Madurai Panthers captain NS Chaturved gave credit to their bowling unit after they defeated Salem Spartans convincingly by 39 runs in the 16th match of the ongoing Tamil Nadu Premier League at the SNR College Cricket Ground, Coimbatore on Monday.

Madurai Panthers posted a fighting score of 165-7 after Salem Spartans captain Murugan Ashwin won the toss and decided to bowl first. MP captain NS Charturved scored 34 runs off just 24 balls whereas Rithik Easwaran top-scored with 41 runs off just 27 balls.

MP opener K Rajkumar also scored 29 runs to give a decent start to his team. On the other hand, R Silambarasan was the pick of the bowlers for MP as he scalped four wickets and conceded only 22 runs in his quota of four overs. P Saravanan also bowled a superb spell as he took two wickets and gave away only nine runs in his four overs.

Furthermore, B Rocky also took two wickets for MP as SS could only manage 126-9 in their 20 overs to lose by a huge margin.

NS Chaturved said in the post-match presentation, “We have the faith on our bench strength, I believe we are good enough. The bowling performance has been good in all games except one. I’m glad Rithik took the initiative today that allowed me to settle in.”

Rithik Easwaran was awarded the Player of the Match for his fine knock of 41 runs. He said after the game, “Absolutely enjoyed my batting today, I have also been told to be a live wire while keeping. We missed a few players but we stepped up.”

On the other hand, Salem Spartans have lost all of their three matches and their skipper Murugan Ashwin believes they need to take responsibility as a batting unit.

He said after the game, “It’s very simple from now, we need to win the next four and win big. We need to take responsibility and build partnerships which we couldn’t do today. It is a quick turnaround, but we are looking forward to regroup and coming back.”

Madurai Panthers will next face Idream Tiruppur Tamizhans on 20 July at the SCF Cricket Ground, Salem.