Nellai Royal Kings captain Baba Indrajith was delighted with the performance of his team after they defeated Idream Tiruppur Tamizhans by six wickets at the SNR College Cricket Ground, Coimbatore on Sunday. ITT could only manage 117-8 in their batting innings after Baba Indrajith won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Maan Bafna scored 37 runs off 35 balls for ITT but the rest of the batters failed to show any resistance. On the other hand, K Easwaran was the pick of the bowlers for NRK as he scalped three wickets and conceded 11 runs in three overs.
Meanwhile, Baba Indrajith scored a fine knock of 63 runs off just 46 balls to help his team get close to the target. Laxmesha Suryaprakash also scored 28 runs as NRK chased down the score with 27 balls to spare.
This was NRK’s fifth win in as many games and they look like a side to beat in the tournament. They are coming up with collective efforts and all the players are contributing to the team’s success.
Baba Indrajith was awarded the Player of the Match for his fine match-winning knock.
Indrajith said in the post-match presentation, “Very happy with the performance, we are sticking to the process and taking one game at a time. We got a good start in the powerplay. We won the powerplay and that made our job easier in the middle overs. Everyone stepping up, that’s a good sign. It’s not about getting those records, it’s about sticking to the process. Our lower middle order hasn’t been tested yet.”
He added, “We started really well, we wanted to get this win desperately, we played some good cricket. It all boils down to the preparation, everyone has put in a lot of effort. It’s a lovely ground, really happy to play in Coimbatore.”
On the other hand, ITT got off to a poor start as they lost three wickets in the PowerPlay overs. ITT skipper M Mohammed believes the experienced batters should have played better.
He said after the game, “The wicket was slow, we lost too many wickets in the powerplay. The experienced players could have fared better. We didn’t have enough runs on the board. Srikkanth Anirudha is a very experienced player, we definitely missed him. He backs all the players, hopefully, he’ll be available for the next game. We played four pacers and I reckon that was a mistake on this pitch.”
