposing 184 in 20 overs, Patriots restricted Dragons to 177 in 20 overs. A stellar show of batting by R Vivek (36 off 13 balls, 2x4, 3x6) wasn’t enough as Dragons succumbed at the death.

Chasing 185, Dragons got off to a horrid start losing N Jagadeesan in the third over. His start looked promising when he carted Washington over the cow corner for six but soon to a good catch at deep midwicket off the same bowler.

Subramania Siva and Murugan Ashwin couldn’t get going too as Dragons fell behind the asking rate. Skipper Ashwin Venkatraman (26 off 17) and Ganga Sridhar Raju stitched a 60 run partnership for the fourth wicket in seven overs but once Ashwin departed, it became tough for the Dragons to bounce back.

Earlier, Patriots got off to a good start with Washington and Kaushik Gandhi making the most of a good batting wicket. It was the fifth over of the Patriots innings that opened the floodgates when Kaushik and Washington scored 18 runs off Ashwin. That set the momentum as Tuti scored 67 in the powerplay.

Kaushik was the first to depart when M S Sanjay pulled off an acrobatic effort at backward point. Washington, meanwhile, raced to his 50 in 36 balls but was dismissed when he tried an upper cut only to pouch it to the keeper Jagadessan. The Patriots scored 46 runs in the last five overs.

Brief scores: Tuti Patriots 184/4 in 20 overs (Washington Sundar 69, Kaushik Gandhi 46) beat Dindigul Dragons 177/7 in 20 overs (Ganga Sridhar Raju 66, Washington Sundar 3/34)