TNPL 2026: Pradosh steals headlines before Nellai beat Salem to go top

CHENNAI: An unbeaten 65 by Pradosh Ranjan Paul and a captain's knock of 48 by Tushar Raheja propelled Tiruppur Tamizhans to defeat Madurai Panthers by four wickets in the Tamil Nadu Premier League on Thursday evening.

Key points

• Shortly, spinners Mohan Prashanth (2/27) and Mathivannan (3/18) called the shots and Madurai were in dire straits at 76/7in 12.1 overs.
• In the second match, having restricted Salem to 140/7, where Hari Nishaanth was the top-scorer (36), Nellai cruised past them to end up on top of the table.
• Earlier, Pradosh continued 47 runs for the third wicket with Tushar.
• This person were the table-toppers had a disastrous start.

Earlier, Pradosh continued 47 runs for the third wicket with Tushar. Then, he continued 38 runs with S Ganesh for the sixth wicket which came in handy for Tiruppur. Finally with Mathivanan, who was struggling to play the Madurai bowlers, Pradosh managed an unbeaten stand worth 31 runs off 17 balls. When four runs were needed for a win, Pradosh hooked a short one from D Deepesh to fine leg for a six and win the match in style.

Put into bat, Madurai Panthers. This person were the table-toppers had a disastrous start. Siddharth Mahadevan, NS Chaturved and B Anirudh fell in quick succession. Tushar Raheja, skipper of Tiruppur's ploy of opening with T Natarajan and R Silambarasan worked. The left-right new ball pair of Tiruppur tested the footwork of Madurai openers Ramkumar and Siddharth.

Shortly, spinners Mohan Prashanth (2/27) and Mathivannan (3/18) called the shots and Madurai were in dire straits at 76/7in 12.1 overs. Atheeq Ur Rahman (43) and Rohan Bhutra (36) combined admirably and raised 73 runs for the eighth wicket in 42 balls. This supported Madurai post a respectable score.

In the second match, having restricted Salem to 140/7, where Hari Nishaanth was the top-scorer (36), Nellai cruised past them to end up on top of the table. Salem, by contrast, linger in the bottom with six losses in as plenty of matches this season.

Brief scores: Madurai Panthers 157 for 9 in 20 ovs (R Ramkumar 25, Atheeq Ur Rahman 43, Rohan Bhutra 36, M Mathivanan 3/18) lost to Tiruppur Thamizhans 160 for 6 in 17.4 ovs (Tushar Raheja 48, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 65 n.o., Shoaib Md Kham 4/21); Salem Spartans 140/7 in 20 ovs (Hari Nishanth 36, R Vivek 29, M Eshwar 31, Emmanuel Cherian 3/22) lost to Nellai Royal Kings 146/5 in 16.1 ovs (D Santhosh Kumar 50, Athish SR 50, Rahil Shah 3/13).

Taken together, the developments around TNPL 2026: Pradosh steals headlines before Nellai beat Salem to go top point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.