Batters win you games, but bowlers win you tournaments. In TNPL-10, Vida Kovai Kings proved it right as its potent bowling attack secured its third title in five years, beating Madurai Panthers by 82 runs in the final here on Friday.

The title decider began with a glitzy closing ceremony, and in the end, it was M. Shahrukh Khan’s men who shone brightly under lights.

Since 2022, Shahrukh has led the franchise to the summit clash on four occasions, underscoring its consistency. Despite a mega auction in between, the team managed to retain its core group of players while also adding some exciting talents.

Apart from the skipper, top-order batter B. Sachin and spinners M. Siddharth and Jhathavedh Subramanyan were part of the set-up which last won in 2023, and their experience proved handy in the end.

Sachin shouldered the batting load in the first part of the season, and once the others started to chip in, Kovai Kings’ bowling attack could bundle out opponents easily.

As far as the tournament as a whole is concerned, one criticism it faced in recent years was that the pitches were not conducive for high-scoring games, which in turn affected the batters’ development in the shortest format.

Although the competition was played at only two venues this year, the surfaces were batting-friendly and saw the most runs scored in a single edition.

Amongst youngsters, the biggest positive was the emergence of pacer D. Deepesh, who clocked speeds in excess of 140 kph. The 18-year-old’s rise should excite TN ahead of the domestic season.

Since its third SMAT title in 2021, TN’s fortunes in T20 cricket have dipped drastically, and it has failed to qualify for the knockouts ever since. As the State team looks to regain its footing at the National level, it remains to be seen if some of the performers in the league can deliver at a bigger stage.

Awards: Highest wicket-taker: Deeban Lingesh (Kovai Kings); Highest run-scorer: B. Sachin (Kovai Kings); Most dependable player: Deeban Lingesh (Kovai Kings); Player-of-the-Tournament: B. Sachin (Kovai Kings).

Andre Siddarth celebrated his 20th birthday in style, smashing a stunning 47-ball 82 (7×4, 5×6) to power Vida Kovai Kings to its third TNPL title with a 84-run win over Madurai Panthers in the summit clash at the MAC Stadium on Friday.

It was a remarkable turnaround for M. Shahrukh Khan’s men, who had just one win from the first four games before stringing together five consecutive victories to emerge triumphant in the 10th edition.

Electing to bat, Kovai Kings made 182 for seven, riding on a 117-run stand for the third wicket between Andre and B. Sachin.

After openers S. Radhakrishnan and S. Lokeshwar got the team off to a breezy start, Andre maintained the momentum by playing some stylish strokes. The tall youngster, blessed with a great sense of timing, cut and punched through square elegantly.

Andre had a slice of luck when he was dropped on 44 by ‘keeper Ramkumar off Rohan Bhutra, and he gleefully accepted the birthday gift by bringing up his half-century in 34 deliveries.

He then cut loose, first going after pacer G. Periyasamy, picking his slower deliveries early and depositing them over the ropes for a brace of maximums. He then did the same to Rohan in the next over, racing into the 70s. Though Panthers pulled things back in the last five overs through P. Saravanan’s four for 30, Andre and Sachin had by then done enough to get a competitive score on board.

Chasing 183, Panthers’ chase went awry immediately after pacer Deeban Lingesh and spinner M. Siddharth sent back the openers in the first two overs. N.S. Chaturved and V. Hari Ragavendra tried to rebuild the innings, but the latter was run-out attempting a needless single in the final over of the PowerPlay.

From there, Jhathavedh Subramanyan and Shahrukh broke through the middle-order and bowled their side to glory.

The scores: Vida Kovai Kings 182/7 in 20 overs (B. Sachin 39, Andre Siddarth 82, P. Saravanan 4/30) bt Madurai Panthers 98 in 14.2 overs (N.S. Chaturved 40, Deeban Lingesh 2/30, M. Siddharth 3/18, Shahrukh Khan 3/10).

Player-of-the-final: Andre Siddarth. Player-of-the-tournament: B. Sachin.

Well begun is half done. Madurai Panthers established itself as the side to watch out for in TNPL-10 by winning its first four games.

Though there was a stumble after that, Panthers closed out the league stage strongly with a 72-run thrashing of Nellai Royal Kings to finish top of the table. That proved vital as it helped the Madurai side reach the final after its Qualifier 1 against second-placed Trichy Grand Cholas was washed out.

Panthers will now look to fulfil that early-season promise when it takes on Vida Kovai Kings in the summit clash at the MAC Stadium here on Friday.

B. Anirudh Sita Ram’s men have shown great tenacity to conjure victories from tough situations. The former champion’s campaign has been a case of the team being greater than the sum of its parts.

Its top-two run scorers — Atheeq Ur Rahman and N.S. Chaturved — are ninth and 11th on the chart while none of its bowlers is among the top-10 wicket-takers. Unlike the panthers in the wild, this Madurai outfit has worked effectively as a collective.

Like Panthers, Kovai Kings also benefited from a washout to advance out of the Eliminator clash against iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans based on league standings.

The side’s strength has been its potent bowling line-up led by pacers Deeban Lingesh and G. Kishoor while M. Siddharth and Jhathavedh Subramanyan form a formidable spin combo. On the batting front, Kovai Kings have been over-reliant on B. Sachin. But fortunately for the Coimbatore unit, opener S. Lokeshwar and skipper M. Shahrukh Khan have found form in recent outings.

It could come down to the battle between Panthers’ batting depth and Kovai Kings’ varied bowling attack in what promises to be an intriguing finale.

A confident Madurai Panthers skipper B. Anirudh Sita Ram revealed that the team’s pre-auction work in identifying the right talent came to fruition in TNPL-10. He was speaking ahead of the title decider against Vida Kovai Kings on Friday.

“We knew that to win a tournament we needed the players to perform as a team, not as individuals. Going back [in the past few years], we had many individual talents. But as a team, we couldn’t cross that line. This year, we looked to fix those issues and bring in talent who could step up right away. In every game, we could see a new performer get us through,” said Anirudh.

Meanwhile, Kovai Kings captain M. Shahrukh Khan was pleased with how his side had come good in the business end of the competition. After just one victory in its first four games, the two-time champion won its final three league matches to qualify for the playoffs.

“We have been doing the same thing from the start. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. But the most important thing is to follow what we have planned and do it as consistently as possible. Soon we are bound to get results. We have been keeping at it, and fortunately, we have been peaking at the right time,” said Shahrukh.

Vida Kovai Kings progressed to Qualifier 2 of the TNPL after its Eliminator against iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans was washed out at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Monday.

Kovai Kings and Tamizhans were placed third and fourth on the table, with both teams on eight points. But Kovai Kings had the superior Net Run Rate of 1.638, compared to Tamizhans’ -0.013, and thus advanced to the next stage.

The match had promised intriguing battles, with the Shahrukh Khan-led side boasting the tournament’s two most economical bowlers in left-arm spinner M. Siddharth (nine wickets at 5.46) and leggie Jhathavedh Subramanyan (13 at 6.29).

Tamizhans’ openers Amith Sathvik (striking at 212.74) and left-hander Tushar Raheja (193.08) arrived as the competition’s two fastest-scoring batters.

Kovai Kings’ pace duo of Deeban Lingesh (12) and G. Kishoor (10) had also been among the wickets, providing further edge to the Eliminator.

Asked to bat, Tamizhans made an unusually sedate start, reaching 15 without loss in three overs before a heavy downpour brought play to a halt.

Deeban, bowling with the wicketkeeper standing up to the stumps, and Siddharth kept things tight, denying the openers the kind of start they had become accustomed to this season.

The scores: iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans 15/0 in three overs vs. Vida Kovai Kings. Match called off due to rain.

Wednesday’s match (Qualifier 2): Trichy Grand Cholas vs. Vida Kovai Kings (7.30 p.m.).

A special occasion demanded special performances.

In the 100th Tamil Nadu Premier League match hosted at the NPR College ground here, top-order batter B. Sachin (77, 45b, 6×4, 4×6) and leg-spinner Jhathavedh Subramanyan (4-0-10-3) joined the party as Vida Kovai Kings thumped Trichy Grand Cholas by 116 runs on Saturday.

Chasing 202, Grand Cholas were jolted early as medium-pacer Deeban Lingesh sent back skipper-opener J. Suresh Kumar for a duck in the first over. Left-arm spinner M. Siddharth dismissed Shyam Sundar, the centurion from the previous game, before Deeban returned to castle J. Kousik.

Kovai Kings went from strength to strength, with Jhathavedh disturbing Bhavan Suriya’s furniture to leave Grand Cholas reeling at 40 for four in the daunting chase.

Opener K. Rajkumar (32) was handed a reprieve in the eighth over when C. Andre Siddarth put him down at long-on off Prashid Akash. The debutant, however, found joy as he ended Jafar Jamal’s stay soon after.

Jhathavedh came back to remove K. Rajkumar, who could not capitalise on his ‘life’, and Antony Dhas to have the Trichy outfit staring down the barrel at 59 for seven.

R.S. Ambrish soon joined in the celebration, dismissing R. Rajkumar and Ganesh Moorthi as Shahrukh Khan’s Kovai Kings finally broke free of their three-match losing streak. Earlier, after the Kovai side was asked to bat, Sachin held the innings together while finding an able ally in Madhava Prasad (38 n.o.). The pair added 75 off 43 balls for the sixth wicket as Kovai Kings went past the 200-mark.

The scores: Vida Kovai Kings 201/6 in 20 overs (B. Sachin 77, Madhava Prasad 38 n.o., K. Easwaran 2/41) bt Trichy Grand Cholas 85 in 16.1 overs (K. Rajkumar 32, K. Deeban Lingesh 3/24, Jhathavedh Subramanyan 3/10, R.S. Ambrish 2/22).

The weather gods briefly halted the proceedings in the battle between the Kings at the NPR College Ground on Thursday.

But once the rain relented, S. Rithik Easwaran weathered the Vida Kovai Kings storm with a sensational 69 off 31 balls (4×4, 6×6), helping Nellai Royal Kings overcome a mid-innings wobble and win by two wickets in a Tamil Nadu Premier League thriller.

The Royal Kings’ 163-run chase stuttered at the start as left-arm spinner M. Siddharth struck in the second over, dismissing Santhosh Kumar.

Deeban Lingesh removed the other opener, S.R. Athish, in the third over before G. Ajitesh and U. Mukilesh looked to repair the damage. Ajitesh smashed G. Kishoor for a six but was caught off the very next ball in the eighth over, the pacer holding a sharp return catch to break a 38-run stand.

Mukilesh soon followed him to the dugout while Jhathavedh Subramanyan castled debutant Sachin Sre Dev as the Nellai outfit slipped to 92 for five. Deeban piled more misery, striking twice in the 17th over and leaving Royal Kings in trouble.

Rithik, however, refused to throw in the towel. With 17 needed off the final over, he smacked Kishoor for two huge sixes before Sachin Rathi scampered through for a bye to seal a dramatic victory with a ball to spare.

Earlier, V. Yudheeswaran’s three for 25 and Rathi’s two for 30 kept the Kovai side in check.

In the other match, Shyam Sundar’s unbeaten 104 (57b, 8×4, 7×6) set up Trichy Grand Cholas’ 17-run win over iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans. Opener Tushar Raheja’s 87, his third half-century of the edition, went in vain.

The scores: Vida Kovai Kings 162/9 in 20 overs (B. Sachin 42, Emmanuel Cherian 2/37, Sachin Rathi 2/30, V. Yudheeswaran 3/25) lost to Nellai Royal Kings 163/8 in 19.5 overs (S. Rithik Easwaran 69, Deeban Lingesh 3/41, G. Kishoor 3/32). Trichy Grand Cholas 196/6 in 20 overs (K. Rajkumar 37, Shyam Sundar 104 n.o., T. Natarajan 2/32) bt iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans 179/8 in 20 overs (Tushar Raheja 87, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 44, Athisayaraj Davidson 2/24, K. Easwaran 3/24, Sanjay Yadav 2/28).

Friday’s matches: SKM Salem Spartans vs. Dindigul Dragons, 3.30 p.m.; Madurai Panthers vs. Chepauk Super Gillies, 7.30 p.m.

Jhathavedh Subramanyan has been putting in the overs. Lots of them.

Since he began working with R. Ashwin around August last year, the Vida Kovai Kings leg-spinner has been bowling “20 to 25 overs” in a session, experimenting with his action and trying to make his leg-break a bigger weapon.

“I was doing a bit more volume. The thing about doing volume is that the more repetitions you do, the more avenue there is for experimentation,” he said at the TNPL here on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old has made a noticeable change to his load-up, gathering the ball closer to his body.

“That’s helped me rip the leg-break a little bit more without hampering the amount of turn for my googly. And it’s helped me get the ball more over the stumps,” he said.

The change is significant for a bowler whose googly had previously been his bigger turning delivery. He regarded his dismissal of the marauding N.S. Chaturved against Madurai Panthers as the best example. He outfoxed TNPL’s fastest centurion with a leg-break that the batter charged down to be stumped.

“It was a leg-break that turned almost five degrees. In previous seasons, I was turning my googly a lot,” he said.

For Jhathavedh, working with Ashwin remains special.

“I was really enjoying those sessions. There’s a lot of fun and a lot of smiling, which is very important, because, of course, as we all know, he has a great sense of humour.

“As a kid growing up in Hong Kong (his country of birth, which he’s represented), it was an absolute dream to meet Ashwin in the first place, and now to have him as my coach is incredible,” he said.

Shahrukh Khan, captain of two-time TNPL champion Kovai Kings, expressed confidence in delivering a good show in the 10th edition.

The Kovai franchise finished sixth last year, failing to advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2021. But the skipper believed that the team, playing under a new ownership and rebranded as Vida Kovai Kings, had all the ingredients to put up a much better performance.

“I always try to pick a young team, and we’ve done that this year as well. There’s a new face to the franchise with new owners. We all feel that we have a team which can qualify. After that, it is just one game at a time,” said Shahrukh at the jersey unveiling event on Tuesday.

A settled core of players helped Kings win the title in 2022 (shared with Chepauk Super Gillies) and 2023 and led them to a runner-up finish in 2024.

Having lost some of his key members at last year’s auction, Shahrukh said that the side was focused on rebuilding its nucleus. The core is set to include R.S. Ambrish, who was part of the India under-19 World Cup-winning squad earlier in the year.

“Yeah, it’s good to have people from u-19s come and play. They’ve seen the pressure. They’ve played finals in u-19s. Obviously, this pressure is a bit more than what it is there. But still, these guys respond well to any situation that’s given to them,” Shahrukh remarked.