'Spin' central to Tamil Nadu's limited-overs consistency

Dinesh Karthik was and should be a "proud captain" of the Tamil Nadu unit, despite their defeat at the hands of rivals Karnataka. Not many sides on the domestic circuit are capable of going neck-to-neck against Manish Pandey’s side, who have shown an absolute form to decimate opposition(s). In the finals, it all boiled down to who handled the pressure better and took their chances with the conditions absolutely offering ducks to the bowling unit. 

While Sai picked up as many 20 wickets in the tournament, his fellow spinners M Siddarth and Murugan Ashwin too chipped in with equally important contributions. It was Murugan’s third tournament with the side, and his experience had grown invaluable with his stint in the IPL. The tournament definitely made him learn a lesson or two and improved his bowling drastically as the leggie hit the length more often than not during the tournament. His stature in the dressing room was equally important as he picked up 11 wickets during the tournament. 

The spinners hunted in packs, as the pacers shotgunned their way into the wickets tally. On conditions which were rarely in support to the bowlers, T Natrajan, G Periyaswamy and Vijay Shankar were always present when the team needed wickets. While Natrajan led the pacer pack with 13 crucial wickets, Shankar and Periyaswamy chipped in with six and eight wickets of their own. Slingy, left-arm or ‘3-D’, the bowlers always found a way to stop runs and more crucially pick wickets. 

It is very rare that we rave so much about a bowling-unit, and more importantly on conditions which were flat as flush. For the spinners, however, we all know how the sub-continent is (Para, Para, Paradise). In tandem, the entire bowling unit managed to pick up 85 wickets in the tournament, with only Kishore, Shankar and Murugan being a regular feature of this bowling attack. 

On the day it mattered, the side was there, like ever holding each other like they were born into the same family. However, the result was like the cookie box, which is filled with the sewing kit as Tamil Nadu were so close yet so far. It was the second time in the year that a side wearing yellow jersey fell short by one run to the side wearing the blue ones. All said and done, Tamil Nadu must and must always hold their chins up as they defeated all-odds to nearly winning the illustrious trophy.