Salem Spartans record first win of the season

The Salem Spartans edged past Ba11sy Trichy by five wickets at the NPR College of Engineering and Technology Cricket Ground, Dindigul, on Sunday.

After a successful Coimbatore phase, the Shriram Capital Tamil Nadu Premier League 2023 moved to Dindigul, where the first match happened between Salem Spartans and Ba11sy Trichy.

Ba11sy Trichy had a forgettable start to the innings after opting to bat first. Abhishek Tanwar, who took the new ball for the Salem Spartans, provided the breakthrough in the first over. He dismissed Jafar Jamal with a fuller-length delivery near the off-stump. Jamal tried to clear the midfield, only to find Sachin Rathi.

Sunny Sandhu also began well with the ball, giving away just four runs in the second over. Both the bowlers kept things tight, and as a result, V Ganga Sridhar Raju fell to Sandhu in the 4th over. Tanwar, on the other hand, bowled a maiden over to reduce Ba11sy Trichy to 9/2 in their five overs.

Sachin Rathi was the first bowling change for the day, and Francis Rokins took full advantage of the same. He smashed Rathi for back-to-back sixes.

K Mani Bharathy joined Rokins and launched Akash Sumra's delivery over the fence. When Ba11sy Trichy began to recover from an early hiccup, R Karthikeyan brought the Salem Spartans back into the game by dismissing Francis Rokins for 16. Despite his dismissal, Bharathy kept the scoreboard ticking.

The wicketkeeper got out after making the team's top score of 33-ball-40. Daryl S Ferrario played an excellent cameo of 16-ball-29 to take Ba11sy Trichy to 139/9 in their 20 overs.

Led by Abhishek Tanwar, the Salem Spartans' bowlers were outstanding today. The captain ended his four overs with 3/9, including a maiden over and a stunning high catch. Along with Sunny Sandhu (2/27), he provided the necessary momentum for the Salem Spartans.

Chasing 140 to win, the Salem Spartans had a flying start to their innings. Despite losing a couple of wickets, they scored 50 runs in their six overs.

VP Amith Sathvik and Akash Sumra did not score much in the first two overs. However, they smashed 15 runs in T Natarajan's second over to make up for dot deliveries. K Easwaran gave the first breakthrough for Ba11sy Trichy by dismissing Sumra in the 4th over.

Maan K Bafna walked in next and took on G Godson. He smashed a six and a four in G. Godson's over, which was also the final over of the powerplay. Godson bounced back well and dismissed Sathvik for 22 in the same over. He also got rid of Bafna (16 off 10) in the first delivery of his next over.

Since there was no scoreboard pressure, the Salem Spartans kept things simple in the middle overs. They made 87/3 at the 10-over mark.

RS Mokit Hariharan was the next wicket to fall. The all-rounder tried to slog sweep Godson's delivery but failed to clear the fielder in the deep mid-wicket. He made 15 from 14 balls.

S Abishiek, the impact player for the Salem Spartans, joined M Kaushik Gandhi in the middle when the team needed less than a run-a-ball.

M Kaushik Gandhi seemed like he wanted to end things early as he smashed three consecutive sixes off Antony Dhas and got to his half-century in style. He remained unbeaten at 52 (32).

When the team needed four runs to win, Abishiek tried for a big shot but found V Ganga Sridhar Raju. He made 6 of 8 passes to Easwaran, the impact player for Ba11sy Trichy.

Muhammad Adnan Khan then finished the innings with a boundary to help the Salem Spartans win their first game of the TNPL 2023.

Gandhi spoke after the win and said, "Winning this game has given us a lot of confidence. We will look to perform similarly in the upcoming matches as well. I'm glad to have crossed 1500 runs in the TNPL. Since I've been playing since the first season, I got here".

Ba11sy Trichy captain V Ganga Sridhar Raju said, "Since the chasing team found it difficult in the last game, we chose to bat first, but our batters didn't understand the condition well and failed to perform well." We will get over this loss and bounce back".

Salem Spartans captain Abhishek Tanwar said, "Last game didn't work well for me, but today I was able to contribute. I'm happy. Since there was a chance for rain, we pushed M Kaushik Gandhi down the order, and he performed well for us".

(Image and Match Report courtesy TNPL)