Consistent Hari Nishaanth Leads Coimbatore to Yet Another Victory
SS Rajan Trophy (Tamil Nadu Inter District T20 Trophy)
Sujith V
Coimbatore beat Tirunelveli by 11 runs in the second round of SS Rajan Trophy 2025 (Tamilnadu Inter-District T20 Tournament) organized by Tamilnadu Cricket Association(TNCA).
Tirunelveli won the toss and put Coimbatore to bat first. With promising talents on both the sides, it turned out to be a good contest. Coimbatore got off to a poor start where they lost opener Radhakrishnan for a first ball duck. Even as captain Hari Nishaanth steadily paced his innings picking the odd boundaries and rotating the strike, wickets continue to stumble at other end. Hari and Ajitesh stitched a well made 63 runs stand for the 4th wicket. Meanwhile Hari had a life with Esakkimuthu dropping a sitter. However the slide continued for Coimbatore as they slumped from 111 for 4 to 143 all-out without much impetus from the lower order. The target 144 didnt look a daunting one but was defendable.
Gowtham Thamarai Kannan once again produced first breakthrough in his 2nd over removing Veera Perumal. An over later a brilliant direct hit from J Kousik bought the 2nd wicket and the very next over Selvakumaran removed the big fish RK Jayant. While Sibi remained solid at the one end, wickets kept coming for Coimbatore. In the 11th over left arm spinner Mohan Prasath struck twice leaving Tirunelveli reeling at 64 for 5. Saravana Kumar then cleaned up the well set batter Sibi making it as the last nail in the coffin, Esakkimuthu hit few boundaries but it wasn't enough as Tirunelveli they fell short by 11 runs.
Match Summary:-
Coimbatore 144 all-out in 19.3 overs
Hari Nishaanth 70(47)
G Ajitesh 26(27)
Maharaja S (3/16) in 4 overs,
Esakkimuthu (3/25) in 3.3 overs
Beat
Tirunelveli 132-7 in 20 overs
Sibi R 44(50)
Madhu Arvind 19(20)
Saravana Kumar - (2/19) in 4 overs
Mohan Prasath (2/30) in 4 overs
With this victory Coimbatore top Group H with 2 wins in as many games and will face Kancheepuram tomorrow 18th December at TEA Public School, Tiruppur.
