TNPL 2023: Kaushik Gandhi half-century guides Salem Spartans to five-wicket win over Ba11sy Trichy

Kaushik Gandhi scored a match-winning half-century and helped Salem Spartans beat Ba11sy Trichy in a Tamil Nadu Premier League match.

Kaushik Gandhi plays a shot. (File Photo) | Photo Credit: Periasamy M

Kaushik Gandhi’s unbeaten 52 (32b, 3x4, 3x6) helped Salem Spartans chase down a target of 139 and register a five-wicket win over Ba11sy Trichy in a Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) match at the NPR College cricket ground in Natham on Sunday.

He hit three successive sixes in the penultimate over of the match off Antony Dhas to seal the run chase.

It had drizzled, was cloudy, and there was a bit of moisture on the pitch. So, it was surprising when Ba11sy Trichy captain V. Ganga Sridhar Raju won the toss and opted to bat on seemingly bowling-friendly conditions.

There was a bit of swing and seam movement, and remarkable bounce throughout the match. And Trichy’s R. Rajkumar and Salem’s Amith Sathvik who opened in this match concurred that the pitch was slow throughout.

As all these details indicate, batting was hard and Trichy failed to stitch together partnerships, as Rajkumar pointed out post-match as the main cause for the loss, after it posted a paltry total of 139 for nine.

Salem’s new-ball bowlers Abhishek Tanwar and Sunny Sandhu effectively used the movement off the pitch as Trichy posted 22 for two in the PowerPlay.

Rajendran Karthikeyan was remarkable with the ball as the off-spinner bowled well. There’s been better average swing in this day match in Dindigul (1.5 degree) than there had been in the day matches in Coimbatore (0.8 degree).

The scores: Ba11sy Trichy 139/9 in 20 overs (Mani Bharathi 40, Daryl Ferrario 29, Abhishek Tanwar 3/9, Sunny Sandhu 2/27, Rajendran Karthikeyan 2/27) lost to Salem Spartans 143/5 in 15.2 overs (Kaushik Gandhi 52 n.o., K. Easwaran 2/22, G. Godson 3/34).

Dindigul Dragons beats Siechem Madurai Panthers 

Baba Indrajith smashed an unbeaten 78 (48b, 7x4, 4x6) and was engaged in an unbeaten 92-run fourth-wicket partnership with Adithya Ganesh (22, 22b, 1x4, 1x6) as Dindigul Dragons beat Siechem Madurai Panthers by seven wickets with 35 balls to spare in the second match of the day that witnessed a near-capacity crowd.

At 32 for three in 3.4 overs, Dindigul looked to be in a spot of bother when the partnership happened. The highlight of Indrajith’s innings and the stand was the 26 runs that Indrajith took off the 12th over, the only over bowled by Washington Sundar.

Indrajith struck three sixes in that over - one over deep midwicket, one straight-hit, and one over deep cover.

There were two spectacular catches in the match - Dindigul’s Shivam Singh diving to his right at the slip, Madurai’s M. Ashwin running back and completing a diving catch.

The scores: Siechem Madurai Panthers 123 in 19.3 overs (J. Kousik 45, Saravana Kumar 3/22, Suboth Bhati 3/19, Varun Chakravarthy 2/23) lost to Dindigul Dragons 124/3 in 14.1 overs (Gurjapneet Singh 3/18, Baba Indrajith 78 n.o).