Anirudha heroics help Karaikudi triumph in Super Over

CHENNAI: It hasn't taken long for the fourth season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) to liven up as a Super Over decided the second match of the tournament between Karaikudi Kaalai and Ruby Trichy Warriors at the NPR College ground in Dindigul on Saturday.
Needing 12 runs from the Super Over after both teams were tied on 171/5 at the end of the 20 overs, Karaikudi skipper Anirudha Srikanth took them home with a couple of maximums towards the deep square leg region against left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore.
Anirudha had also smashed 58 from 36 balls earlier in the match to set the stage for their eventual victory. In the process, Anirudha overshadowed M Vijay's knock of 81 (56 b, 7x4, 3x6) for Trichy. Having done all the hard work and earned the good fortune of being dropped when on 5, Vijay seemed on course to help his side begin with a victory, but his dismissal in the penultimate over threw a spanner in the works.
The experienced C Ganapathy, too, fell in the same over as Trichy were left needing 11 runs from the final over. Sai Kishore played out a couple of dot balls before giving the strike to wicketkeeper K Mani Bharathi. With 10 needed from three balls off Rajkumar's bowling, Bharathi promptly smashed his first ball of the innings over the long-on boundary. Off the next ball, Anirudha made a crucial save behind the stumps as the Trichy pair managed to take a single. With three required from one, Sai Kishore managed to hit down the ground and scamper for two runs to take the game into a tie-breaker.
The result would have been hard to take for Vijay, who began slowly before quickly moving through the gears. The 35-year-old, in fact, scored just 32 runs from his 39 balls without a single boundary. The required run rate began escalating to more than 13 runs per over as a result, but a flurry of boundaries towards the end from Vijay's blade kept them in the hunt. He brought it down to 20 from two overs, but then perished off the second ball of the 19th over after refusing to take a single on the first ball.
Brief scores: Karaikudi Kaalai 171/5 in 20 overs (S Anirudha 58). Ruby Trichy Warriors 171/5 in 20 overs (M Vijay 81). Match tied. Karaikudi Kaalai won the Super Over.