Ravichandran Ashwin leads Dindigul to a huge win on his TNPL debut

Despite flying all the way from Florida and reaching Chennai this morning, Ravichandran Ashwin decided to lead Dindigul Dragons against the Ruby Kanchi Warriors in the 7th game of the TNPL at Chepauk. Ashwin didn’t have much to do and his side registered a comfortable 48-run win against the Kanchi Warriors.

The Ruby Kanchi Warriors’ captain Indrajith elected to bowl first at Chepauk yet again. Dindigul Dragons’ openers Sridhar Raju and Jagadeesan were kept rather tight by Ruby bowlers. They had to work hard for the runs though boundaries came regularly only to keep the Dindigul’s run rate over 6.

The duo shared a 63-run stand in 9.1 overs for the opening wicket, the first fifty stand for the first wicket in this TNPL so far. Sridhar Raju’s 24-ball 32 came to an end when he went for a slog sweep off Prathiban but Shahrukh Khan took a great diving catch in the deep. Soon Jagadeesan followed his partner after he tried to play a reverse sweep but the short third-man took a sharp catch to end his 44-run knock. Jagadeesan’s 44 came off 40 balls with 5 fours and a six.

Venkataraman fell for just 1 after a superb return catch from J Kousik brought Ravi Ashwin to the crease amidst huge cheers from the crowd. Subramania Siva hit a couple of sixes but was caught the at boundary as he holed out a full toss from Jesuraj. Once again Jesuraj struck for his side as his direct hit brought curtains to Ravi Ashwin’s run-a-ball 15. M Ashwin gave a perfect ending for the Dragons with a six to take his side to 159/7 in 20 overs. Dindigul innings had 9 sixes, 2 more than the number of fours they hit.

Dindigul’s spin attack was way too hard for Ruby to handle as they failed to pick up the scoring rate and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Sanjay and Kedarnath picked up the initial wickets while the Ashwins picked up 3 wickets among themselves. M Ashwin, especially, got the ball to turn by quite a long way and had figures of 4-0-24-2. Alagh Prathiban top scored for Kanchi Warriors with 20.

Keeper N Jagadeesan bagged his 2nd consecutive man of the match award.

Brief Scores:

Dindigul Dragons – 159/7 in 20 overs (N Jagadeesan 44, V Ganga Sridhar Raju 32; Rajamani Jesuraj 2/30, Alagh Prathiban 2/32)  

Ruby Kanchi Warriors – 111/9 in 20 overs (Alagh Prathiban 20, Adithya ganesh 16; Y Sunny Kumar Singh 2/18, VRS Guru Kedarnath 2/22, M Ashwin 2/24)