Lyca Kovai Kings confirms TNPL 2023 Playoffs after a win against Salem Spartans
Lyca Kovai Kings (LKK) becomes the first team to reach the TNPL playoffs 2023 after beating Salem Spartans (SS) in the 19th league stage match by 79 runs. With this win, they are sitting at No.1 in the points table with 5 wins in 6 games. They only lost one game in the tournament so far against Nellai Royal Kings. LKK’s last league stage match will be against Siechem Madurai Panthers on July 02 at Tirunelveli. It will be a day affair and Lyca Kovai Kings will look to finish well before going into the TNPL 2023 playoffs.
Good start by LKK in TNPL 2023
Lyca Kovai Kings started their Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2023 campaign with a win against IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans by 70 runs in the first game. Sai Sudharsan’s 86, and a cameo of 25 off 15 from captain S Khan helps the team to put 179 on the board.
Captain S Khan also took 3 wickets in the 2nd inning and ITT bundled out for just 109 runs.
A close encounter against Nellai, but ended up on the losing side
LKK lost their first game in TNPL 2023 against NRK. Sai Sudharsan again showed his class and scored 90 in the first inning. But Guruswamy’s 112 helped the team to get over the line in a run chase. They won the game on the last ball.
Bowlers did the job against Chepauk Super Gillies
LKK bowlers were relentless with the ball, led by V Yudheeswaran who took 3 for 29. CSG only managed to score 126 on the board.
Suresh Kumar’s 47 and Sai Sudharsan’s 64 make sure that LKK chases down a target quite easily. They won the game by 8 wickets and 21 balls to spare.
LKK continues their form against Ba11sy Trichy
Only BT captain Ganga Sridhar Raju shows some fight in the first inning and scored 58 off 55 balls. R Rajkumar’s cameo of 31 also helps BT to score 117. Still, that wasn’t enough to beat a red-hot form LKK. S Sujay’s 72 helps LKK to get over the line with 6 wickets and 10 balls to spare.
LKK breaks the winning run of the Dindigul Dragons
R Ashwin haven’t lost any game in TNPL 2023 until they met Lyca Kovai Kings. When batting first, the openers gave a quick start to LKK and then Sai Sudharsan took on from there.
The left-hander continues his good form and scored 83 off just 41 balls with 8 fours and 4 sixes. With the help of U Mukilesh and captain S Khan’s cameo, LKK scored a huge total of 206.
DD batters have no answers against LKK bowlers. Only Shivam Singh shows some fight and scored 61 off 42 balls. DD was restricted to 147 only. It was the 3rd consecutive win for LKK in TNPL 2023.
LKK confirms TNPL 2023 playoffs
With a win against Salem Spartans, LKK confirmed their TNPL 2023 playoffs. They again put a big total of 199 on the board in the first inning. After S Sujay and S Sudharsan’s 75 runs stand for the 2nd wicket, R Arvindh played a quick-fire knock of 50 off just 22 balls.
SS never got the momentum in a run chase. They didn’t have any big partnership to get the team closer to a target. LKK is the 1st team to advance to TNPL 2023 playoffs.
Role of Sai Sudharsan and Shahrukh Khan
One of the main reasons for Lyca Kovai Kings’ success is Sai Sudharsan and Captain Shahrukh Khan. The former is the leading run scorer in the tournament so far and the latter is the highest wicket-taker in TNPL 2023. Both played a huge part in LKK’s success so far.
Sudharsan has scored 371 runs in 6 innings with an average of 74 so far. While Captain S Khan has taken 11 wickets in 6 games with an average of 9.18. He also played some crucial quick-fire cameos for the team lower down the order. LKK will hope that both will continue their good form going into the playoffs.
Other players also chipped in
The players like S Sujay, R Arvindh, V Yudheeswaran, etc also played an important role in the team’s success so far. Not just these names we mentioned, LKK has found a new hero every game, whether it’s in the bowling or in the batting.
Conclusion
LKK will look to finish well in the league stage before going into the TNPL 2023 playoffs. Also, they would love to finish in the top 2 so that if they lost the first qualifier, they get a 2nd chance to reach the final of TNPL 2023.
It will be interesting to see how LKK does at the business end of the tournament. They won the title last time but as a joint winner with Chepauk Super Gillies. LKK would want to win the title fair and square. And this might be their year.
What do you think? Will LKK won the TNPL 2023? Comment your predictions below. Thank you for reading. Keep following us for the latest updates.
