In the first match at the ICL Ground, Tirunelveli, Karaikudi Kaalai won the toss and elected to bat against Lyca Kovai Kings in the India Cements Ltd, Tamil Nadu Premier League 2017 (TNPL 2017). In front of a packed stadium, Kovai Kings got their campaign off to a winning start beating Kaalai by six wickets.
Kariakudi Kaalai got off to a sedate start against Lyca Kovai Kings losing a wicket in the powerplay as Vijay Kumar was watching the ball and was run out by the bowler K Vignesh while following through his run-up. Captain S Badrinath and Anirudha Srikkanth steadied the ship as they had a 70-run partnership off 51 balls. Badrinath hit an elegant 41 runs with four fours and two sixes before he fell to a faint edge to the keeper. Anirudha was gifted two lives during his innings and he made sure that he didn’t let the chances go begging and finished as the top-scorer for his side with 52 runs off 42 balls.
Spinner Ajith Ram gave the Kovai side the much-needed breakthrough and two wickets fell in the 15th over. A sharp caught and bowled effort saw him get rid of Srinivasan while a direct hit from mid-on saw Shah Jahan falling short. Anirudha brought up his 50 in style with a six. Captain Syed Mohammed led from the front by picking up two crucial wickets including the crucial breakthrough of getting Anirudh dismissed. While trying to accelerate and increase the run rate he holed out. Some fine bowling at the death helped Kovai restrict Kariakudi to 158.
Kovai started their run chase with a boundary and ended the powerplay with a six. Openers Surya Prakash and Anirudh Sita Ram got the side off to a brisk start and brought up the team fifty in the powerplay.
Brief scores: Karaikudi Kaalai 158/8 in 20 overs (Anirudha Srikkanth 52; Syed Mohammed 2/26, K Vignesh 2/29) lost to Lyca Kovai Kings 160/4 in 19.3 overs (L Suryaprakash 60; R Rajkumar 2 for 25) by 6 wickets.
