Tiruppur Tamizhans crowned TNPL champion for first time

CHENNAI: Tiruppur Tamizhans romped to a 118-run win over Dindigul Dragons to clinch its maiden TNPL trophy here on Sunday. Tushar Raheja played an instrumental role yet again, top-scoring with 77 to guide his team to an imposing score of 220 for five.

The defending champion’s chase went pear-shaped from the outset in pursuit of a daunting target with it losing four wickets inside the powerplay. There was to be no recovery from such a dire start and Dindigul was eventually bowled out for 102 with more than five overs remaining. It was a collective bowling effort from the Tamizhans that caused the Dragons batting to come a cropper.

Earlier, openers VP Amit Sathvik and Raheja blasted fifties to lift Tiruppur Tamizhans to its tournament-best 220/5 after being put in to bat by defending champion Dindigul Dragons.

Sathvik (65, 34b, 8x4, 3x6) struck his second successive fifty and his fourth of the season and left-handed Raheja (77, 46b, 6x4, 4x6) lashed his fifth half-century of the season, the duo putting on 121 off just 66 balls after recording what was the TNPL finals best Powerplay total of 69 without loss.

Dragons appeared to miss the pace of injured Sandeep Warrier as the Sathvik-Raheja pair took them down in a brutal assault, the team’s 100 coming off just 49 balls, in what was Tiruppur Tamizhans’ maiden final appearance.

Tiruppur Tamizhans lost both openers and skipper Sai Kishore in the space of 39 runs, but contributions down the order by Mohamed Ali (23), U Sasidev (20) and V Anovankar (25 not out) helped them achieve what is this season’s best team total and also the highest total in TNPL final.

BRIEF SCORES: Tiruppur Tamizhans 220/5 in 20 overs (T Raheja 77, A Sathvik 65) bt Dindigul Dragons 102 in 14.4 overs (R Silambarasan 2/12, M Prasath 2/18)