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India’s Ravichandran Ashwin delivered a commanding captain’s performance as the Dindigul Dragons secured their first Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) title with a six-wicket win over the Lyca Kovai Kings in Chennai on Sunday.
Facing the defending champions in the final, the Dindigul Dragons successfully chased down a target of 130, thanks to Ashwin’s crucial 52 off 46 balls.
Ashwin played a pivotal role by hitting a four and three sixes, and forming a vital 65-run partnership for the third wicket with Baba Indrajith, who contributed 32 off 35 balls.
After the Dindigul Dragons had reached 46 runs for the loss of two wickets during the powerplay, Ashwin’s steady innings guided them to victory with 10 balls to spare.
For Lyca Kovai Kings, Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Manimaran Siddharth, Valliappan Yudheeswaran, and Shahrukh each claimed a wicket.
Earlier, Dindigul’s bowlers kept the Lyca batters under pressure with consistent breakthroughs. Opting to field first, Sandeep Warrier struck early by dismissing Suresh Kumar in the third over, with a contribution of 11 runs off 9 balls.
The momentum shifted sharply in favor of Dindigul when Varun Chakravarthy took two crucial wickets in the sixth over, and P. Vignesh followed up by dismissing Sai Sudharsan, who scored 14 off 14 balls.
Despite a 36-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Atheeq Ur Rahman (25 off 17 balls) and Ram Arvindh (27 off 26 balls), Subodh Bhati’s dismissal of Ur Rahman thwarted the defending champions’ chances of a comeback.
Vignesh continued to put pressure on Lyca by dismissing captain Shahrukh Khan, who made 3 off 7 balls.
At 105/6, Arvindh was also unable to stay at the crease and fell to a catch by Sandeep Warrier. Contributions from the lower order helped Lyca Kovai Kings reach 129/7.
Ashwin concluded with figures of 0/13 for Dindigul, while Vignesh (2/15) and Chakravarthy (2/26) emerged as the standout bowlers.
