M. Mohammed’s captaincy was spot on, the bowling changes working like magic. Defending just 130, iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans kept striking blows to the strong Siechem Madurai Panthers’ innings for an against-the-odds 53-run win in their TNPL clash at the SCF Stadium on Wednesday night.
Madurai Panthers, that chose to field, was rocked at the beginning of the chase on a tricky pitch of inconsistent bounce. Mohammed swung one in to rearrange Vignesh Iyer’s stumps.
And B. Anirudh played on attempting to cut Aswin Crist, sharp and on target; the delivery was too close to Anirudh’s body for the stroke.
Soon, Madurai captain N.S. Chaturved was removed by an arm ball from left-armer S. Mohan Prasath.
Crist, brought back into the attack, struck again, with K.B. Arun Karthick getting a leading edge to a delivery that darted in. S. Aravind completed a running catch from covers.
At 30 for four, Madurai was in trouble. Things went from bad to worse when R. Easwaran was held at the mid-wicket fence off Prasath’s flighted delivery.
Mohammed was making all the right moves.
He then brought back S. Manigandan and the promising leg-spinner struck with a leg-break defeating J. Kousik’s wild swipe.
There was no comeback for Madurai after that.
Earlier, a fighting unbeaten knock by the left-handed Maan K. Bafna (40 not out, 34b, 3x4, 1x6) took Tamizhans to 129 for seven.
Bafna utilised the extra pace of the exciting R. Silambarasan for the ramp shot and the upper cut, slog-swept Varun Chakravarthy, and dumped a slower ball from seamer Kiran Akash over mid-wicket for the maximum.
Kiran, who moves the ball away, otherwise had a profitable outing with three scalps; removing S. Anirudha with one that pitched middle and hit off, and dismissed big-hitter R. Rajkumar with a slower one.
And, later in the innings, Kiran castled the smooth-stroking S. Suresh Kumar with a change of pace.
Bafna, though, kept Tamizhans in the hunt. And the bowlers rose to the occasion.
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