Needing a win to qualify as the fourth team for the playoffs, Siechem Madurai Panthers pipped iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans by four runs in the seventh season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) at the India Cement Company ground here on Tuesday.
Madurai will face Nellai Royal Kings in the Eliminator at Salem on July 8.
With 17 needed for Tiruppur off the last over from left-arm medium-pacer Gurjapneet Singh, the team could only manage 12 twelve runs, with P Bhuvaneswaran hitting two boundaries.
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Madurai opener S. Lokeshwar scored 44 (37b, 3x4, 2x6), and added 68 runs for the first-wicket partnership with fellow-opener, skipper, and left-hander C. Hari Nishaanth (34, 27b, 3x4, 2x6) and 36 runs for the second-wicket with another left-hander V. Aaditya (37, 28b, 5x4) to help Madurai get to 160 for five.
The diminutive batter had batted in three matches and opened in two before Tuesday. He scored at a strike rate of 151.85 and hit his first six of the season in his last match versus Lyca Kovai Kings.
He hit two sixes - an imperious pull to deep midwicket boundary off a Trilok Nag short ball in the third over, a skip down the track for a straight hit off left-arm spinner S. Ajith Ram in the sixth over.
Tushar Raheja starred with a fifty (51, 41b, 6x4, 1x6) for Tiruppur including a six to the sweeper boundary off Gurjapneet Singh in the third over.
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