In the opening game of the Tamil Nadu Premier League 2023 season, Lyca Kovai Kings’ Sai Sudharsan struck 86 off 45 balls.
Sai Sudharsan, a young batter from Tamil Nadu, was a standout for Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans during the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. In the IPL 2023 season, Sudharsan scored 362 runs in just 8 games while maintaining a strike rate of 141.4 and scoring three hundreds. However, his most illustrious performance in the T20 competition was his 96-run innings against MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2023 championship match.
Sudharsan scored 96 in the IPL final, still the highest total by a GT batsman, but it wasn’t enough to help his team win. The 21-year-old did, however, maintain his impressive run of play in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2023, which began on Monday in Coimbatore.
On Day 1 of the TNPL 2023, Sudharsan, batting at No. 3 for the Lyca Kovai Kings, hammered four sixes and eight fours while scoring 86 off 45 balls to lead his team to 179 for 7 after they batted first against the iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans.
By the third over, they were down to 14 for 3, then Sudharsan grabbed control, first with U. Mukilesh (33), and they added 82 runs for the fourth wicket. Together with captain and Punjab Kings batsman M. Shahrukh Khan, who hammered 25 off 15, they also added 43 runs for the sixth wicket.
The Tamizhans were run out for 109 in response, with Shahrukh Khan scoring 3/20 and M. Mohammed scoring 2/11. “It was wonderful to help the team. I’m happy to help the team out. The goal of our collaboration with Mukilesh was to advance the game, according to Sudharsan, who won Player of the Match.
“Running between the wickets is a crucial component, and I’m working on that. I wanted to make the most of the last over because it was the last one, and fortunately it worked out,” he continued.
Shahrukh Khan, the captain of the Kovai Kings, reaffirmed that he and Sai Sudharsan will be in charge of scoring the majority of runs for their team in the TNPL 2023. “We used the same procedure and players from the previous year. The rest must pitch in as Sai and I are there to get the runs. Hats off to Mukilesh for playing the manner he did; it was sticky, and Sai and Mukilesh’s playing together was fantastic, according to Shahrukh Khan.
The impact player was deployed because they had two left-arm spinners and we needed a left-hander to take them on. I did the same thing last year and have continued to do so: the more you spin the ball, the more purchase you receive. I need to bowl more even though I’m doing well. The aim was to challenge Vivek Raj to hit the bigger side, and occasionally it succeeds and occasionally it fails. It did today,” he continued.
