Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Been watching a bit of this now that I am off for the Summer holidays.

Is very much the little brother to the IPL but some decent names in there - some for the future, some from the distant past.

I tipped Natarajan for success at this year's IPL....and he went on to not feature at all.

However he is doing very well in this tournament again. Today his team, Lyca Kovai beat Ruby Trichy by 26 runs. Nattarajan's 4-33 played a big part in this.

After my extensive coverage of this in 2019 I thought I'd dust the old thread off the 2021 tournament.

We are 6 games in and have two more teams this year in the form of Nellai Royal Kings and Salem Spartans...both of whom won today.

Kovai and Salem are the early pace setters with one win from 2 - they were scheduled to play each other in the first game but it was abandoned after the first innings.

Kovai boast the highest run scorer in the form of 19 year old debutant Sai Sudharsan who scored 87 in that abandoned game and 57 against Trichy.

On the other end of the age spectrum sits Rajagopal Sathish who is the highest wicket taker. The 40 year old IPL veteran has 5 wickets all bagged in a single game against Chepauk.

The competition consists of 32 matches that run until the 15th of August.

Half way through this competition and Dindigul beat Salem today to join Trichy at the top of the table – however the Dragons have played one game fewer.

Lokesh Raj got Salem off to a flier bagging three wickets to get Dindigul to 88-3 (including two wickets in two balls) however the Dragons consolidated and posted 185. Salem were never in the hunt and looked in big trouble. At 41-6 they would have bitten your arm off to get to their final total of 109.

Kovai’s Sai Sudharsen is still the highest run scorer with scores of 87*, 57*, 40* and 61.

In terms of wicket-taking; it is all very tight with 9 players on either 6 or 7 scalps. Top of the tree on wickets combined with economy is Trichy’s Mathivannan who has 7 @ 5.45.

Madurai moved up to third place after beating Tiruppir by a huge 81 runs.

Madurai batted first and posted 184-4. In reply Tiruppir lost their first wicket for just 3 runs and continued to look unimpressive from there on out. Rajkumar held their innings together but his 42 was the highest score by some distance; The next highest was 16.

Tiruppir had a brighter against Kovai on Saturday with their player, M. Mohammed, bagging a fourfer. He got another wicket today which takes him to 10 wickets; the highest in the tournament to date.

Nellai got their third win in six games today to move up to third in the table. They beat bottom placed Salem by 8 wickets in a chase of 120. Ex-IPL stalwart Sanjay Kumar was the mainstay in the chase with 41* off 26 balls.

The fourth highest score of the tournament did not stop Chepauk from being defeated by Trichy in the first Qualifier in the TNPL.

Radhakrishnan's 54 ball 84 propelled Chepauk to 153. It was a decent total and one that Trichy battled with. They managed to get there with just one ball left to go straight through to the final. Chepauk will play the winner of tomorrow's match between Dindigul and Kovai tomorrow.

Despite boasting the tournaments' highest run scorer, Kovai are out of TNPL21 after defeat to Dindigul.

Gurjapneet Singh cleared the Kovai middle order and limited then to 143 and that was a total that was more than comfortable for Dindigul who got there with 15 balls remaining.

Well it all went down to the final over!

Trichy needed 13 runs and did not get there. Chepauk are crowned chanpions.

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