“Ravichandran Ashwin’s Fifty Leads Dindigul Dragons to Maiden TNPL Title”

India star Ravichandran Ashwin played a captain’s knock as Dindigul Dragons clinched their maiden Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) title with a six-wicket victory over Lyca Kovai Kings on Sunday. Facing the defending champions in the final, the Dindigul Dragons successfully chased down 130, with Ashwin scoring a 46-ball 52. His innings included a four and three sixes, and he shared a crucial 65-run partnership for the third wicket with Baba Indrajith (32 off 35 balls). Dindigul Dragons, having scored 46 runs for the loss of two wickets in the powerplay, relied on Ashwin’s composed batting to reach the target with 10 balls to spare.

Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Manimaran Siddharth, Valliappan Yudheeswaran, and Shahrukh Khan each took a wicket for Lyca.

Earlier, Dindigul’s bowlers kept the Lyca batters under pressure by taking wickets at regular intervals. After opting to field, Sandeep Warrier provided the first breakthrough by dismissing Suresh Kumar in the third over. The momentum swung in Dindigul’s favor when Varun Chakravarthy struck twice in the sixth over, followed by P Vignesh dismissing Sai Sudharsan (14 off 14 balls).

Atheeq Ur Rahman (25 off 17 balls) and Ram Arvindh (27 off 26 balls) added 36 runs for the fifth wicket, but Subodh Bhati removed Rahman, dashing Lyca’s hopes of a comeback. Vignesh further troubled Lyca by dismissing skipper Shahrukh Khan (3 off 7 balls).

Reeling at 105/6, Arvindh couldn’t hold on either and was caught by Sandeep Warrier. Cameos from the tail-enders helped Lyca reach 129/7.

Ashwin finished with figures of 0/13 for Dindigul, while Vignesh (2/15) and Chakravarthy (2/26) were the standout performers.