DINDIGUL: Ravichandran Ashwin excelled with both bat and ball as he guided Dindigul Dragons to a six-wicket win over Trichy Grand Cholas in the TNPL playoff match on Wednesday.

Earlier, defending champion Dindigul Dragons rose to the occasion with a dominant bowling performance to restrict the temperamental Trichy Cholas to 140/9.

Opting to bowl first, Dragons put the skids on Grand Cholas early, keeping them down to 37/1 in Powerplay before wily spinner Varun Chakravarthy’s double strike to send back the in-form duo of J Kousik (9) and Sanjay Yadav (1) in one over virtually derailed the opposition.

Grand Cholas had pulled off a thriller against the Dragons in the last league game on Sunday to seal the final Playoffs spot, but failed to step up this time around.

Skipper and off-spinner R Ashwin had R Rajkumar (0) caught at long-off by H Dinesh for the fielder’s second catch of the match, while opener Waseem Ahmed’s (36, 41b, 5x4) run out left Grand Cholas reeling at 78/5 in the 14th over.

Jafar Jamal struck a feisty 33 (20b, 4x6) to lift Grand Cholas, but Dragons finished strongly, with Ashwin returning figures of 3-28, despite missing spearhead Sandeep Warrier who left the field due to a niggle after bowling two overs.

Brief scores: Trichy Grand Cholas 140/9 in 20 overs (Ravichandran Ashwin 3-28) lost to Dindigul Dragons 143/4 (Ravichandran Ashwin 83)