Winning the toss, the Royal Kings elected to bowl first, putting the Kovai Kings to bat. The Kovai Kings posted a challenging total of 181/6 in their allotted 20 overs. Sai Sudharsan was the star performer for the batting side, smashing a magnificent 90 runs off just 52 deliveries, including 7 fours and 4 sixes. J Suresh Kumar contributed a valuable 33 runs, while Shahrukh Khan and Ram Arvindh provided useful cameos with 17 and 18 runs respectively. M Poiyamozhi was the pick of the bowlers for the Royal Kings, claiming 3 wickets for 29 runs in his 4 overs.
Chasing 182 for victory, the Royal Kings showed tremendous batting prowess to successfully chase down the target with 6 wickets in hand. Ajitesh Guruswamy played a scintillating innings, blasting an astonishing 112 runs off just 60 deliveries, which included 7 fours and 8 sixes. His magnificent knock was instrumental in guiding his team to victory. Sri Neranjan contributed a useful 25 runs at the top of the order. For the Kovai Kings, K Gowtham, Thamarai Kannan and Shahrukh picked up a wicket each.
“We prepared well before this tournament. We prepared for these scenarios and very happy it came off tonight. There was no plan as Nidhish Rajagopal had 8 stitches and when I got out, the plan was for Ajitesh to come. It was like watching an IPL match, if matches like this happens it will be nice,” said the winning captain, Arun Karthik, in the post-match presentation.
“One of the best TNPL matches ever. The way he prepares, he batted for 2 hours yesterday and he is improving all the time [on Ajitesh]. In first-division cricket, he has opened as well. Poiyamozhi when he is bowling takes wickets and he hit that ball a long way. He hits the ball a long way as we have seen in inter-district cricket. I told him to close his eyes and swing, he did that,” added Karthik.
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