Thiruvallur Veerans downs Madurai Super Giants in thriller

Chasing 144 to win, Madurai Super Giants lost Ganapathi Vignesh in the fourth over with the score at 22. Varun Narender, who replaced K. B. Arun Karthik, along with Shijit Chandran then tried to steady the ship.

Madurai Super Giants self destructed in the final two overs of its chase, resulting in a brilliant come from behind win for Thiruvallur Veerans.

Thiruvallur Veerans grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat by registering a narrow six-run win over Madurai Super Giants in the Tamil Nadu Premier League, at the NPRCET grounds here on Monday. Earlier in the first innings, Thiruvallur Veerans, electing to bat first, posted 143 in the alloted 20 overs with N. S. Chaturved (42) and Sanjay Yadav (28) making telling contributions.

Chasing 144 to win, Madurai Super Giants lost Ganapathi Vignesh in the fourth over with the score at 22. Varun Narender, who replaced K. B. Arun Karthik, along with Shijit Chandran then tried to steady the ship. Shijit got a reprieve, when Rahil Shah claimed a catch which was disallowed, as Madurai Super Giants finished power play at 40 for one.

With asking rate hovering at just seven an over both Varun and Shijit did not take undue risks. They rotated the strike with the odd boundary, to bring the fifty-run partnership, as Madurai Super Giants was 74 for one at the half way mark.

With Varun Narender struggling to get a move on Shijit felt the pressure and was trapped in front by Jaganath Sinivas. Varun followed suit bowled by Lakshmi Narayanan as Madurai Super Giants was 91 for three. The Super Giants started to feel the pressure with two new batsman at the crease. A mix up led to the run out of Aswin Kumar. Only twenty eight runs came in the next five overs for the loss of three wickets.

Thiruvallur Veerans' bowlers bowled in the right areas to exert pressure. The asking rate went from seven after the tenth over to nine from the last four overs. With maximum players from the districts in the Madurai Super Giants, the inexperience was beginning to show. Boundaries dried up and both Suresh Kumar and Francis failed to rotate the strike as thirty three runs were needed in three overs.

Suresh Raina who had come to see the match after finishing his Duleep Trophy encounter, was witnessing a thriller unfold from the stands. Suresh Kumar smashed a six and a four of Abhishek Tanwar as twenty runs were needed of the last two overs. R. Rohit bowled a brilliant penultimate over taking the wickets of Suresh and Francis and giving only one run. Madurai Super Giants self destructed resulting in a brilliant come from behind win for Thiruvallur Veerans.