Skipper R Ashwin guides Dindigul Dragons to maiden TNPL title

Chennai, Aug 4 (PTI) India star Ravichandran Ashwin played a captain’s knock as Dindigul Dragons claimed their maiden title in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) with a six-wicket victory over Lyca Kovai Kings here on Sunday.

Up against defending champions Lyca Kovai Kings in the final, Dindigul Dragons completed a chase of 130 after Ashwin made a 46-ball 52.

Ashwin hit a four and three sixes besides stitching a 65-run stand for the third wicket with Baba Indrajith (32 off 35 balls).

Having scored 46 runs for the loss of two wickets in the powerplay, the Dindigul middle-order relied on the composed Ashwin to get the got job done with 10 deliveries to spare.

Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Manimaran Siddharth, Valliappan Yudheeswaran and Shahrukh got a wicket each for Lyca.

Earlier, Dindigul kept the Lyca batters on the back foot by taking wickets regularly. After choosing to field, Sandeep Warrier (11 off 9 balls) made the first breakthrough by dismissing Suresh Kumar in the third over.

The momentum swung decisively in Dindigul’s favour when Varun Chakravarthy struck twice in the sixth over, followed by P Vignesh dismissing Sai Sudharsan (14 off 14 balls).

Atheeq Ur Rahman (25 off 17 balls) and Ram Arvindh (27 off 26 balls) added 36 runs for the fifth wicket, but Subodh Bhati removed the former to dash the defending champions’ hopes of a comeback.

Vignesh troubled Lyca further and got rid of skipper Shahrukh Khan (3 off 7 balls).

Reeling at 105/6, Arvindh could not hold on either and gave a catch to Sandeep Warrier before cameos from the tail-enders helped them to 129/7.

Ashwin finished with 0/13 for Dindigul, while Vignesh (2/15) and Chakravarthy (2/26) were the standout performers.