Tamil Nadu T20 League 2023

Eliminator: NRK vs SMP

Preview

The Nellai Royal Kings will cross swords with the Siechem Madhurai Panthers in the Elimination round of the ongoing Tamil Nadu T20 League 2023. The match is scheduled at the SCF Cricket Ground and this will be the last match of this league season at this venue. The timing for this match is at 7:15 PM on Saturday, July 8.

The Royal Kings finished in the third position in the group stages by winning five out of their seven matches fetching 10 points in total. They clashed against Ba11sy Trichy in their last league match and completely dominated the match. They would now try to replicate the same winning performance against the Mdhurai Panthers in the Eliminator. 

While bowling first, NRK restricted RTW to 146 runs at the loss of 6 wickets in a rain-curtailed match of 19 overs for each side. Later the Royal Kings won the match riding on the backs of Ajitesh Guruswamy who scored 56* off 29 deliveries to accelerate the run chase completing it in 11.5 overs. 

On the other side, the Madhurai Panthers won their final league stage match against the IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans to seal their slot in the Playoffs. They will ride high on confidence and look forward to producing a similar performance in this match to win this match. 

SMP posted 160 runs while batting first, thanks to the contribution from the top-order batters. Ajay Krishna And Gurjanpreet Singh picked two wickets apiece and helped their side to restrict the ITT side to 156 runs at the loss of 6 wickets to win the match by a narrow margin of just 4 runs. 

Match Details

Match: NRK vs. SMP, Eliminator, Tamil Nadu T20 League 2023

Date: Saturday, July 8, 2023

Time: 7:15 PM

Venue: SCF Cricket Ground, Salem

Pitch Report

The venue for the Eliminator round is the SCF Cricket Ground in Salem. This is the same stadium where the Lyca Kovai Kings defended 206 runs against the Dindigul Dragons. The 1st innings average score here on this ground is 144 runs and for the specific match 185-190 should be the par score for winning the match.

The captain choosing to chase the target has won 4 out of the 8 games on this ground. The pitch is well-balanced and by looking at the current form of both sides, we capitalise on bowling first to chase down a total on this venue.

NRK vs. SMP Squads

NRK: Arun Karthik (c), Rithik Easwaran (wk), Laxmesha Suryaprakash, Ajitesh Guruswamy, Nidhish Rajagopal, Lakshay Jain S, Sonu Yadav, NS Harish, M Poiyamozhi, S Mohan Prasath, Sandeep Warrier, T Veeramani, Aswin Crist, Lakshminarayanan Vignesh, Adithya Arun, R Mithun, P Sugendhiran, Sri Neranjan, Karthick Manikandan, SJ Arun Kumar, Emmanuel Cherian, N Kabilan

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

NRK vs. SMP Probable Playing XIs

NRK: Arun Karthik (c), Lakshay Jain S, Rithik Easwaran (wk), Ajitesh Guruswamy, Laxmesha Suryaprakash, Sonu Yadav, NS Harish, M Poiyamozhi, S Mohan Prasath, Sandeep Warrier, T Veeramani

SMP: Hari Nishanth (c), V Aaditya, Jagatheesan Kousik, S Sri Abisek, Anton A Subikshan, Swapnil Singh, Suresh Lokeshwar (wk), Murugan Ashwin, P Saravanan, Gurjapneet Singh, Ajay Krishna

Match Prediction

This will be a close encounter between the sides, both of them are in great touch and with the pitch being well balance will serve as a  battleground where the batters as well as the bowlers can have their say. NRK have depth in their batting lineup while the Panthers’ lack players in the finisher's role. This puts the Royal Kings slightly ahead in the contest. Hence we predict NRK to win the match.

Suggested Playing XI Real11 Fantasy Cricket