That's it from our coverage of the eliminator of the Tamil Nadu Premier League as the Lyca Kovai Kings qualify for the second qualifier. Ninaad Dixit here signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Akshay Bhide and scorer/analyst Raju Khariya. Stay tuned for more cricket coverage from across the globe. Take care, stay safe.
Shahrukh Khan: "A lot of people say that our bowling is not good but we executed our plans even better in the last game. Coming in this game, the execution was right and we got the results. Hope we get better and continue with this. The bowlers restricted them very well. Manish bowled a very crucial over in the middle. Everybody chipped in well and it's good for us going into the qualifier. Not thinking about the opposition we will face in the qualifier."
Ganga Sridhar Raju is the player of the match!
Rain played spoilsport in the chase as the Lyca Kovai Kings openers cruised to 72 without losing a wicket in 9.5 overs. The DLS par total was 50 at the stage and the openers made sure Kovai was much clear of that.
Siechem Madurai Panthers won the toss early in the day and decided to bat first but their batters never got going as they lost wickets at regular interval and failed to change gears with only a single six coming in the inning hit by Sunny Sandhu as they finished at a paltry 126-7.
Ajith Ram and Abhishek Tanwar picked up a couple of wickets each for LKK as Balu Surya, Manish Ravi and Shahrukh Khan bowled economic spells. R Divakar also chipped in with a wicket. Opener Arun Karthik scored 47 off 51 deliveries and remained unbeaten till the end.
LKK started off the chase with a maximum in the first over as Ganga Sridhar Raju smashed one out of the park against Sandhu. The batters built on a tidy partnership and scored 72 runs in 9.5 overs when rain interrupted play. LKK were 20 runs ahead of the DLS par score and won the game as it was called off.
Update | 11:04 PM IST:The rain hasn't stopped and the match has been abandoned. Lyca Kovai Kings win the game by 20 runs on the DLS method.
Update | 10:28 PM IST: The rain hasn't stopped yet and the covers are firmly placed. We can only hope that we resume soon. Fingers crossed.
UPDATE | 09:58 PM IST: We will have a break in play. The covers are coming on the field! The DLS par score is 50 at the moment and Lyca Kovai Kings are ahead by 20 runs at this point.
9.5 V Chakravarthy to Raju
1 Full toss on the off stump. Drives through extra cover but finds a fielder in the deep. Only a single is possible on this occasion.
9.4 V Chakravarthy to Raju
2 Short and outside off, cuts but gets an outside edge past the slip fielder. Backward point runs and fields outside the ring. Couple of runs added to the total.