Opening salvo: Shivam cracked six fours and two sixes in his
| Photo Credit: G. Karthikeyan
DINDIGUL
Opener Shivam Singh (64, 49b, 6×4, 2×6) and skipper R. Ashwin (57, 35b, 4×4, 4×6) set up Dindigul Dragons’ four-wicket win over Chepauk Super Gillies in the eliminator of the eighth season of Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) at the NPR College cricket ground in Natham here on Wednesday.
They were involved in an 112-run second-wicket stand.
After opener Vimal Khumar (three) fell early, Ashwin hit four sixes and two fours in the PowerPlay for Dindigul as it reached 54 for one.
His long reach to the spinners came to the fore as he got off the mark with a long-on six off left-arm tweaker Rahil Shah and hit back-to-back maximums off left-arm spinner M. Silambarasan to extra cover and deep backward square leg. He capped off the PowerPlay with a classy clip off the pads for a four past midwicket off medium-pacer Prem Kumar.
Ashwin scored 57 off 35 balls.
| Photo Credit:
KARTHIKEYAN G
Shivam remarkably charged at Shah and timed an eye-catchy inside-out six. He simply held his ground and shape to slap a huge six to cow corner off slinger G. Periyaswamy.
Aparajith fires
Earlier, B. Aparajith scored 72 (54b, 8×4, 1×6) as Chepauk posted 158 for six. He was dropped on four by Varun Chakaravarthy at short third man off medium-pacer V.P. Diran. It was an easy chance.
But there was a fine fielding effort, when Shivam caught the in-form Pradosh Ranjan Paul (19) short of his crease at the non-striker’s end with a flat and accurate throw from deep backward square leg.
Aparajith remarkably paddle-swept Ashwin for a four and charged at left-arm spinner P. Vignesh for a boundary down the ground. In the first delivery of the final over, he creamed a slot ball off Sandeep Warrier for a six to long on.
Abhishek Tanwar’s three maximums in the end were also key for Chepauk to get past 150.
The scores (Eliminator): Chepauk Super Gillies 158/6 in 20 overs (Baba Aparajith 72) lost to Dindigul Dragons 161/6 in 19.5 overs (Shivam Singh 64, R. Ashwin 57).
