Tamil Nadu T20 League 2023

24th Match: SMP vs LKK

Preview

Siechem Madhurai Panthers will square off against Lyca Kovai Kings in the 24th match of the ongoing Tamil Nadu T20 League at 3:15 PM on Sunday, July 2. The game is scheduled at the Indian Cement Company Ground at Tirunelveli. 

SMP are currently placed at the fourth position in the points table with 3 wins in 5 games. In their last encounter, they crumbled the opponents by 7 wickets. Ba11sy Trichy while batting first posted a below-par score of 105 runs. The Madhurai Panther bowlers demonstrated a brave display of bowling and ran over Trichy’s batting line-up in 18.5 overs. P Saravanan took 3 wickets to lead the attack along with Gurjanpreet Singh and Ajay Krishna who picked two scalps apiece. W Sundar, M Ashwin and Swapnil Singh also contributed to the bowling attack getting one wicket each. Keeper batsman Suresh Lokeshwar kickstarted the run-chase with 32 runs and Swapnil Singh played an excellent cameo of 25* runs off just 19 balls to chase down the total in 17 overs with seven wickets to spare. 

On the other hand, LKK are the first team to qualify for the Playoffs of the Tamil Nadu T20 League 2023. They are sitting at the top of the league standings with 5 wins in 6 games they had played so far. The Kovai Kings snatched a massive victory in their last match by a margin of 79 runs against the Salem Spartans. LKK while batting first posted a massive total of 199 runs on the scoreboard. S Sujay scored 44 runs off 32 deliveries coming up in the opening spot. Later on, Sai Sudharsan smashed another 41 runs off just 28 balls along with Atheeq Ur Rahman who played a power-packed cameo of 31 runs in just 18 balls. Ram Arvindh put the final nail in the coffin coming down the order. He hit an unbeaten half-century off just 22 balls to take his side to a huge total to defend. In the second innings of the game, their bowlers also performed exceptionally well.  K Gowtham Thamarai Kannan led the bowling attack picking three crucial leads along with skipper Shahrukh Khan who took two scalps. The rest of the job was finished by Manimaran Siddharth, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, M Mohammed and Valliappan Yudheeswaran who took one wicket each to fetch a huge win for their side and qualify for the Playoffs. 

Match Details

Match: SMP vs. LKK, 24th Match, Tamil Nadu T20 League 2023

Date: Saturday, July 1, 2023

Time: 3:15 PM

Venue: Indian Cement Company Ground, Tirunelveli

Pitch Report

The pitch at the Indian Cement Company Ground will assist the spinners. They are going to come in handy in the miLKKle overs with lots of turns available on the surface. The captain winning the toLKK will look to chase the target, with 160 runs being a respectable total at the ground.

In recent games, the pitch has slowed down a bit, allowing bowlers to have more of an impact on the outcome. The new ball should do nothing early on,  and allow batters to get their gaze in and try out their favourite shots to accumulate good runs in the powerplay overs.

SMP vs. LKK Squads

SMP: V Aaditya, Ajay Krishna, Anton A Subikshan, Murugan Ashwin, M Ayush, Shijit Chandran, K Deeban Lingesh, V Gowtham, Gurjapneet Singh, Hari Nishanth (c), Sudhan Kandepan, S Karthik, Jagatheesan Kousik, Krish Jain, Dev Rahul, P Saravanan, Balu Surya, Swapnil Singh, Washington Sundar, S Sri Abisek

LKK: Atheeq Ur Rahman, R Divakar, K Gowtham Thamarai Kannan, Kiran Akash, M Mohammed, U Mukilesh, Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan (c), Manimaran Siddharth, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, S Sujay, J Suresh Kumar, Valliappan Yudheeswaran, P Hemcharan, KM Om Prakash, Ram Arvindh, P Vidyuth, B Sachin

SMP vs. LKK Probable Playing XIs

SMP: Hari Nishanth (c), Suresh Lokeshwar (wk), Jagatheesan Kousik, Swapnil Singh, Washington Sundar, S Sri Abisek, Murugan Ashwin, K Deeban Lingesh, P Saravanan, Gurjapneet Singh, Ajay Krishna

LKK: S Sujay, J Suresh Kumar (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Ram Arvindh, U Mukilesh, Shahrukh Khan (c), M Mohammed, Atheeq Ur Rahman, Manimaran Siddharth, Valliappan Yudheeswaran, Jhatavedh Subramanyan

Match Prediction

Both of these teams are presently the two most in-form teams of the Tamil Nadu T20 League 2023. While the Kovai Kings have already qualified for the next round, the Madhurai Panthers need this win desperately to keep their hopes alive in this tournament. LKK have a better batting line-up when compared to SMP. The Madhurai Panthers’ recent victories came on the back of their bowling guild. They need to utilize their spinners well to get a priced result on this surface. Still, LKK is a more balanced side and has all traits of winning this match.

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