Madurai Panthers registers its third straight win

Kanchi Veerans falls short by 11 runs.

Thalaivan Sargunam top-scored for Madurai Panthers with 62.

Siechem Madurai Panthers beat VB Kanchi Veerans by 11 runs for its third successive win in the Sankar Cement-TNPL at the NPR CET grounds in Natham on Wednesday.

Chasing 168, Veerans lost Subramania Siva early. Vishal Vaidhya and skipper Aparajith helped their team progress steadily, putting on 55 runs off 46 balls for the second wicket. But after their dismissal, the asking rate kept climbing. R.S. Mokit Hariharan and Sanjay Yadav tried their best to push the scoring rate but the target proved too steep.

Earlier, K. Deeban Lingesh provided the early breakthrough for Veerans dismissing the in-form K.B. Arun Karthick off the second ball of the match. But, an 89-run partnership off 64 balls between D. Rohit, the other opener, and X. Thalaivan Sargunam (62, 40b, 1x4, 7x6) provided an excellent platform for Panthers.

Veerans could have dismissed Sargunam on 12 had Sanjay Yadav held on to a chance at deep mid-wicket. Sargunam made most of the reprieve and pressed on the accelerator. Clearing the boundary at will, he scored his half-century off 33 balls.

Rohit provided good support from the other end as Panthers looked set to post a big total. However, R. Divakar broke the partnership when he dismissed Rohit in the 11th over. R. Aushik Srinivas got the big wicket of Sargunam in the 14th over with the score on 111.

The dismissal dented the scoring rate of Panthers as it could manage only 148 for eight at the end of 19 overs. Abhishek Tanwar hit three sixes off the final over bowled by Sunil Sam to help Panthers post 167. Lingesh and Divakar scalped three wickets each.

• Siechem Madurai Panthers 167 for eight in 20 overs (D. Rohit 32, X. Thalaivan Sargunam 62, J. Kousik 27, K. Deeban Lingesh three for 29, R. Divakar three for 25, R. Aushik Srinivas two for 30) bt VB Kanchi Veerans 156 for six in 20 overs (Vishal Vaidhya 31, Aparajith 29, R.S. Mokit Hariharan 34, Sanjay Yadav 34 n.o., Abhishek Tanwar two for 40, J. Kousik two for 31).