Aparajith stars for Veerans

Veerans elected to bat on a wicket that assisted the batsmen right from the word go. Veerans made 206/4 in 20 overs, the highest score in the league and in reply the Warriors managed 164 losing nine wickets in their 20 overs. A hot afternoon meant near-empty stands and Veerans started poorly as they lost D Govindaraj to the second ball of the innings. The false start didn’t deter Aparajith, who walked out at number three, as he displayed an immaculate range of shots to entertain the small crowd. Aprajith and N S Chaturved added 145 from 86 balls and the Veerans raced past the 200-run mark. Both the players got into the record books with the highest partnership for any wicket in the league so far. 

Aparajith, playing in his second TNPL match, started off from where he left off in the first match when he slashed M Prabhu to the cover region boundary and made his aggressive intent clear.  Any change of bowling plans by his opposite number and older twin B Indrajith was foiled by Aparajith and Chaturved as they found the boundary ropes in almost every over. 

L Ganesh suffered the most for the Warriors by giving away 32 runs in two overs. Chasing at more than 10 an over, Warriors were under constant pressure to keep up the run-rate. Although they crawled level with the Veerans in the power-play, three wickets in two overs by leggie S Samuel pegged the Warriors back. M Shahrukh Khan (19 off 12 balls) and J Kousik (15 off 8 balls) tried to revive the innings with a 30-run partnership in 2.2 overs, but once they were dismissed, it could only delay the inevitable for Warriors as they fell short by a huge margin.