TNPL | Tuticorin tame Dindigul Dragons to enter final

Patriots, batting first after winning the toss, looked to attack right from the beginning of their innings. Abhinav Mukund donned the aggressor’s role, as he sweetly timed and placed his shots through gaps. Kaushik Gandhi, who was in great form, was the first to go after he gave a catch to Sunny Kumar Singh (3 for 34) at backward point, trying to clear the covers. SP Nathan was promoted to one down, which made the Patriots’ intention clear. After sharing a brief partnership with Mukund (91), Nathan fell while trying to chase a wide delivery off M Ashwin.

Captain Dinesh Karthik (48) later joined Mukund in the middle and both of them took the game away from Dragons. Both batsmen played intelligent shots and were aggressive in their approach. Mukund notched up his first fifty of the tournament as he kept playing powerful drives. Karthik took on MS Sanjay as he smashed the left-arm bowler for three consecutive sixes before being castled for a well-made 48 off 31 deliveries. The left-right combination shared a partnership of 95 runs in 56 deliveries, and the middle-order came to life for Patriots - something they missed after the opening game against Chepauk Super Gillies. Mukund looked set to get the second century of the tournament, but T Natarajan, diving from long off, ended his innings at 91, with a great catch. Patriots’ batting was good when it mattered the most and that helped them to finish on their highest total in the tournament so far.

But Crist later stuck with the all-important wicket of Jagadeesan. Ashwin V fell soon when he top-edged Crist’s delivery to wicket-keeper Karthik. Patriots had a firm hold of the match and had one leg in the finals when Subramaniya Siva fell trying to hit Aushik Srinivas out of the park. The middle-order of Dragons was not tested throughout the tournament – an area which hurt the team today, when they were chasing a huge total.